PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques

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  I went through and re-verified all of the links, eliminating those that were no longer active, appropriate or relevant to the guide.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.

Eloquence, Elegance and Energy vs 0ld, Tired and Narrow

As a communications professional and political junkie, I've been fascinated in watching the trajectories of the two major political parties during this election season.  To me it is abundantly clear that the Democrats grabbed the baton and surged ahead when it comes to eloquence, elegance and energy.  From Michelle Obama's opening speech through Barrack's closing speech, the Democratic convention was a masterful example of stagecraft and oratorical skills.  We saw skillful presentations from those new to the stage to the master of connecting and simplifying Bill Clinton himself.  From Hillary's "no way, no how, no McCain" to other other well crafted one liners the Democrats connected with their message and with the story line planned for the convention. This was truly an example of not only a well planned convention but also one that stayed on message and one where the orators shined in their delivery (even without PowerPoint... LOL). 

This week I watched the GOP in their quest for yet another four war years and found myself intrigued by the contrasts in delivery, stagecraft and overall feelings that were generated. Granted some of my observations might be based on my own partisan sense of the new direction the country needs to move, but I don't think I'm alone in these observations.  The GOP seemed to be on the narrow train with speaker after speaker going after Obama in a very personal and negative manner.  VP Elect Palin was a keynoter, who while well received by the convention center audience, came off as extremely negative, disrespectful and shrill as she read her presentation on her teleprompter.  She had failed to connect with the broader audience before launching into her negative political attack.  Her selection seemed like little but political expediency in McCain's desperate quest for the Presidency.  

While George McCain positioned himself as less shrill and derogatory in telling his life and POW story, the damage had been done by Graham, Giulani, Ridge, Thompson, Palin and all the negative speakers that proceeded him.  This along with the dissonance between his record and his rhetoric made the McCain speech less than successful in re-positioning his political brand to connect with anyone other than the "red meat" GOP that loved the attacks that Palin spouted throughout her maiden voyage.  After his speech I couldn't really name one thing that he would do that would help me as a middle class professional.  What I heard and came away from in listening to his speech was that he was a POW and that because of this status he should be honored (rightfully so) and be given the keys to the White House (I don't think so).  Somehow this didn't resonate very well with me.  I saw him as unable to control his party or to connect with the mainstream of America that is diverse, that is looking for change, that is looking for leadership and is looking for the possibilities of today and tomorrow not the tired old story of the past.

From a presentation perspective, I would give the Obama convention an A and the McCain convention a C- at most, when it came to using their airtime to connect with people and reinforce the story that could lead them to or away from power.  Obama owns the position of Change and McCain in trying to co-opt it looked like nothing but a Rovian trying to seem righteous when wrong.    

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.

On the Air - Paul Gibler interview with "In Business with Joan & Jody" 5.19.08

 I had the pleasure of returning for my fourth interview by Jody Glynn Patrick and Joan Gillman for their show "In Business with Jody and Joan" on Madison, WI-based radio station WTDY 1670 AM.  The show provided an informal look at some of the evolving changes being created by the Internet. You can hear the podcast of the show here.

Paul Gibler
the Web Chef 

PowerPoint Karaoke

The Boston Globe reports on the growing interest in PowerPoint Karaoke, a spoof that originated in Germany a couple of years ago.  The karaoke program works by having a person give a "presentation" from a slide deck that they have never seen before.  In the article, it is suggested that to have your own PowerPoint Karaoke event, all you need to do is the following:

1. find PowerPoint slide decks online (.ppt)
2. download them,
3. serve beer
4. distribute the slide decks to karaoke presenters
5. use a LCD projector to display the slide
6. have the presenter generate a story with the slide deck

I'm game and ready to try it out.

For more tips on PowerPoint Karaoke, see Heathervescent's posting following last year's Barcamp LA.   

Slideshare has created a tool to help you pull together slides from the Slideshare repository.

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.

PowerPoint Nibblets - tools & techniques

Periodically I like to scan the news to see what is new in PowerPoint add-ons, presentation accessories or tools to enhance your presentations.  Here are some that I've discovered recently.

• SlipperyBrick reports on a laser pointer with a built-in advantage - slide advance and backward buttons for use with PowerPoint.  The tool sounds like it could be a useful multi-function presentation tool.
• PlanetPDF reports that DocGuruz has released a PowerPoint to PDF conversion package that allows you to convert your PowerPoint presentations without having Adobe Acrobat installed.  The product is available for $19.95 at the company website.
• The Mobile Gadgeteer reports the availability of Softmaker Office 2008 beta for use with Pocket PC Devices.  According to their report the tool gives you "Softmaker Presentations 2008 that gives you full editing and creation capability for PowerPoint presentations."
• Cognitive Scientist Stephen Kosslyn, author of Clear and to the Point presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science on the best way to present PowerPoint information according to iO9.  He presented his "four rules of PowerPoint: the Goldilocks Rule, the Rudolph Rule, the Rule of Four and the Birds of a Feather Rule".  He has some good ideas although I found his book to be less than sophisticated in its use of PowerPoint as compared to others like Presentationzen.

NJ Governor needs some PPT help

The New York Times reported earlier this week:

"...Governor Jon S. Corzine, relying on a PowerPoint slide show several fonts too small..." "Al Gore he was not.  Sometimes it was hard to see the charts because the words and figures were too small.  Sometimes he blocked the view." 

Given the picture they showed of the Governor pointing to one of his busy slides, it is clear he needs some help. 

If you or your organization would like to avoid the governors problems, give me a call (608) 255 4092 or drop me a line for help with improving your presentation strategy through PowerPoint and Presentation skills assessments and training or through help in developing your presentation assets strategy.   

Paul Gibler