When it comes to bad PowerPoint presentations, most people love to blame the tool or software. However, it’s interesting that many other people can use the same tool and achieve completely different results.
You might be able to rack up the different outcomes to a person’s experience and expertise, but I believe all ‘PowerPoint evil’ can be traced back to the simple issue of time - and how we manage it or choose to spend it.
What do you do when the deadline looms?
I often hear blowhards on the radio, wrecking the entire interview because they don't know how to call it quits when the host tells them they have thirty seconds to wrap up. They try to say one more thing, one more thing, one more thing and they get hung up on and the message is lost.
I often hear presenters who always manage to need just two more minutes than the time allows.
Read more ... http://adjix.com/3i6h
with Barbara Niven
Speaking is a performance. No news here. However, few speakers fully integrate key acting skills and perspective into their presentations. Actors know the importance of setting the stage, using vocal nuances, creating characters through body language and facial expressions, and eliciting the desired emotions in their audience. By using simple acting skills you will dramatically increase your effectiveness and make yourself memorable.
Barbara Niven, a professional film and television actor for nearly three decades, will share acting techniques that speakers can immediately apply to their speeches. Barbara straddles both worlds, as she gives professional speeches in between her busy filming engagements.
You will learn how to:
Register or order the CD or MP3 recording. Note our new policy: people who register for the teleseminar will get the MP3 recording of the session for free.
Date: Tuesday, February 17
Time: 7:00 pm Eastern, 6 pm Central, 5 pm Mountain, 4 pm Pacific
Length: 60 minutes
Cost: $25
Special Limited-Time Offer:
If you want more information on adding more drama to your presentations, we suggest the MP3 recordings of two earlier programs to complement Barbara’s program:
With your order of Barbara’s teleseminar, CD or MP3, at checkout you will be offered these recordings.
Reading or interpreting text out loud is easier than it sounds. I’m going to highlight some of the pitfalls that I have come across and try to provide appropriate solutions too.
Have you run into a situation where you need a photo for a slide and you either can’t find one that works and looks just right on services such as iStockPhoto or for a shot like this, you can’t justify paying for a photo of some Sharpies? You can try the Creative Commons route at flickr, but even then it’s a crap-shoot whether you’ll find something worthy of being included among your slides.
Well, a lot of us presenting slide design bloggers have suggested using your own photos in place of stock photos when you can. Not only can it be cheaper, but you’re guaranteed to be the first to use that particular photo.
Read more as Mike provides some useful tips on creating the photos
Using a pertinent activity as an opening gets the audience's attention because it makes them active. It gives them the opportunity to move physically which makes them more alert and comfortable. It lets them learn and participate with one another. Finally, it put you in charge. That's right, when you cede temporary authority to your audience you get larger in their minds.
Three keys to using a pertinent activity
The three keys to make this work are to organize the activity, set the limits, and debrief the activity strongly and smoothly. Let's walk through an opening activity you might try out. ... more
Just for grins, let's cover some examples of logical fallacies that we often hear about PowerPoint -- the tool many love to hate.
http://www.maniactive.com/states/2009/01/top-6-fallacies-about-powerpoint.html
Here is a secret for all speakers:
“You will never fit everything in”
I have seen many presentations where the speaker says “I have three points to share”, and then about five minutes before the end, he says, “Ok, and now my second point…”. This inevitably ends up in his presentation going overtime, or on him rushing through the last two points of his presentation.
This usually happen because the speaker is desperately trying to fit everything in!
The trick is to realise that you will not fit everything into your speech.
http://www.craigstrachan.com/blog/2009/01/you-will-never-fit-everything-in.html
[From Boing Boing]
So many of the epic problems that Obama is going to be wrestling with over the next four years involve systems of great complexity and scale: the bailouts and stimulus programs, our national energy use, the immense expenditures involved in fighting two wars, the global scope of climate change. Tufte would be the first person to argue that complex systems like these are not easily explained using sentences and statistics, particularly when we're talking about such vast numbers. I can imagine a White House address on the stimulus package, or his long-term plan for energy independence, where instead of sitting at a desk reading from a teleprompter, he's actually walking us through the problem and his proposed solution with a backdrop of visually arresting and memorable slides. That would actually make for more stimulating television, and at the same time do a better job of communicating the issues.
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/19/the-case-for-powerpo.html