p2

The supportive media (p2) is everything that adds to the story (p1) in its delivery(p3) whether as a presentation or visual aids. If you have visited the site looking for tips on using powerpoint, you will be disappointed. The discussion is around design concepts, use of text in slides, images and data slides used to illustrate and support the message. It is the least important part of a presentation and some presentations may even be better without slides! Most importantly, the .ppt file is not your presentation.

Cornerstone posts include.

purpose of the p2

basic type choices

when to construct the p2

design matters

Can we use just a little bit of text? Please?

The abiding question on many lips in trying to improve presentation is, “Can we just use a little bit of text on our slides?” Of course you can. You can also break the speed limit a little bit. You can…
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How much data is too much data?

I recently had the privilige of presenting to the Dept. Paediatric Urology at Toronto Sick Kids Hospital. They were generally taken with the idea of a new method of presenting but one colleague was concerned that scientific presentations required the…
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Your powerpoint is not an autocue

One of the reasons some speakers are unwilling to change their presentation style is that their supportive media (p2) is actually an autocue; they simply read from it. This fails on many levels.Speaking in public is nerve wracking and never…
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Illustrate, don’t annotate.

The route to a better presentation has been detailed in many previous blog posts. If I could give you only one tip to improve your next presentation it would be in considering your p2, the supportive media. Illustrate, don’t annotate….
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It’s just not scientific…

Recently I shared ideas with a colleague about presentations and she significantly altered the supportive media (p2) of her upcoming presentation. She was very pleased with her performance and the reception of the presentation by the audience (p cubed) but…
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I’m sorry…

…for this busy slide. I’m sorry I didn’t think this through as well as I might.I’m sorry that I don’t actually care very much about this topic.I’m sorry that I don’t think you are important.I’m sorry that I didn’t know…
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What is the best, new tool in presentations?

An interesting post at The Harvard Business Review on Presentations discusses other new and exciting tools that may help in effective presentations. Sadly, I think they miss the point completely. “Guns don’t kill: bulletpoints do” is a tagline I use…
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The maximum number of words on a slide is zero.

A recent question on twitter to me was, “What is the maximum number of words you can put on a slide?”Easy, the maximum number is zero!Seriously, asking the question shows that the purpose of your supportive media (p2) is for…
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The best slide in the world, ever…

One of the biggest problems of text based supportive media (p2) [your “presentation”] is that the audience pay more attention to it than to you. This has been discussed in many posts and principally is a problem because the audience…
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Elevator pitch

In business there is a concept of the “elevator pitch.” Effectively, if you happened to get into a lift with a potential customer, could you deliver your pitch within the elevator ride? And yes, elevator rides are short. This applies…
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