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.

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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Conformity for success? or not?

A recent email discussion highlighted a problem with improving presentations skills; some people don’t like change. It is clear that the current approach of “death by powerpoint” is ubiquitous. What is unclear is that those who express an opinion on…
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Your “powerpoint” is not the message, it supports the message.

I did a little talk in late November 2013 at TEDx Stuttgart. I am hoping to write a few posts around the construction and delivery of the whole thing but it is pertinent once again to highlight the role of…
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@ffolliet would be proud…(2)

More pride as more friends and colleagues make better and better presentations and suggest that I am at least partly catalytic in the process. I do keep encouraging them that it is their own decision to make the move towards…
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To corporate or not co-operate?

There is little that depresses me more at a meeting than a poor presentation, save for a poor presentation awash with corporate logos. The (poor) argument for their use on every slide runs something along the lines of making it clear to…
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You’re boring me.

Seriously, I’ve heard this all before. You need a presentation on your cv/portfolio. You’ve asked the boss who said, “please review my last x cases of” something not very interesting. You’ve managed to find x-y and, after subtracting z because…
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Creativity

“Could you give us a talk, about 30 minutes?” “Sure,” you reply, “no problem.” The facts are clear. The nature of the audience will affect the precise message to be delivered but, let’s fire up Powerpoint, drop in a pile…
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Who cares?

Seriously, what is the point? Why should I bother? Why should I give you my attention, my time and my interest? What is in it for me? What makes your presentation worth anything more than the other ones here today?…
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Supportive Media (p2)

In the classification I have developed as part of the thinking about presentations I have detailed the “PowerPoint” as p2, supportive media. The inference is clear that this neither represents the totality of the presentation as so frequently happens but…
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