He says the cultural shift in business has perplexed more than its share of older presenters. Years ago, an executive at a corporation could get by on his position power. But now executives are finding position power is no longer all that's needed to hold an audience. Even if they acknowledge the need to incorporate multimedia, when they actually need to give a PowerPoint presentation, many of these same executives simply haven't developed the skills necessary to deliver it effectively and are unaware of how disastrous the results can be without them. But even though they have all these powerful tools, they won't work if the person delivering them is unprepared.
Younger generations are very demanding.
If you're padding your presentation or talking in abstractions, they don't like it. Polish doesn't mean trying to be something you're not, though. I want to relate to their issues, but there's a fine line. For one thing, the same people who demand so much from presenters while they are in the audience are discovering that it isn't as easy as it looks to be a polished, technologically with-it presenter. Bridgeworks' David Stillman says older audience members almost always assume that a young face means lack of experience.