brisebois blog

Nancy Duarte of Duarte Design, the company behind the slide show featured in An Inconvenient Truth, and author of slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations had this to say about delivering a successful presentation.

The expression “Death by Powerpoint” often refers to this: slides showing the words that the presenter is saying.

These creative advertisements (and part 2) will help you think differently about the use of visuals.

POINT ONE: Presentations are about IDEAS, not TEXT.

POINT TWO: READING from SLIDES is a heinous crime.

POINT THREE: PEOPLE cannot COPE without some kind of visual STIMULATION.

Presenting the abstract pointillist powerpoint toolkit. 20 slides that can be used for any presentation. Cut, paste, copy, crop the slides to create an abstract of your ideas that you can then talk to and through.

(thanks)

(grazie)

Richard St. John polled a group of very smart people on what it takes to be successful. He presents his findings around 8 keywords (4 min.)

1. Seth Godin (17 min.)

2. Guy Kawasaki (40 min.) - no need to watch the whole presentation. However, do not miss the section about the 10/20/30 presentation rule.

3. Dick Hardt (15 min.)

A presentation that practices what it preaches on limiting the use of bullets in presentations.

See also:

Words and visuals: Why are you there?

Is PowerPoint a blessing or a curse?

Pecha Kucha - the 20×20 presentation

This professor’s class notes provide a thorough (and practical) answer that I recommend to students and professors.

See also:

PowerPoint creators: Tufte is right, but…

Presentations and that creature called PowerPoint

and

How NOT to use PowerPoint for comic relief.

A contest. Also, a great way to think through your elevator speech.