It is evident that for every compelling meeting presentation, there are many more that nearly put attendees to sleep. This certainly was not the case with April’s featured speaker Jon Petz, Professional Speaker, Magician, and author of “Boring Meetings Suck”, an exposé on how poorly put together meetings and presentations can have a negative affect on the task at hand.

Jon has had an interesting career following his graduation from Ohio University in both the corporate and entertainment industries. Mr. Petz has held positions as a National Account Executive for MCI Telecommunications, as well as the Vice President of Sales for a 250 member Insurance Organization. Jon has also had a great deal of success as a motivational speaker and comedy magician, traveling the country educating and entertaining corporate America, as well as opening for musical acts such as the American Idol Tour and country music group Rascal Flats. Jon and his wife Stacey founded the non-profit organization “Miracles and Magic”, which brings a Las Vegas style magic show to Columbus for children with life threatening illnesses. Mr. Petz brings his sense of motivational exuberance to every aspect of his work, making him an outstanding keynote speaker.

Jon Petz’s presentation began with an entrance that was more reminiscent of a Chicago Bulls line up announcement than a normal keynote speaker, as Jon ran to the front of the room with loud music blaring. What attendees came to find is that Jon is anything but normal, which is what makes him so great. Mr. Petz continued to discuss various ways to spice up your meeting environment, and make the environment more suitable for the maximum amount of productivity. The topic of meeting manners was very humorous, as Mr. Petz spoke of a few pet peeves he has with attendee bad habits. Mr. Petz felt that one of the worst crimes in the meeting world was showing up late, which is why he makes a point to begin each meeting on time regardless of who has not yet arrived. This will in turn teach the attendees to be more prompt.

The most discussed topic was the misuse of the Microsoft slide show program PowerPoint. He proclaimed that most speakers use PowerPoint as a crutch and seem to read straight off the screen with their back towards the audience. His advice was to design slides that show one picture and or less than a sentence of text. The slide should merely be the visual representation of what the speaker is discussing with the audience, not your verbal presentation verbatim.