One of the most commonly used tools in presentations is a PowerPoint slideshow.  In fact, in many organizations, it is inconceivable to give a presentation without PowerPoint.  However, when you think back on presentations you have attended, how many of them do you remember for their riveting PowerPoint presentations?  When I took a poll at a recent Presentations workshop, not a single person mentioned "the great slide show" as a reason that they found a presentation memorable.  Instead, it was the quality of the speaker, an ability to engage the audience, and material that was to the point and easy to follow that were most mentioned.
 
In fact, PowerPoint has many things going against it.  First of all, the lights need to be dimmed to see the slides, creating an environment less conducive to learning.  Next, most speakers either turn to look at their slides, or stare at their computer, which does not promote listening to what they are saying.  The standard PowerPoint presentations have template slides with varying amounts of text to read, which the speaker either repeats in concept, or worse, reads from the slide.  Most presenters know enough to add some pictures, but they usually don't show anything visually relevant, they are just there for the audience to look at something other than the speaker.
 

An example of a really bad slide!

 

Many of the slides being shown would be better represented using other tools.  Tables and charts, for example, are better as handouts so the audience can refer back to them and take as much (or little) time as they need to study them.  Bulleted text does not need to be seen, since the speaker is covering these points in the oral presentation.  In many cases, a few handouts and a well crafted presentation will be much more memorable than the same speech given with a PowerPoint.
 
The strength of PowerPoint is to show pictures of things that are more compelling than talking about them or distributing as a handout.  For example, pictures of the final product, or pictures that show visually what you are describing, or computer generated models of possible outcomes, or pictures of the animals or plants you are describing.  Dare to step away from the trend and trust your skills as a speaker to give a presentation without PowerPoint.