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.

Design matters

I know design matters but I don‘t know much about such things so I asked Nicole Gugger, a presentation professional to share some of her insights and expertise in this first guest blog posting.I´ve been asked “does design matter”? The…
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Download complete?

In considering the audience and what they expect from a speaker, too often the implicit understanding of the purpose of the presentation is of an information download. This directly affects the construction of the presentation with the speaker attempting to…
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You’re an idiot.

No really! I have such concerns for your stupidity that I will annotate everything for you just so you know what everything is, or, if you aren’t paying attention it will become immediately apparent so you can catch up.There is…
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Hara hachi bu (腹八分)

What is the art of good comedy?Timing.I know it’s an old joke but it’s apposite. The art of a good presentation is also timing. There is no-one, not one single person, who should over run their time slot. I’ll say that again….
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When a small step is a giant leap

Helping colleagues with their presentations is a privilege. Rather than telling what to do, I usually direct them to Garr Reynold’s helpful pdf, suggest they buy at least one of his books and probably one by Nancy Duarte. Then, working…
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One change for dramatic improvement. (you won’t do it!)

I’m rather hoping that frequent visitors to the blog will have taken to heart some of the important concepts of presentation. Perhaps my deepest insight has been the p3 concept. The success in delivering the message of “the presentation” can be…
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I’ll talk you through this data slide…

Data slides usually resemble a “Where’s Wally?” picture. Presenters either offer to “talk you through” something like the worst slide in the world or simply talk whilst the audience desperately scan graphs and columns trying to derive meaning from facts. This should…
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Don’t put the cart before the horse.

To develop presentations, one must move away from the concept of looking at the text on a slide and asking how can this be improved by reduction and illustration. This is putting the horse before the cart. Change will only come…
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They are all the same!

It is astounding that, right now, across the world, millions of people will be sat in front of a powerpoint presentation. That is a tribute to the marketing and genius that is Mr Gates and Microsoft. What is more incredible…
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It’s not a powerpoint, it’s a presentation

When we talk of hoovering the lounge or of closing a package with selotape we are (frequently) using the generic name instead of the specific product;  it might be a vacuum cleaner made by Dyson or the ubiquitous “sticky backed…
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