Your mom always told you, "Don't judge a book by its cover." However, we all do. It's in our DNA. Perception is reality.
I came across this amazing video today. I'm not going to preface it, because that would ruin the effect. Please watch it all the way through. I'll talk about the relevance to presenting after the jump.
What did you initially think of him as the driver pulled up to the intersection? Did you expect that voice to come out of his mouth? Did you expect him to be such a genuine, well-spoken man in the interview afterwards?
There's a reason this video is going viral as I type - because we all judged him by the way he looked, the place he was standing, and the sign he was holding. I'm not acting holier than thou - I judged him too. Sure, the title of the video and the intro gave a little bit away, but I never expected THAT!
Your audience judges your PowerPoint presentation the same way. If it looks boring, you are boring. If it looks bland, you are bland. If it looks unoriginal, you are unoriginal. That's just the way it is.
I know it's not fair. You may have an amazing product to share that will revolutionize your audience's life. You may have an amazing story to tell that will motivate your audience to change the world. However, as soon as they see those bland slides with bullet points galore, they're going to tune you out. They're going to judge you the way we judged him.
*Update: Between the time I saw this video and the time I posted this (about 8 hours), Ted has already booked a radio interview tomorrow and supposedly he is going to be given a formal offer. We'll see...