Seth's first step to Powerpoint magic is dead on: don't user Powerpoint. In addition to the excellent reasons Seth gave for not using Powerpoint, I'd like to add another big one: using Powerpoint just gives you another Powerpoint slideshow.  That's it.

To your audience (whether it be a lecture hall full of hung over college students or an auditorium full of new media conference attendees), you're just another Powerpoint presenter.  Nothing special.  The same old song and dance with the boring slides, crazy animations (and maybe even sounds), and useless bullet points.

Use something else.  Powerpoint presentations are for the presenter who is afraid of actually impacting their audience, who wants to play it safe and stay within expectations.  Break the expectations and be anything but safe.

Have you ever seen a speaker boot up their Powerpoint presentation and not groaned?

Me either. Don't be the cause of those groans.