I’m more deadly with PowerPoint than the throwing star…

My name is Brent Dykes, and I am the PowerPoint Ninja. I don’t have any martial arts training. I couldn’t scale a wall or throw a shuriken to save my life. However, I have been using Microsoft PowerPoint professionally over the past 10 years and continue to use it as a key communication tool in my role as a technology consultant at Omniture (now Adobe). I have created hundreds of successful presentations that have been delivered to senior executives at Fortune 500 companies and large audiences at various marketing conferences.

This Blog

The PowerPoint Ninja blog will cover a variety of topics related to PowerPoint and business presentations. I take a pragmatic approach to PowerPoint presentations. I don’t have a PhD in visual communication from some ivy league school, and I’m not a creative director at some award-winning NY ad agency. My insights and suggestions come from several years of hands-on experience in preparing and presenting PowerPoint slides in a corporate environment. Although I consider myself an advanced user, I don’t profess to know everything about PowerPoint. However, I am eager to share insights and learn tricks from other PowerPoint ninjas out there.

Experience

My first real exposure to PowerPoint came at Microsoft in the late 1990s where I worked as a marketing intern for two semesters. Working from the inside of this software giant, I was able to gain a deep appreciation for what could be done with this much maligned but often used business tool. While working for a web design agency, Blast Radius, as a marketing analyst, I learned how to create marketing slides that were easy for sales people to modify and reuse with their various sales presentations.

When I went to back to school for my MBA in 2002, I was able to leverage my PowerPoint skills extensively in my various class projects. I was also able to participate in business plan competitions where my presentation skills helped my team to place as a semi-finalist in the 2004 BYU competition and second in the 2004 Utah Entrepreneur Challenge. For the past four years, I’ve been working for Omniture/Adobe as a web analytics consultant where I build client presentations on a weekly basis. I’ve also been fortunate to present at several Omniture Summit conferences including a 2008 keynote presentation in Japan.