Imagine talking to your friends using slides all the way. I bet you find that ridiculous, because it would take all the spontaneity from the moment. You might also find it ridiculous because you would not want to have your relationship designed up-front, but you rather want to let it grow from the passion of communication. When you talk to your friends, you do not want to be bounded by outside rules, but you want to have as much freedom as possible.

Now, imagine yourself giving a talk to an audience and only displaying empty slides. In case you do not know how such empty slides look like you can see one them to the right. I bet most of you feel insecure about such a prospective because it would mean you would have nothing to fall back to. It would be just you and the audience. No defense.

In our world, preparing a talk is most often synonym with filling the emptiness of the slides, and giving a talk is synonym with accompanying the slides with words. The assumption is that the audience is not friendly, and hence the talk is a sort of a warfare. In such a circumstance, the slides become the warplan and if everything is on the slides, we can just blend in and get through the hostilities without getting hurt too much.

But, in most of the cases the audience is not your enemy. The audience is your friend. The audience does not want you to fail, because if you do fail they lost their time. And nobody likes that.

Many times, enemies exist because of our fears. If you will be afraid in front of your audience you will see them as your enemy. And because you will treat them like your enemy they will become your enemy.

Instead, let go of your fear and go in the open. Do not talk because you have to. Talk because you believe. Talk because you want them to know. Talk because your thoughts deserve their attention.

These might sound like big words, but I assure you they are not. I suggest a simple experiment. At some point in your talk, perhaps after you forgot your initial fear, press the "b" or the "w" key (but press it only once), and keep talking. Your audience will be surprised, and you will be left with nothing but your enthusiasm and their attention.