Presentation Zen

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Good afternoon and welcome to “Presentation Zen”.
I am Phil Toland
I work in IT on Customer Portal
I will be giving today’s Lunch and Learn presentation

This is a presentation about presentations
A “meta presentation”
I will talk about using slideware as a communication tool
I will not talk about how to create a presentation in powerpoint

Bad presentation anecdote: Vendor presentation
Presenter did not know the subject matter, was reading slides
“I don’t know what this slide is trying to say”, “I think this slide is trying to say...”
Typical of bad presentations, we left the room annoyed with the vendor

We will start out by looking at some new and different presentation styles
Different ways to approach the problem
Mine for inspiration and ideas

Takahashi is a developer who was asked to give a five minute presentation
He didn’t have powerpoint or graphics software, yet he wanted to make a good impression
He decided to put a few carefully chosen characters on the screen for each slide

This style is known as the Takahashi Method
The characters on the screen are carefully chosen to have the most impact
Overlap of written language and art

Uses very large fonts
A few characters take up the whole screen
Audience doesn’t have to spend a long time looking at the screen to understand

The large characters are easy to see from all points in the room
The simplicity of the slide does not distract from the speaker

Larry Lessig, attorney and law professor at Stanford
Involved with the EFF and created the Creative Commons
Advocate for “free culture” and copyright reforms

Similar to the Takahashi method

Lessig’s slides often contain a single word

quote

or photo

Best example of Lessig Method was keynote given by Dick Hardt at OSCON 2005
We are going to watch the first three minutes

Hardt made good use of animations, they were subtle
Pacing was good but difficult to maintain
Requires lots of planning
Talk was only 15 minutes long

Guy Kawasaki, venture capitalist
Gives a lot of presentations
Listens to a lot of business pitches

Tired of boring presentations
Top 10 format gives some idea of progress
Kawasaki uses top 10 for all of his presentations

10 slides
10 major ideas
helps keep things simple

Kawasaki’s advice to people pitching business ideas to him
the 10/20/30 rule
Extension of top 10 format

Gives time for question and answer
Padding for, eg projector failure
People show up late and leave early

Easy to see
c.f. Takahashi method

fonts should probably be much bigger
I use 96pt in this presentation

Look at two very different presentation styles
Consider the styles, not the individual presenting or the company they represent

Very dynamic and open style
Known for his ability to hold an audience
Every “Stevenote” is sold out

Simple...three main elements
Immediately clear
A prop, not the main message

Is that litter?
Too many different colors
Information overload

Simple graphic
Supports what Steve is saying
Doesn’t take attention away from Steve

Takes attention away from Bill
Too much...doesn’t support a single point well
Is it raining on the iMac?

Steve is comfortable with himself on stage
Comes out close to the audience
Uses blank screen to focus attention on himself

Bullet points as a crutch
Bill is not as comfortable...nervous gesture of bringing hands together
Stays back from the audience
At least move each bullet point to a different slide

These are all examples to be learned from

Advice from Edward Tufte...

Edward Tufte
“Never apologize. If you’re worried the presentation won’t go well, keep it to yourself and give it your best shot. Besides, people are usually too preoccupied with their own problems to notice yours.“

Edward Tufte:
“Be sure to allow long pauses for questions.”

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