"What I want to talk about today" - the Agenda

Without having conducted a survey about it, I am confident enough to state, that most PowerPoint presentations begin with a title slide and what follows is an agenda, table of contents or whatever you want to call it.

These usually look like table of contents from a textbook. Outline style, two to three indentations, getting you excited to read the book. Well, maybe.

I argue that a table of contents should not appear on slides in a presentation. I am not saying, however, that one should skip the part of introducing an overview of what the presentation is about. Here is a discussion:

A agenda or toc helps you to understand the main structure of your presentation.

That's why it is on the  first or second slide, duh.

But it is only visible for the first 30 seconds maybe and still just text, not visuals.

The agenda should help your audience to follow along your presentation.

That's why there is a little table of content on the side or the bottom of the slide.

This distracts your audience from the  point you are trying to make with the slide. It should therefore appear on your handout, so anybody can refer to it, whenever he or she wants. Thus people only get distracted from your argument on the slide while they look up the agenda on the handout. Not the whole time.

So I just leave the "overview part" out of the presentation? This cannot be right?

True. Why don't you use compelling visuals, pictures or a short provocative thesis on your slides and go over your agenda this way. If your audience demands a written agenda, they can look on their handout and you can tease them with a photo.


What do you think? If you are not convinced, please drop me another counterargument making the case for an onscreen written agenda.


I am trying to get away from presentations that just cover topics. I think a presentation needs to have a message that is written like a thesis, which you are going to justify by covering your content. People will not only grab a hold of the theory but also why it is relevant and how it might be applied.

I suggest the first slide should have a compelling title. A provocative statement. A thesis. I discourage you to use questions. If you do, make sure you have a definite and strong answer. A definite statement at the beginning can be a powerful enabler to get the attention of your audience. And this is what you seek. The attention of your audience. Only if you have their attention you can build up a rapport with them and engage them. Introduce your overview over your top three or four topics you want to cover with powerful images or photos. You can also use an easy to grasp graphic or statistic.
In the end this will help you to get your message across more easily and your audience will be able to retain the information more easily.

Tell me what you think about this method of wiping the table of contents of the slide. Comment and share this with people, you think can connect to this.


Have a good week.