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05 December 2005

Zen and the Art of PowerPoint

PresentationzenAs TED veterans know, it's not uncommon for first-time speakers to completely overhaul their presentations in Monterey, after realizing their standard talk won't do. And it's true: The bar is set intentionally high at TED. It's not enough to have a great idea. You have to engage the audience, craft a meaningful story and pace yourself for the 18-minute slot. It doesn't hurt to know your way around PowerPoint either.

Mastering all these elements is a skill unto itself, and Garr Reynolds has some of the best advice I've seen for delivering great presentations. His deceptively simple tips ("Limit bullet points and text;" "Move away from the podium") would qualitatively improve 90% of the talks I see (and, believe me, I see a lot of talks). And his blog, Presentation Zen, provides regular pointers for professional presenters. Though he delves into the nitty-gritty of slide design and technology, he never loses sight of the big picture. His No. 1 tip on delivery? "Show your passion." We couldn't agree more.

(Hat tipped gratefully to metacool for the link.)

Posted by June Cohen |

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Comments

Powerpoint is outdated. Keynote from Apple is by far better. Sorry to the Powerpoint lovers, but keynote is seriously better.

Thanks for the link and tips though. Powerpoint or keynote you probably need to know what you are doing.

Posted by: Morgan Daly | 10 December 2005 at 09:59 PM

Yes, and that's the point, really. Whether you use PowerPoint, Keynote or something else entirely (Plenty of presenters use Flash, straight HTML, etc), slides are an integral part of most presentations. And they're difficult to do well -- particularly if you're not a designer (and, well, even if you are).

One of the best use of slides at TED2005 was Ross Lovegrove, actually (who we just blogged today). He found he had a tendency to talk too long, so he created a timed slideshow that kept him perfectly paced for the 18-minute slot. A really good solution for those of us with a slight tendency to go on ...

Posted by: June Cohen | 12 December 2005 at 06:32 PM

mirc
sohbet
chat
thanx for artichle

Posted by: chat | 18 December 2007 at 04:36 PM

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