PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques

A dramatic reading from one of the books in the PPT Reference Listing

Presentation Skills - avoiding talkaholicism

Related to this video are two recent postings on the Examiner.com by Lenn Milbower "True confessions of a talkaholic, part one" and "True confessions of a talkaholic, part two" that define the problem and offer suggestions for the various symptoms associated with talkaholicism.

Lower Cost, Lower Feature PPT Competitor Launched

PCWorld announced the launch of Ashampoo Presentations a lower cost, lower feature competitor to PowerPoint.  As a marketer I'm not sold on the company name, but it could be that the product itself will give MS PowerPoint a run for the money for those seeking presentation development ease at a lower cost.

According to the review the software allows you to save presentations in a PowerPoint compatible format.  Among the features not available in the $20 software package are SmartArt and the ability to record audio content according to the PCWorld article.

You can find out more about the software and download a free trial version at their website.

Presentation Preparation

ComputerWorld Editor Maryfran Johnson has an interesting article about the importance of preparation when developing a presentation.  For some speakers she found that practicing out loud in advance of their presentation was in part the key to their success as presenters.  Other speakers she found liked developing and practicing their big themes then going for a more extemporaneous approach to their presentations.  Regardless of approach the key was to take the time to be prepared.  

Presentation Nibblets - PowerPoint and Audience Interaction

In a recent Business Week article "How Your Audience's Brain Works", Carmine Gallo, author of Fire them Up, provides some tips for presenters generated from his discussion with John Medina, a molecular biologist and author of Brain Rules.  In the article he covers three tips:

• the 10 minute zone out when audiences stop listening
• the boredom factor
• the importance of visuals

Meanwhile over at Fast Company, Nov 2008. Dan Heath and Chip Heath cover "How to Avoid Making a Bad Presentation".  Among the tips about presentation killers that they reference are the following:

• While "show don't tell" is important don't go overboard with the clip art or stock photography just for "decoration not communication"
• "Presenters needs to be comprehensive" can lead to too much information or TMI or as the authors say "great presentations are mysteries, not encyclopedia entries"

Just Released! Updated PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques Resource Listing (REV 9)

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.  I went through and re-verified all of the links, eliminating those that were no longer active, appropriate or relevant to the guide.  The Resource Listing is now in its ninth revision.  Download PPT-PowerfulPresentationTechniquesResourceGuideRev9

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

Presentation Techniques - dealing with interruptions

Lily Garcia at The Washington Post had a good article addressing what to do when you are interrupted during a presentation.  The article "When Colleagues Talk Out of Turn" suggests the following for interruptions:

1. Let them finish their thought
2. Repeat it and answer or say you don't know or that you'll address it later one on one
3. Return to your presentation

The author suggests that if someone is whispering and interrupting in this fashion that you stop and pointedly ask do they have a question they'd like to share.  If there is an interruption that is even more disrespectful, a.k.a a heckler, she suggests that you use humor to diffuse the problem.

Today another interruption scenario that presenters often face is the ringing cell phone.  I was giving a presentation to a group of about 40 when someone's cell phone rang, they picked it up and started to talk on the phone as they noisily left the room.  Wouldn't you know it, 20 minutes later they proceeded to do the exact same thing again.  This interruption scuttled my train of thought, disrupted the others listening to my session and was unnecessary on the part of the attendee who could have put the phone on vibrate, quietly left the room and then answered or returned the call.
I've had the pleasure and pain of dealing with each of these scenarios.

Nibblets - Web 2.0 Ready Conference Presentations

CNET has an interesting article "How to Survive the Next Generation Confab" talking about how presenters need to be prepared for the "backchannel" discussions that are going on during their presentations.  In the past these conversations or audience feedback were often not clear except through chatter generated after the presentation; through attendees exiting the venue, chatting or demonstrating boredom during the presentation; through questions asked or through formal presentation evaluations post-conference.  Today these activities are being supplemented by real time chatter through tools like Twitter, through live blogging and other web 2.0 activities.  Attendees are expecting to be heard and to participate more actively in the session.  

One recommendation is that there be a moderator that is monitoring the conversation so that if the presenter is off track they can be brought back to the topics of interest to presenters.  Another interesting idea that I think would be somewhat problematic and distracting is to have the chatter projected on a screen.

Nibblets - Breaking Murphy's Law Presentation Blog & Slide Executive Presentation Management Tools

I've been a bit lazy in my blog posting lately.  Every once in awhile you need a brief hiatus from the thinking, synthesizing, writing and analyzing time that blogging takes. 

I wanted to share a couple of resources that were submitted to me for comments and for inclusion on my blog and list of PPT and Presentation resources. 

The first of these is a blog called Breaking Murphy's Law, written by Lee Potts, that helps presenters deal with the inevitable problems that are bound to come your way when you're presenting - from stolen equipment, to lost presentations, etc.  One of his more popular postings was "Don't give a Pigeon a Perch to Poop From", a cleverly titled posting on planning for the inevitable detractors that will look for that perch during your presentation that they can use to attack you from.   

The second resource that was submitted was Slide Executive, software designed to help you manage your valuable presentation assets at the desktop level, workgroup level or enterprise.  Instead of constantly wasting time searching for that slide you know you have, but can't remember which presentation it was in, the tool is designed to help inventory your assets in a more effective manner.  I haven't tried this out, but will be downloading a trial of their desktop version to see how well it works.

Meeting & Conference Nibblets - PPT

Online Spin contributor Max Kalehoff has a great list of 10 suggestions for making conferences great.  Among his suggestions are the following:

• Halt PowerPoint Abuse

I've had the pleasure of creating and presenting PowerPoint Guidelines for a Conference organizer in an effort to improve the quality of their presentations.  As Max says in his article "putting severe restrictions on the use of PowerPoint is at the top of his list." 

Another of his suggestions worth keeping in mind for meeting and conference organizers is to "Pay the presenters".  This can help improve the quality of contributions and relevance to the conference attendees.