The Anti PowerPoint Party

Politics at its best!

Note to reader: Don't fall asleep! This is an article about Power Point presentations - but hold on - this is interesting (at least I think so!).

Update: 3 hours later I received a reply to my inquiry. See the end of this post.

Switzerland has a new political party trying to gain momentum. It is called the APPP - the Anti Power Point Party. They intend to become the 4th largest political party in Switzerland. See their website at http://www.anti-powerpoint-party.com/.

The main point of this movement is that whenever a presentation has to be made, people will most likely use Microsoft's PowerPoint software, or something like it. The result is that there are A LOT of really boring presentations being given out there. The presenter relies too much on the software and not the content and presentation technique. The result is that A LOT of people waste A LOT of time attending really boring presentations. If you have ever been to a boring presentation with a lot of PowerPoint slides being presented, you are familiar with the sickening feeling of your eyelids forcing themselves closed and your desperate attempts to keep your eyeballs regressing into your head showing only the white parts. It is terrible!

But PowerPoint presentations are not only boring. They are BIG money wasters. The PowerPoint software is very expensive. And time spent boring people is productivity lost for all those people. The APPP estimates that in Switzerland US$2.5 Billion dollars is wasted every year. Worse yet, they estimate that Europe wastes US$160 Billion a year on bad and useless presentations.

If I lived in Switzerland, I'd think about joining this party. Here is a video on their site where the founder Matthias Poehm explains the APPP's concept:

>

One question remains that I did not see on their website (I may have just not seen it). If you HAVE to make a presentation, what are your alternatives? Mime? I'll send Matthias and email and ask him. I'll post the answer here if I receive a reply.

Update: Just after I emailed Matthias Poehm, I found it on their website. See this page: http://www.anti-powerpoint-party.com/the-cause/the-solution/. The answer: Flips Charts! See his explanation.

Update: I just received a reply to my inquiry (3 hours later). This guy is on top of things!

Dear Gello
I just saw that you already discovered the site with “the solution”.
But here is the answer to your question anyway:
The best proven alternative to PPt ist the „Flip-chart“. You’ll get a multiple effect compared to a presentation with powerpoint.
It’s because of two reasons:
First: People convince and not technical aids. This always have been and always will be.
Second: It’s not the result that creates the effect – but it is the CREATION OF THE result. Therein lies the effect and not in the result itself. That’s why PowerPoint as a principle can’t work.

Please watch this two-minutes video to see a demonstration of it: http://www.anti-powerpoint-party.com/the-cause/the-solution/
You can also introduce this video to your blog. (it’s also on youtube)
In this site you will also find a lot of tipps how to use the flipchart professionally.

Regards
Matthias

P.S. Please become a proponent of our movement. You stay anonymous, you have no fees to pay, no obligations. It’s only by having a lot of members that the medias will report widely, and thus people in everywhere start talking about it, and thus things are going to change. So one minute for a big change: http://www.anti-powerpoint-party.com/participate/become-a-member

Thank you
Matthias