Author Archive: ffolliet

At work I'm a Consultant Paediatric Surgeon. That involves Surgical Oncology, Neonatal Surgery and Trauma. There's also a lot of teaching and mentoring. None of this actually makes me particularly clever. I'm pretty heavily into improving presentations and long for the world to lay down the weapon of bulletpoints and embrace creative and engaging presentations. I lead presentation workshops and am currently working up a book on presentations. I did a wee thing at TEDx Stuttgart in 2014 of which I'm quite proud https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFza3W87eDg Outside all of that I struggle to keep fit, cycle a bit and the odd triathlon. I'm a father, singer, laugher, learner, sharer, blogger, thinker, strummer and much more.

best presentation

best presentation

People often remark the best presentation they remember was when the presenter arrived and the p2 failed before delivery. ” The best presentation is of course a compliment and it means that the p cubed value was significant, that there…
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busy slide

busy slide

“I’m sorry for this busy slide, let me talk you through it.”  Never be tempted to use a busy slide by either attempting to explain it or by building it piecemeal or worse seeking forgiveness. A busy slide will distract…
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Murphy’s Law

Murphy's law

Murphy’s Law states that, “if anything can go wrong, it will.” The aphorism, whatever its derivation, should be addressed by all presenters as part of their preparation. Preparation is the best way, not to necessarily prevent problems, because, as the…
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polished performers

Polished performers are the best examples to observe in order to improve presentations. Two such polished performers are Vic Brazil and Anand Swaminathan. They can be heard over at feminem.com discussing lots of presentation tips but with a particular focus on women…
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guest blog- losing bulletpoints helped me find my voice

losing bulletpoints

Thank you to Carrie Thomas for her insights and thoughts on her #presentationskills journey   There are key moments of feedback that stick with you and can be practise changing. For presenting, my development journey started back in 2015 with…
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comfort monitors

comfort monitor

Comfort monitors are the presenter’s friend. Mostly. Many large conferences provide a comfort monitor, in front of the speaker, showing a full representation of that which is projected on the main screen. The technical setup of comfort monitors especially data…
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a p cubed presenter

p cubed presenter

A p cubed presenter* is surely the aspiration of any presenter; a presenter who has constructed a story with an effective message, illustrated it with media that supports and amplifies their message and supremely delivered with passion, engagement and clarity….
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Listening is not learning

listening is not learning

Listening is not learning. The impact of The Matrix thought that reading is not teaching recently struck me as having an important and essential corollary; listening is not learning. This has clear implications for the presenter in their construction of…
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information is not knowledge

information is not knowledge

Information is not knowledge. Sitting in a library does not make you clever. Pouring water over your head does not satisfy a thirst. Reading out a ton of information in a presentation does not make the audience cleverer. It may…
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doing it wrong

doing it wrong

You are doing it wrong if you think a presentation is about the transmission of a large quantity of information. You are doing it wrong if you think the presentation is a script or a handout. You are doing it…
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