Author Archive: ffolliet

p cubed presentations > Articles by: 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.

Performance anxiety

August 19, 2015 1 Comment

My recent trip to a scientific conference allowed me to muse on many things including presentation skills. Most disappointing was not the standard of presentations constructed but the issues of poor delivery (p3) It is not enough to have a…
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p3, slideument

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It’s .pptx not .docx

July 30, 2015 2 Comments

A common mistake in attempting to deliver a (scientific) paper is the failure to recognise the difference between a document and a presentation. They are not the same. Perhaps the nomenclature is the start of the problem but an oral…
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p1, p2, p3

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This is all your fault.

July 22, 2015 0 Comments

It’s conference season once again and I’ve had my vaccination booster. Sadly it will be wall to wall text dense slides, with little structure or purpose, read outloud in a terrified monotone to an audience who expect nothing more. And…
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p cubed

Quick copy this down!

July 9, 2015 0 Comments

When making an academic presentation it is often valuable to quote the literature. Quote means to speak. Don’t write it down, it is not valuable.There is an increasing tendency to show references in a slide or series of slides. The…
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p2, p3

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LMGTFY

July 1, 2015 0 Comments

“How does one get images for a presentation?” is a question I am frequently asked. The answer is the same as so many other questions we have. Ask you friendly local search engine. Click here. I mostly use Google image…
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p2

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No script.

June 30, 2015 0 Comments

At no time should you use a script when giving a presentation.I know one should write paragraphs with three or more sentences that explain the initial statement but that statement stands alone. It needs no explanation, no justification, no clarification,…
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p3

It’s not about the slides

June 25, 2015 1 Comment

As Lance Armstrong famously entitled his book on “winning” the Tour de France, “It’s not about the bike.” So, with presentations, it is not about the slides. They are important. Without the slides it is just a talk. Ultimately the…
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p2

One message per slide

June 18, 2015 0 Comments

In the last blogpost I suggested the best place to start improving #presentationskills is by deleting the slide set. The rationale behind that statement was not to suggest that presentations should be done without supportive media but in order for…
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p2

Delete your slides

June 17, 2015 0 Comments

I received a question via Twitter about #presentationskills and where I might focus beginning the journey of improvement. As with so many things, the more I considered the issue the deeper the answer became. I think a good place to…
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p cubed, p1, p2, p3

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That’s a paper, not a slide

June 11, 2015 0 Comments

As conference season gets into full swing more and more presenters are showing audiences that their thoughts are built upon previous work. That is often very important. What is not necessary is to show a screenshot of that journal article….
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p2

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