The way presentations are currently constructed, delivered and received is not the result of laziness on the part of presenter or audience. Presentations are built with effort, intention and time but with a concept that breaks the result. The Japanese art of kintsugi recognises the value of a piece of pottery and in its damage, it is repaired, often with gold. Presentations are broken but should not be thrown in the trash. They can be repaired with kintsugi and returned to intended function and experiences of real value.

Most presentation feedback is useless. "Thank you for your excellent presentation. I very much enjoyed it." This really is not the critical review you hoped it would be. Feedback needs to be actively sought, shared in the spirit of improvement and as part of a conversation. Vague, polite platitudes unsolicitedly offered and based on what the listener felt are useless when it comes to development of presentation skills.

Poor presentations break proximity with a message that simply lists data. Slides that are beautiful but unrelated separate understanding from meaning. A fluent spoken message from a speaker disconnected from the audience loses impact. Great presentations have proximity.

Most of us have heard, even recited, the start of the soliloquy from Hamlet. "To be or not to be? That is the question." Few of us would consider that recitation had any impact. Anyone can download and read the piece. It isn't the same as being delivered by an actor, on stage, in costume and in the moment. A presentation is not simply a script, read out on a stage. The delivery of a presentation (p3) demands much more than that.

In the Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back, there is a dramatic and romantic moment where Princess Leia calls to Han Solo as he is about to be immersed in Carbonite. "I love you!" she calls. His response has become iconic. The slide below shows how most presentations would relate that scene as below. "I know". Subtitles are not required. Like your powerpoint

So now what should we do once we have recognised that there is glitch in The Matrix? Change. Having seen that we fall into the trap of using the slidewear to construct a powerpoint rather than a message, what should we do? Understanding the Presentation Paradox that we do what we hate in the construction and delivery of a presentation, what should we do? Seeing that science describes the problem, even if we see the problem all around us so now what should we do? Change.

Choosing wallpaper for a room involves decisions of colour, pattern, and density. Buying wallpaper before you have even bought the house it is going in makes no sense. But you probably decided on the template for your last presentation before you considered the content. Presentations are not about the decoration.

Everyone can toss a ball up and catch it. Many people can do that with two balls. When there are three balls it is officially called juggling. Personally, I can juggle three balls with lots of patterns. The world record for "toss juggling" that is balls successfully in a pattern, caught twice, is 11. The average presentation is like the Sonia Bravia advert of bouncing balls falling down the streets of Los Angeles. Our brains weren't built for this. Juggling is fine for three balls (or facts).

The blue wave is everywhere you look, and it defines presentations. Not from a design perspective because it sucks but because it defines how you and the world have learned to give presentations, by copying. If presenting feels hard, it is not because something is wrong with you. It is because no one ever showed you how to do it differently. You inherited a format, the template. The software opens with a title box, a bulletpoint list and the default template background. You went with the blue wave because everyone else does. You're not lazy or careless, you are just doing what the system does; the blue wave.

The phrase ‘in a mirror, darkly’ comes from the Bible. It describes a first-century mirror, not made of glass but of polished metal. What that showed was a poor, dark reflection, not a true one. Blurred. Distorted. Partial. As a presenter at a conference you will have rehearsed your script, loaded the slides, stood in front of the mirror and checked your appearance before confidently walking onto the stage reflectiung that everything was in place. What if the mirror doesn't show what actually matters? What if the reflection is like looking in a mirror, darkly?

"Thank you." That phrase you've been aiming to deliver for weeks now. You have finished your talk. There is polite applause, you smile gratefully, and maybe even someone congratulates you. You return to your seat feeling a deep relief, even pride. It worked. The slides were great, the timing was perfect, and you hit every point. It felt good, clear, like you communicated.

You're a better presenter right now, simply because you are considering presentations more consciously. You're a better presenter because you want to stop the presentation paradox. You're a better presenter because you have visited this site, even if that is just with questions. You're a better presenter because you want to see change in presentations.

Why do you have slides in your presentation? Whether this is an in-person or online presentation, the answer to this question is foundational to any changes one would consider in the construction of a presentation. Using slides as a script, as an aide memoire, as the handout or as a combination of all of the above is not a valid reason.

Your message should identify the objective of the presentation. It is from your message that the audience will reconstruct the details of the presentation and may change their behaviour towards the desired objective. Your message is key to the translation of aim to objective.

Many conference presentations are set up with a podium. Be aware that podium problems will affecting the p cubed value of your presentation.

Is there anybody out there? Sometimes, when you're all alone in the office, staring at the green dot, reciting meaningless text to an unresponsive void as an online presentation, you start to question your life choices. Is there anybody out there? The pandemic was a terrible time, for education. It taught us that an educator turning on their laptop and reading out powerpoint was education, and as an audience, that the presentation broadcast on your laptop (whilst you did the ironing, turbo training or email) was learning.