Monday, October 06, 2008

Seth on Presenting

Seth Godin writes nine steps to PowerPoint magic.

I was very tempted to re-print the whole thing here because I know people don't follow links...

follow it this time.

Death by PowerPoint is painful, and people like Seth Godin and Garr Reynolds are on a crusade to help change that.

Nancy Duarte and her team helped change Al Gore from one of those people who make you want to tear out your eyes balls, squish them between your toes and stuff them in your ears to hide their presentation, to someone who is sought after.

In one of my favourite presentations of all time, creativity expert Ken Robinson doesn't even use a single slide. He just talks. Not at you, but with you. We are all wired to listen to conversations, because conversation implies participation. Ken makes an art of this.

PowerPoint is a crutch.

Often though, the crutch isn't used to support you. It is used to beat your audience over the head with.

My two favourite points from Seth's post...

1) Tell the truth.

This involves really and truly knowing your subject matter, and believing in it. If you really believe in something, you don't need notes.

2) Pay by the word

If you are in a team, put R5 or $5 into a fund for each word on your wordiest slide. Slides are there for ideas, you are the presentation. Take home documents are there for words.

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