You may think that you are ready for your presentation once you have prepared a great PowerPoint presentation, but great slides do not make for a great presentation.
Think of it this way, imagine going to see one of your favorite movies, except that there is no sound or subtitles so you never know what they’re saying. Unless it is a travel log of Alaska or some other place where you have always wanted to go, you are not going to get much or anything out of it. The cinematography and special effects as well as the millions of dollars spent on its production go to waste if there is no soundtrack, music, or dialogue.
The same can be said for PowerPoint presentations. You may have the best slides in the world but if the person delivering them isn’t talking in the most compelling manner, the presentation will be bad. If instead of delivering dialogue in an interesting and dramatic fashion, the actors in a movie read through the script in a flat, boring, and monotonous way, you would hate the movie. The same goes for PowerPoint presentations. Now, you do not have to act and be dramatic like Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic, but you do have to bring life to your ideas in the slide as they alone are not enough.
PowerPoint also tends to take up precious time that can be spent to improve your speaking which is instead used to tweak slides and make them great. But remember, slides alone do not make a great presentation- a great delivery from you and great slides is the recipe for a great presentation.