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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
In the movie “Taxi Driver” Rober de Niro as Travis Bickle envisages a confrontation with a mugger and the classic line, “Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me? In his mind he has worked through how the…
Holding the door for a lady, dial up internet access, travellers’ cheques and a limited number of slides in your deck are definitely remnants of times past. Some of the behaviour of the 20th Century however still persists in 2013…
When is an image not an image? When it’s out of focus. The effective use of images in presentations is often bedevilled by presenters failing to obey simple rules, principally though ignorance. Some of the common mistakes are more obvious…
Progress along the artistic journey from Death by Powerpoint towards a more expressive and creative presentation usually starts with the thinking that addition of images will make it better. The (ironic?) clip art issue has already been addressed, even if only briefly but…
I have been struggling with the question of “Why does good design work?” All presentations (p2) are designed in that they didn’t just fall straight from the heavens. Some work and some don’t. Those with bad design that are cut and paste jobs…