Wrapping up this series of blogs on writing a speech, let's talk about visual aids.  I've ranted about Power Point before, but here's yet another reason to use PP with care, and only after you've prepared the speech content. 

I can always tell a speech that's been prepared using Power Point.  Each slide is an equal unit of thought, in effect, and thus using PP has a tendency to reduce the speech to a series of concepts with no particular beginning, middle, and end.  But that is exactly what speeches need.  They are not a series of equal concepts.  Speeches need a clear structure that audiences can follow and not all the parts of the structure are created equal.  Use PP as a creative device at your peril.

It's far better to structure a great speech, and then look at it with an eye to what particular visual aids could bring this section or that idea to life in a way that words can't do as well. 

And there are other visual aids as well that can add a lot of interest to your speech.  Video clips are wonderful for creating emotional moments.  Keep them short — much more than a minute or two feels like an eternity — and keep them relevant. 

I once saw a conference begun with that amazing You Tube video about China, Did You Know?  It's certainly an arresting video, but it had nothing to do with the conference, and it went on too long.  People watched it for a while, then tuned out, because it wasn't relevant for them at that moment.

And don't forget the lowly white board, flip chart, and so on.  When you're interacting with an audience, these simple tools are great ways to capture their thoughts and make them part of the discussion. 

Finally, don't neglect to think about props.  We live in a virtual world of email, computers, and white noise.  It's astonishing how a simple prop can suddenly bring real life into a room.  I once saw a discussion of mergers and acquisitions enlivened enormously by a discussion of the Mattel-Fisher Price merger.  Here's the kicker.  In a brilliant move to show how difficult the merger was going to be, the speaker had wrapped Mattel and F-P toys under the chairs of the audience.  At the right moment, the audience was told to open the 'presents' and look inside.  It was suddenly a holiday, and you should have seen the excitement in the room.  And it made the point brilliantly:  the Mattel toys were urban, edgy, and in your face, whereas the F-P toys were primary colored barnyard animals.  Everyone suddenly got that the two cultures of the two toy companies were entirely different, with disturbing implications for the merger.

Visual aids can be a powerful way to bring parts of a speech to life.  Just don't think of them as a speech outline.  That's deadly dull for any audience.