What if somebody approached you with the task to hold a meaningful presentation about a topic of your choice in order to motivate a crowd of complete strangers? And if that wasn’t enough to scare the living daylight out of you, the timeframe given lies somewhere between two and five minutes. How would you approach this task? What topic would you choose? What stories would you tell and how would you tell them? Here is your chance to learn from a master. Enjoy the following three presentations by musician and entrepreneur Derek Sivers. Continue reading...

Ah the iPad — long awaited, much talked about, and less than half a year after its debut already almost a mainstream device. Apple did it again. Again they disrupted the market, again they couldn’t keep up with the demand, and again we couldn’t wait to hold that new magical thing in our hands… We have been using it for twelve weeks now, a good opportunity to look back and answer the one question: Is it fit for everyday use? Can it be used for work? Tool or toy? Continue reading...

At a military conference in North Carolina in April, some high-ranking officers spoke out about the dangers of using PowerPoint to convey crucial information. Brigadier-General Herbert McMaster said, “It’s dangerous, because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control.” In 2005, McMasters had banned PowerPoint when he led an operation in Iraq. “Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable,” he told the conference. That kind of harsh PowerPoint criticism isn’t new, but it seems that over the last ten years a lot has changed in respect of how presentations are perceived, designed and delivered. Continue reading...

Some time ago, in the executive conference room of a small company in Düsseldorf, we showed the final version of a marketing presentation that we developed for that client. It was a small audience, four decision makers, the president of the company among them, and they loved it. They loved the structure, they loved the slides, and they loved their company image. But beyond all that, they were impressed that we did not look back on the screen once, and still had all the slides and animations come in at the right time. After working for weeks on a presentation it would be surprising not to be familiar with every slide and every animation. After all, that is the main reason why a presenter should create her own visuals, or at least spend enough time with them. But a presenter can’t be expected to fly completely without instruments, and we certainly didn’t. Continue reading...

How often does it happen that a piece of information we want to talk about in a presentation is far too complex to be put on one slide? The slide would be so confusing that it could put the listeners off rather than helping them to understand what we are talking about. Complex illustrations in a printed document can be taken in and digested by the reader in her own time; and they can be revisited at leisure. A presentation is a life event. The presenter sets the pace. All the listeners can do is follow that pace. It is our responsibility as presenters to break down the information density and simplify content so we can present it in chunks that our listeners are able to digest. When it comes to visual information, there are three ways to do that effectively: layering, highlighting, and zooming. Continue reading...

Being a successful presenter is all about connecting to the audience, keeping them interested, and getting our point across. But, how can this be done? Is there a way to establish a connection to our listeners right from the beginning and gain their undivided attention? The answer is: Yes, this all can be done within the first minutes of our presentation. We suggest BONUS, a very powerful and versatile tool that makes the presenter look well organized, credible and in control. BONUS stands for: Benefit — Overview — Navigation — Underpinning — Summary. Continue reading...

The ever increasing speed of change and its totality that we are facing today leaves us in need of explanations — more than ever before. In order to keep pace we have to make sense of it all. We have to understand the own position in relation to the processes of globalization, climate change, and conflicts. It might well be a matter of survival — not only on an individual level and not only for people outside the western industrialized nations. Devdutt Pattanaik explains the basic differences between East and West by telling wonderful stories about mythical figures from both worlds. Continue reading...

Often talked about and seldom done: backups … We all know that we should backup our files regularly. But, honestly, when did you last do a backup? When preparing for a presentation we should constantly backup the files we are working on. After finishing our precious visual aids we should consider different backup strategies — just to be on the safe side. Continue reading...

As long as text remains the main component on presentation slides legibility will be one of the main factors to consider when it comes to designing our visuals. Since the invention of movable type printing, about 570 years ago, typographers, typesetters, and graphic designers had plenty of time to figure out how to improve the legibility of text. As a rule of thumb, the optimal legibility of printed continuous text lies between 60 and 80 characters per line. But, how about text projected on a screen? Continue reading...

Why are so many presentation slides cluttered and loaded with data, and why does it seem so difficult to create simple and meaningful visuals? What seems so hard to do on a computer looks far easier on a sheet of paper. Nobody would try to paint a complex mural on a flip-chart (without extensive prior practice anyway). On a flip-chart people allow themselves to be simpler, more visual, and even more playful than in front of their computers. So, why don’t we just pretend to prepare for a flip-chart presentation, and then transfer the results into our presentation software? Paddy Hirsch, Senior Editor of Marketplace, gives a beautiful flip-chart presentation that we would like to use as an example of how this can be done. Continue reading...

Promise and deliver — that rule applies to any presentation. But, presenting to people of cultural backgrounds different from our own demands special attention. What people expect from a presentation might differ from culture to culture. Germans admire a logical structure, they think the best presentations are in-depth, detailed, and have enough evidence, facts and documentation. Others will only listen to us if our facts are brief and selective — Americans for instance. We should never assume that our international colleagues will share our view. Continue reading...

Brands play an increasingly important role in business life today. Building, maintaining, and promoting brands has long become a business in itself. Big agencies create recognizable brands that set themselves apart from the competition. For that purpose companies have a corporate image, corporate design, and corporate design guidelines. Continue reading...

If a presentation was a theater piece it would involve a dozen different professions, such as: playwright, editor, impresario, director, dramatic advisor, set designer, video designer, props master, stage manager, technician, prompter, and actor. Continue reading...

From time to time we hear people using the term “presentation artist”, implying that inspiration, creativity, and genius play a major role in designing visual aids. But, that is a gross overstatement. Works of art are created “to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power” (New Oxford American Dictionary), they serve no practical purpose, whereas presentation slides do. Continue reading...

A successsul presentation should contain the three "knows": 1. need to know, 2. want to know, 3. nice to know. It goes without saying that there are things the audience needs to know — things that we believe are pertinent to our talk, and to the listeners. They need to know this in order to make a decision, to give you their support, to do the task, to be persuaded, won over, induced, motivated, or whatever it is we are attempting to achieve. Continue reading...