One of the most common slides we see in presentations is the dreaded "About Me" slide (or some variation thereof). It's the part of the presentation where the audience effectively shuts their brains off and waits for the presenter to get to his or her point. If the presenter is lucky, perhaps half of his or her audience will re-engage once the "About Me" section is complete.

At ICE, we presenters had a 45-minute budget to work with. Every presentation I watched had at least one slide devoted to "About Me." Now, in this setting, it is nice to know a little bit about who you are and where you are coming from, but one team spent 15 minutes on who they were! They spent 1/3 of their time budget off topic, and, quite predictably, by the end of their session, the team was rushing to get through the prepared material.

Why do we add "About Me" slides? Is it ego? I don't think so. I think we feel the need to talk about ourselves so our audience understands why we are qualified to talk about our given topic. We want our audience to have confidence in us as presenters. Unfortunately, the "About Me" slide is still adds nothing to your presentation and may serve as a detraction to the product as a whole.

• Qualifications do not make for a good presentation. Remember the people with 15 minutes of background and qualifications? Their material was blah. It had only marginal practical value (at least in the way they presented it), and they offered little other teachers could build on. Who you are matters nothing if you message is broken.
  
  
• Your audience doesn't care. Your audience is there because they want to hear what you have to say about your topic – not about yourself. If you speak well enough, and your audience connects with your message, then they will connect with you. As a result, you may find some people who want to get to know more about you after your presentation is completed.
  
  
• Your audience may already know. This is the opposite of #2. How ridiculous would it look for Steve Jobs or Al Gore to begin a presentation with a serious, in-depth "About Me" section. The fact is, if you have a reputation in your field, people WILL come because of who you are. If that is the case, why bore them with stuff they already know?
  
  
• It detracts from the whole. Again, you want your audience to be captivated by your message. You want them to be enchanted. Every minute you spend off-topic or on mundane details is a minute that your audience is losing its collective interest. In addition, every minute you spend off-topic is a minute less you have to spend on your topic.

I know that the "About Me" slide is almost a standard in presentations, but resist the pressure. Don't do it. Leave the "About Me" for your website (and make sure your URL is on the handout your guests receive). Make your presentation about your topic and nothing else.

Tags: avoid, time use, conventions