It's that conference tomorrow and you know for a fact there's bound to be at least one presenter who will bore the back teeth off you with an array of Powerpoint slides. ADRIAN PITT from Develop-meant Training Consultants has been to that conference, too! Feel his pain...

It never ceases to amaze me the number of conferences and training sessions I attend where I'll more often than not bump into Mr or Mrs "I Like The Sound Of My Own Voice". Have you met a member of this fabulous family?

They can often be found stood at the front, Powerpoint poised behind, notes in hand, racing through what's written like they've got to get home fast because they've left a chicken in the oven, while a myriad of 'send to sleep' slides go whizzing painfully past!

Oh and Mr or Mrs "I Like The Sound Of My Own Voice" never keep to time. They've sat in front of the Corrie omnibus designing their seventy six slides (where six would have done!) and come Hell or high water, they're going to make you endure EVERY last bullet point!

Mr or Mrs "I Like The Sound Of My Own Voice" haven't been to "Judge Your Audience" school. They're blissfully unaware that most of the middle row are looking at the back of their eyelids, that the far table are building a scale model of the Forth Bridge out of the complimentary still spring water bottles and that those in the front are nodding - not in agreement - but off to sleep!

You'd have thought, in this day and age, with all the tips and tricks out there, the talk of appealing to different learning styles and the research done into how long a human being can pay attention before the activity needs to change, that Mr or Mrs "I Like The Sound Of My Own Voice" would have retired and taken up politics!

Am I just unfortunate in that it's only many of the meetings that I attend where I'm popping Pro Plus like a pooped-out Postman, or is "Death By Slides 2 - The Revenge" showing at a conference near you, too?!?!

Ade.