Whiteboards or flipcharts are more powerful than PowerPoint for a boardroom presentation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At her Maniactive blog on July 18, 2023 Laura Bergells has a post titled Ditch Your Slides! Draw on the Power of Whiteboard Talks. She describes the impact of a whiteboard talk (rather than the PowerPoint you might use in a larger room) these four ways:

 

Showcase your personality

Amplify engagement

Visual storytelling

Flexibility and adaptability

 

With a small audience you can do a more spontaneous and interactive presentation by drawing on a whiteboard or blackboard. But a flipchart is arguably better than either, since you can answer questions by going back to a previously drawn page.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is no magic rewind button on a blackboard or whiteboard. One you erase, it is only a memory.  

 

Back on October 21, 2019 I blogged about the Impact of audience size on presentation style. And way back on January 16, 2008 at The Extreme Presentation Method Andrew Abela blogged about Ballroom vs. Conference Room Style Presentations. A large (ballroom) versus small (conference room or boardroom) is a useful distinction for venues.

 

On July 15, 2015 I blogged about Is a small audience one where the speaker doesn’t need a microphone? In that post I mentioned that:

 

“There are two types of people – those who divide things into two categories, and those who don’t.”

 

I belong to the second type, and mentioned different audience sizes classified by powers of 2 from zero (two people conversing, perhaps in a phone booth) to twenty (a visit from the Pope with an audience of 1,048,576).  

 

My two images were modified from those of a boardroom and a historical blackboard at Wikimedia Commons.