Next slide, please: A brief history of the corporate presentation

August 22, 2023 10:04 AM

From million-dollar slide shows to Steve Jobs’s introduction of the iPhone, a bit of show business never hurt plain old business. (archive.today link)
posted by Etrigan (18 comments total)

" . . . are you getting it yet??"
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 10:13 AM on August 22, 2023

Those old multi-media shows were really amazing when they worked. I never saw any of these giant trade show productions but did see more than a few. They used to go on tour to college campuses and growing up the son of a professor meant I would prowl campus for things like this to see. I think the biggest one I ever saw might have been 10 projectors, so none of this really fancy stuff, but still very impressive.

When Genesis toured for their concept album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, they had a similar multimedia show they toured with. It hardly ever completely worked, but when it did it was supposed to be quite excellent.
posted by hippybear at 11:05 AM on August 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Somewhat related: Slide decks from failed or fraudulent businesses.
posted by PikeMatchbox at 11:13 AM on August 22, 2023 [6 favorites]

Developers developers developers developers...

DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS
posted by shenkerism at 12:12 PM on August 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

I didn't like this article. It kind of abruptly swiveled from talking about huge multimedia corporate presentations, which are cool don't get me wrong, to the invention of PowerPoint for solo presentations.

And that has an interesting history too, but the author also skipped that weird era when we were strapping LCD panels to overhead projectors to try and get a computer to show something on a large screen without having to rent a GE Talaria projection unit. Or maybe you were cutting edge and owned a Thinkpad 755CDV.

Either way, here's an example of these multi-projector slide projector galas if you're interested. Maybe iPhone could have launched like Apple ][ Forever!
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:35 PM on August 22, 2023 [5 favorites]

the author also skipped that weird era when we were strapping LCD panels to overhead projectors

I had several teachers in Junior High in the early Eighties who were using an overhead projector and markers as a substitute to writing on the chalkboard. Talk for a while while writing, ask if everyone has their notes, spray and wipe, start over.

Honestly I don't blame them. Writing on a chalkboard is difficult and is a different skill from other writing.
posted by hippybear at 12:47 PM on August 22, 2023 [6 favorites]

My engineering college experience in the 80s was the same, Hippybear.

Professors would scribble on blank transparencies, then switch to a new one when full or starting a new idea. The smarter ones would save the films and then drop them off each week at Kinko's Copies, where you could buy a sorted and stapled group for $0.10/page.

Then the REAL smart ones saved their written foils from semester to semester and pre-sold the binder at Kinkos at the start of the class, like an ad-hoc textbook. And Kinko's paid them back "royalties". We all turned our noses up at it at first, then realized you could miss a class or two and still have the projected notes. Win-win.

I guess this is still a practice, except the PPT is downloadable to your tablet or laptop over the campus web server.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:53 PM on August 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Fascinating read - I had no idea the "slide show" biz was so large way back then.

As for me - well, the transition from Harvard Graphics (!) to Powerpoint was harder than I thought it would be.

As for Gaskins - his home page has TONS more info about the history of ppt.
posted by davidmsc at 3:33 PM on August 22, 2023

Transparencies! I was in grad school, on the job market, as those started being replace by PPT. I created a few on William Blake's illuminated poetry and used them in classes and talks.
posted by doctornemo at 3:50 PM on August 22, 2023

Industrials... my father worked in them for most of his life. He was proud of that work.

Died this June at 91.
posted by doctornemo at 3:50 PM on August 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

I was in Moscone for that Apple ][ Forever presentation… On the show floor, I demoed the new mouse for the Apple // to Bill Gates. I was not impressed. Another time, Apple had rented the huge auditorium/concert hall at the Junior College down the street in Cupertino, for some sort of product announcement. They had a satellite uplink/downlink setup for an expansion hall across the street. On one of the balconies, there was a huge setup of stacked 35mm slide projectors, probably around 20 or so, all aimed at a big wide screen over the stage. The room went dark, loud music came on, and all those projectors did an intricate dance of images on the screen, while the crew were swapping carousels like crazy. It was something I had never seen before. Amazing… I had never known about computer controlled multi projector presentations. We all sat there entranced while trying to grasp how much all this cost. The funny thing is that I don’t have a clue what it was about. Maybe the Macintosh intro? I don’t know.
posted by njohnson23 at 4:06 PM on August 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

Just because… Here is Edward Tufte’s critique of PowerPoint. Recommended reading…
posted by njohnson23 at 4:27 PM on August 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

(Silly off-topic story time) Overhead projectors always make me think of the first day of this class way back when which must have been the prof's first day of teaching, ever. Poor guy was so nervous. He comes in, turns on the OHP and writes his name on the acetate. So far, so good. Then he turns the crank to advance the acetate and... turns out there was no acetate. He's written his name on the projector itself. Giggling breaks out among the students. Sweat breaks out on his brow. He tries to wipe his name off with his thumb but apparently his pen's ink is indelible. More giggling, more sweating. He's got his handkerchief out now, dabbing it against his tongue.
He must have eventually managed to erase his name. I mostly remember the second-hand embarrassment I felt for him. I probably shouldn't perpetuate his mortification, but fortunately, ironically, I do not remember his name!
posted by mpark at 6:05 PM on August 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

In a weird cross-over, my college-age kid gets the professor's slides and then converts them to a PDF. He opens that on his iPad and during the lecture, he marks them up with the Pencil. Makes my typewriter-trained brain spin.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:07 PM on August 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

I had several teachers in Junior High in the early Eighties who were using an overhead projector and markers as a substitute to writing on the chalkboard. Talk for a while while writing, ask if everyone has their notes, spray and wipe, start over.

Oh god, you just transported me back to high school circa 1991. My Analysis/Trig math teacher had clear sheets of film he would write problems on and go over them on the overhead projector. If anyone had a question, he could grab a previous sheet and put it back on the projector to discuss it.
posted by Fleebnork at 4:17 AM on August 23, 2023

Early 90s. The closest I ever came to printing money was printing slides from a series of Macintosh computers and Mirus (and later Agfa) film recorders in the second bedroom. At the time I'd buy Ektachrome slide film by the cubic brick. That camera shop once delivered a new 32" Sony TV as thanks for my business.

Clients uploaded their Powerpoint (or Aldus) presentation to my BBS and I'd have dinner while making adjustments and doing last edits, then load film and hit "print" and wake up every two hours to change exposed frames on the 35mm camera backs. Run to the local service bureau with exposed film when they open at 7am. Deliver finished slides to the client by 9am and into their Kodak tray by the 10am meeting. No room for error.

Speed was everything. The slides were crummy resolution but a national service like Genigraphics was a 2day turnaround. And the bigger the client the more levels of edits and lawyers so by the time I received it for developing things got exciting.

One time a VP flying to Chicago cut it a little too close. I was running to meet him at his gate (back when you could without a boarding pass) and the agent stopped me at the ramp. "Is that the package?" Yes. "Give it to me and watch from the window" He barreled down the already retracting ramp, grabbed a rail and swung out with his arm outstretched as the pilot opened the window and grabbed the package of slides.
posted by hal9k at 5:39 AM on August 23, 2023 [16 favorites]

I worked at a big service bureau in Boston in the mid 1990s, and we went through a LOT of Agfa film. A couple of people worked second shift, constantly feeding jobs and film into our slide printers...ad when they weren't doing that, they sat and cranked bulk cassettes full of new film for the next job. We printed a LOT of slides, every day of the week.

Meanwhile, I learned to feed 50-inch-wide film into German imagesetter cassettes with my eyes closed in the dark room, and when we were testing a new large-format imagesetter I used to lay inside its drum and pull out jammed film (it didn't feed well) with a Leatherman. That was a weird job.
posted by wenestvedt at 10:51 AM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

I worked for AV production houses in New York in the 70's. Did shows for Fortune 500 companies using as many as 18 slide projectors, video projection, and 16mm film. Lots of fun, and lots of stress. But we turned out multi-screen productions that wowed the salesmen who came in from their territories to be treated to "show biz."
posted by fgdmorr at 4:07 PM on August 23, 2023 [1 favorite]