The best option is probably just an html doc — mix text (real text, not bullet points) with whatever media you want. Can be viewed on every device in the world.
But the cultural factor is you signalling “I want to PRESENT something to you”. It implies this is a pitch, and you’re only seeing the notes. It’s a way to say “come talk to me”.
The information density being so low is kind of a feature.
You clearly have not met my grad school classmates who used PPTs to lead seminars, but used slides as their full-sentence speaking notes.
Slideshow presentations work, but execution is key.
Both have their place, and you could trace each to far earlier forms, such as religious iconography or clan shields, and sagas or mythic poems.
Iconography encapsulates an existing notion, or expresses an identity or affinity.
Sagas and mythic poems contain stories with characters, events, themes, morals, and other teachings, and are structured mnemonically through verse, meter, rhyme, allusion, and often musical intonation or accompaniment, to facilitate recollection both for the teller and the audience.
I'm not much of a fan of slide decks myself, largely, though as a storytelling aid they can be quite useful. That takes skill however, and instruction. Edward Tufte's suggestions for how to use slides to accompany a talk (but not substitute for it) are excellent.
This is the point, supported by the signaling of the PPT itself.
The remaining 95% are slides that the audience doesn't care about and/or doesn't understand anyway.
I think this is a major part of the problem. Powerpoint is so commonplace now that we cannot even conceive of different ways of presenting information to groups. If you cannot figure out how to express an idea in the medium of Powerpoint or slideware in general, then that idea is difficult to express nowadays. That limits the kind of information you can share, especially complex information that is not so easily conveyed in bullet points or in sparse infographics. "The medium is the message", in other words.
Maybe I'm old, but I remember going over a lot of information in group settings without the use of Powerpoint. Here's a few examples of alternatives:
- overhead projectors (common when I was in elementary school)
- slide projectors
- lectures and speeches
- live demonstrations
- field and laboratory work (can be very hands-on learning)
- panel discussions and debates
- group discussions (after everyone reads a book or report)
- displaying a written report on a screen rather than distinct slides (I do this myself sometimes)
Some of these aren't going to work that well if you need to convey Q3 sales figures, for example, but my point is that there are other options out there even though Powerpoint has flooded the arena. Note that you can even combine these with Powerpoint or slideware and get the best of both worlds too for that matter. I'm not against Powerpoint as much as I dislike how it is conventionally used.
(I must also note that many people, myself included, hate the "slow crawl" of having information revealed progressively. It might work sparingly for dramatic effect but having been in so many meetings with bad speakers, it is far too easily abused and always makes me ask myself "When will the speaker get to the point?").
Man I wonder how humanity was able to function with concepts before the PPT format was born. Surely this resulted in an explosion of productivity?