Americo M. answered • 03/30/19
BS in Computer Engineering with 30+ years Experience
From my experience as a Public Speaker Trainer, and as a computer engineer, a person who uses notes constantly is not well prepared and the audence notices it.
For complex presentations, specially mobile technology, your Powerpoint should be very graphical. Lots of images/photos and diagrams, like an infographic. This will help people understand and it will also help you preprare better for he presentation and execute better the presentation, as the graphics in the Powerpoint will help you recall from memory what is it that you are supposed to say, much better than just a bunch of words.
As I teach my students, preparation is the most important stage of public speaking. When you do public speaking, like a Powerpoint presentation, you should project knowledge of the theme, of he domain that you are discussing. Notes can be used to read quotations that are too big to include in a Powerpoint presentation and things like that. You could have some points for you to look and help you remember things but you never read from the notes constantly to the audience.
It is a very different thing if you are reading a speech to the audience and having a Powerpoint for visual assistance. Very important speeches are writen and read for accuracy. Words matter, as I teach my students, so when precision is required, writing a speech and reading it is the alternative. But, you have to perform on stage.
The best preparation I teach my students is, make your Powerpoint, write down your speech, practice reading aloud you speech several times, then practice more trying to say it from memory. You can use notes to help you remember during rehersals but when time comes for the real thing, you shuld be able to go through the Powerpoint presentation and do your speech with the Powerpoint presentation as your aid to remember things.
