PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques

Presentations I'll be Doing...

I've got a few presentations scheduled for the next couple of months, some PowerPoint related and others looking at e-business and technology.  Among the presentations currently scheduled:

• Wisconsin Leadership Seminars (a program for high performing high school sophmores)
  Topic: "Generation Immediate" trials and tribulations of the millenials.
• National Conference on University Conference Centers 
  Topic: "Buzz Networks - conference engagement through social computing"
• Magna Publications
  Topic: "Do's, Don'ts and Duhs - Classroom PowerPoint Tips and Techniques"
• CuSchools
  Topic: "25 Great Marketing Ideas for Your Credit Union"

Looking for a speaker or trainer?  Please contact me for one of my standard or custom presentations on a broad range of marketing and communications topics.

Paul Gibler
the Web Chef

PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques Service Offerings

ConnectingDots, Principal Consultant Paul Gibler offers your organization a range of services to improve presentation development, delivery or overall management.  Among the services that are offered are the following:

• Professional Development - presentation and/or PowerPoint skills coaching or training
• Presentation Strategy Assessment & Development - evaluation of presentation templates, slide databases, slide preparation tools, photo libraries and other slide assets.
• Presentation Delivery Assessment - evaluation of individual presenter delivery
• Presentation Guideline Development - creation or enhancement of guidelines for internal and external presenters
• Presentation Skills Keynotes - online or live presentations on best practices in presentation skills or the effective use of PowerPoint.

These services can be customized to meet your organization's needs.  Please review the service offerings description (Download PPT-PowerfulPresentationTechniquesDescriptionRev2.pdf) and contact Paul Gibler for further information.

UPDATED - PowerPoint & Presentation Resource Listing (REV 7)

I've updated the PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques Resource Listing to include several new books, web sites and article links that I've come across or have been submitted to me.  The Resource Listing is now in its seventh revision. 
Download PPT-PowerfulPresentationTechniquesResourceGuideRev7.pdf

If you have additions or changes that should be made to the listing, please send me an e-mail. 

If I can be of any help in assessing your team's current level of presentation or PowerPoint skills or assist you with your training needs, please let me know.

Paul Gibler
(608) 255 4092

Upcoming Presentation - Enhancing Your PowerPoint Presentations

I'll be conducting a web seminar for Magna Publications early next year.  The web seminar is part of a series of live and online presentations that Magna offers to the higher education market.  My seminar "Enhancing Your PowerPoint Presentations" would be of interest to faculty in higher education that are looking for tips and techniques to bring their presentations from boring to engaging using PowerPoint. 

You can hear a preview audio clip of the presentation (Download magna_ppt_presentation_preview_clip.mp3 ).  If you are interested in this specific web seminar, please contact Magna Publications for further details and pricing information.

If you'd like to talk to me about your organization's presentation training needs using web seminars or other live training sessions, please give me a call in the United States at 608 255 4092 or via e-mail.

I'm also available for keynotes on presentation skills and PowerPoint, executive coaching on presentation skills and for reviewing your current PowerPoint strategies for internal and external audiences.

Paul J Gibler

Book Reviews - Most PPT Presentations Suck, Relational Presentation and Clear and to the Point

I've been reading three books of interest to presenters:

Clear and to the Point by Stephen Kosslyn

Relational Presentation by Robert Lane and Chantal Bosse

1. and Why Most PowerPoint Presentations Suck by Rick Altman

So far I've finished Why Most PowerPoint Presentations Suck, am about 1/2 way through Clear and to the Point and 1/4 of the way through Relational Presentation.  I always judge a book by whether I've learned something or not.  So far each has provided some value.  I do however want to go through each of these with PowerPoint open so that I can test some of their premises and include them in my reviews.

I'll be reporting on my perspectives on each of these resources in the next couple of weeks.  If you've read any of these three and would like to join the conversation, send me an e-mail with your perspectives and I'll be sure to incorporate it into my book reviews.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Paul Gibler

Day 1 from PPT Live

I'm in New Orleans attending PowerPoint Live and just completed day 1 of the conference.  Unfortunately, I'll only be able to stay until the middle of tomorrow so will miss part of the 2nd day and all of the 1st day.  The conference appears to be attended by a large number of first timers, cleverly designated as such by the single star on their badge.  There are quite a few others who are veterans with the number of conferences they've attended ranging from 2 - 5.  The conference is well organized with a wealth of opportunities to interact with attendees and a wide range of presentation topics for the novice to the more experienced presentation professional. 

Partners and Sponsors
Among the Partners and Sponsors at the show have included Microsoft (lunch), Media Marketing, Meridia Audience Response Systems (cocktails and Trivia contest), Indezine (T-Shirts), Interlink (conference bags), Corel, Mimeo, Neuxpower, Perspector, Metrics Institute, Interactive Concepts, InfoComm, PointeCast, Prezvision, Right Seat Software (Vox Proxy), RoyaltyFreeMusic, TechSmith (SnagIt, Camtasia) and Turning Technologies.  Tomorrow there will be an exhibit where each of them gets a chance to tout their wares.

Keynote Sessions
I attended two keynotes and three breakout sessions.  One of the keynotes by Jim Endicott on "The Coming Age for Presentation Professional" provided a nice historical perspective on PowerPoint and how presentation professionals were changing their roles to a more consultative and value-added part of the presentation dynamic.  The other was by Julie Terberg, where she showcased a number of animation techniques with samples of her work.  These animations ran from the "relatively" simple to the more complex work she's done for her clients to use in trade shows and sales meetings.  She really does some interesting and sophisticated work. 

Breakout Sessions
Breakout sessions are set in three tracks - Tools and Techniques (T&T), Design and Deliver (D&D) and Beyond PowerPoint (BPP).  I attended one from each track:

1. T&T - "The New Age of Slide Masters" by Microsoft team member Jason Schneekloth was heavily geared toward PPT 2007.  It was interesting and gave me some tips on differences between 2003 and 2007 when I elect to shift. 
2. BPP - "Video in PowerPoint" Richard Harrington, addressed some of the complexities of different video file formats .WMF, AVI, MPEG 1, MPEG 2 and MPEG 4, etc.  I'll pull together my notes from this one for a report later on when I have more time.
3. D&D - "The Mother of all Makeovers", Jim Endicott, followed up on his keynote address with a couple of case studies showcasing ways to more effectively tell a story.  I liked his 3 points related to designing for the medium, a good reminder for anyone producing PPT presentations.  His 3 focus areas were "mitigating text", the power of digital storytelling and less is more.   

PPT Live Trivia Contest
The day finished up with three teams competing in a Jeopardy and Taboo trivia contest.  With a range of increasingly difficult questions teams had a chance to showcase their knowledge of the ins and outs of PowerPoint production.

As an entrepreneur I always have to ask myself if the investment in attending a conference or joining an association is worth it.  For entrepreneurs this worth comes about through professional development opportunities, networking opportunities or a chance to showcase your talents to a potential buying audience.  For me, this show has provided some benefits on the first two of these and I wasn't trying to do the third. 

My suggestions for improvements would be to include the company names of attendees on badges, not just their first and last names and the titles and city they've come from.  I'd also suggest giving out an attendee list as part of the registration material.  The real networking and value should happen not just at the conference but through the contacts that are made after the conference too.  Another suggestion that I'd make is for there to be some sort of sub-group or session for the different types of attendees - corporate and independent.

Paul Gibler

PPTLive Next Week and PPT Book Reviews

I'll be attending Rick Altman's PPT Live Conference starting this Sunday in New Orleans.  I'm looking forward to picking up some good tips, ideas and to networking with other PPT and presentation professionals.  As I learn new things that are worth sharing, I'll be sure to post them here on PPT. 

In addition, I've given myself a couple of reading assignments while I'm planebound this weekend and next week to read and comment on two new PPT books I just received from Amazon - "CLEAR and to THE POINT" by Stephen Kosslyn and "Why Most PowerPoint Presentations SUCK" by Rick Altman of above mentioned PPT Live fame.  My initial scan of both tells me that I'll be able to pick up some good tips and techniques to add to my repertoire.

UPDATED - PowerPoint & Presentation Resource Listing (REV 6)

I'm working on creating PowerPoint Presentation Guidelines for a client that runs seminars.  In preparing these guidelines, I've been identifying new resources and reviewing existing resources that I've been compiling in my PPT-PowerPoint & Presentation Resource Guide. 

This research and review has led to an updated PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques Resource Guide (revision 6) Download PPT-PowerfulPresentationTechniquesResourceGuideRev6.pdf available for downloading for your use.

If you have additions or changes to the Guide, drop me a line and I'll be sure to include them in REV 7.

Paul J Gibler
the Web Chef

P.S. I'd be happy to talk to you and your organization about the customized PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques training sessions that I have available.  They blend Tips and Techniques related to Presentation Strategy, Preparation, Technical Development Using PowerPoint and Delivery tips to improved the effectiveness of your presentations.

PowerPoint Accessibility

There are a significant number of people who have impairments that can make viewing or listening to content difficult.  The RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) has a posting (Reading and Presenting with PowerPoint if you are a Screen Reader) that provides tips for preparing and presenting with PowerPoint for improved accessibilty by audiences with disabilities.  Tips are provided for images (include a caption, since blind people can't see the image.  The screen reader will read the caption for them,), bullets, animations and text.  There are also links to other resources for creating accessible PowerPoints.

Case Study - PowerPoint and Bureaucracy

Today's Wall Street Journal has an interesting article "To Understand Iraq, Marines Ask Mac" about a retired Marine who is helping serve as a consultant on tribal affairs.  For the purposes of this blog, what I found interesting was a quote about how he managed to help out the military by selling his concept using PowerPoint. 

"Like anyone who wants to penetrate the military bureaucracy, he wrote a PowerPoint brief."

I think we could easily substitute the word "military" for corporate, governmental, educational, etc or any of many bureaucracies.   Judging from the $144,000 six month contract that he received he told his story well using PowerPoint, so was successful in penetrating the bureaucracy.

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Need help penetrating your bureaucracy (internal or external) more effectively? 

Why not contact Paul Gibler to come in to work with your team in refining their presentation skills and use of PowerPoint.  Programs can be customized to meet your organization's individual needs.  For a summary of the approach, Download PowerfulPresentationTechniquesPPT.pdf program description.