Tony’s PowerPoint Weblog

This blog is now among  those listed at Alltop.

Alltop, you might know, aggregates the best of the best blogs in many popular categories, like politics or humor or cooking. Started by Guy Kawasaki, the company aims to help you answer the question, “What’s happening?” in all the topics that interest you. Read more about Alltop here.

“The Presentationist” may be found at http://speaking.alltop.com/ (way at the bottom). I am honored to share the same page with many whom I hold in high regard.

Of course, I realize this means that regular, high-quality blogging must continue in order for this recognition to continue. We know where the downfalls are in that regard.

Here’s a deal: if you don’t follow me on Twitter, at least come back here and peek at my tweets on the right edge of this screen. So much good stuff regarding PowerPoint, presentations, and design flows through the web. I try my best to capture the good stuff for you via Twitter. Longer pieces warrant a blog post.

All the top ideas, opinions, and articles, however, can be found at Alltop. Glad to be aboard.

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Yet another multimedia presentation that I really like.

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Why does this work for me? It has a single, strong, simple message. The look and feel is upbeat and artful while the content is emotional and engaging. And on top of all that, it is short, clocking in at just over two minutes.

For your next presentation, think about these elements. Strive toward communicating as well as this video does. You can do it.

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Got this the other day:

Good Morning Tony,
I am a recent design graduate with a focus on advertising. I am looking to break into the field of being a presentation specialist for businesses and courtroom presentations. I’m working in advertising but would like to go out on my own as a specialist. My question to you is, what would be the most direct way of me getting into the business and what tools do I need to become proficient in this career? I currently use the Adobe Creative Suite for my work. Besides sharpening up my powerpoint skills, what else do I need to do to get into this exciting field?

My reply, in part:

[click to continue…]

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Sensing a need to step up their game, Microsoft got it right when committing to revolutionizing the manner in which graphics are rendered in PowerPoint. In their own words, “For PowerPoint 2010, we are making the biggest visual update to Slide Show in nearly a decade. PowerPoint’s graphics engine is completely rebuilt using DirectX. Everything in slide show (text, shapes, animations, and more) is rendered in full 3D using your machine’s graphics card.” Source here.

Smooth, no?

Also, I tweeted some days ago that Nancy Duarte’s “5 Simple Rules” would be included in public beta of PPT 2010. This trailer above serves to whet the appetite.

Via @eyefulpres and Long Zheng, but here is Sandy Yu’s official post of the same.

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Listening is the new seeing.

While in recent years, we have enjoyed a bounty of new ways to visualize data and stories in our presentations, I predict that active and engaged listening will be the hallmark of the year to come.

In the business press, plenty of stories describe how social media is upending traditional ideas of how companies relate with their customers. We’ve read how Dell and Zappos listen and act via Twitter, creating better relationships and sales in the process. Media gurus like Bob Garfield are selling books about this. (Watch his excellent short video here.)

In the world of presentations, these same tools (SMS, Twitter, mobile web, etc.) are just now making noise. More speakers are becoming listeners as the backchannel of communication is coming forward. Olivia Mitchell has been detailing this rise better than anyone. Check out her blog posts about Presenting with Twitter.

Moreover, in less than one month, this book will come out:

You may know Cliff Atkinson from Beyond Bullet Points. I met recently with Cliff and reviewed an early draft of this work. He is onto something. Just like Bob Garfield.

So, listen up — to your audiences, your customers, and your students. Your ear will be dear this year.

Update, 10-31-09:

Here’s a video (2:24) of Timo Elliot of SAP demonstrating his PowerPoint Twitter Tools:

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In his inimitable style, Larry Lessig speaks about the laws that choke creativity. I post this here for three reasons:

• I agree with many of Lessig’s points surrounding law and culture. This dialog is important, and has big implications for those of us who use the web as a resource for words, pictures, and media for presentations.
• Lessig is an excellent storyteller and presenter. Note how he opens: “I am going to tell you three stories on the way to one argument.” Then he proceeds to do so.
• Watch his screen. Observe how he uses words and pictures as well as the tone and speed of his voice. (Garr Reynolds wrote more about “The Lessig Method of Presentation” here.)
• It’s longish — 19 minutes — but goes by quickly. This is another hallmark of a good presentation.

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This phrase—”give me something to hate”—was said to me this week in the context of work. The speaker said it with care. I took it as intended. Here is why I think it’s a great command:

• As a producer of creative work, I fall into the pattern of wanting my product to be excellent right away. It should be loved at first glance. If I’m as good as I think, no one should second guess me or my results. In reality, of course, this mindset is complete bunk. Effective design is iterative; it goes back and forth, edit after edit, review after review, as it homes in on its final form. And even then, it’s probably far from perfect, but good enough to get the job done.
• The person who said this phrase to me is a recently retired Army officer. He said he’d issue this order to his troops to get them started working. At some point during the work, he would perform what he calls a “vector check,” which is just another way of saying “are we headed in the right direction?” If the team was not headed in the right direction, that wasn’t a completely bad thing; they were at least certain about what they didn’t need to complete. Flexibility and agility were key.
• “Give me something to hate,” then, is a disarming  phrase. Use it on those who report to you, or those whom you work with, or even yourself. It’s an unassuming invitation to start something interesting, even if the end product is nothing like the original idea or source material. This is good. This is, in fact, ideal. It frees you to consider more possibilities than you would have normally,
• I suspect some “Death by PowerPoint” is caused by the curse of the first draft or the recycled deck. Slideware makes it easy enough for any of us to bang out some stream-of-consciousness bullets or dredge up an old file, replace some names and numbers and call it a day. We then present these rough drafts to our audiences. Sure, you might be lucky enough to have these actions are movements in the right direction, but you’ve essentially given your audience something to hate.
• In summary, make sure all the hatin’ occurs further upstream and never reaches the lectern. Your audience will love you for it.

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I was a little disappointed to learn that Microsoft chose not to renew my MVP designation for 2009-2010. But I’m not down.

A bit of background: each of the dozens of Microsoft products or technologies like Windows or Excel or .NET or Xbox has its MVPs. These “Most Valuable Professionals” are so named because they voluntarily assist their user communities through forums, blogs, organizations, speaking engagements, books, etc. The award lasts for one year, and award years may begin any quarter. I was a July 1st awardee four years ago in recognition of my writing and blogging about PowerPoint. I was elated and proud. I was reawarded three more times. For 2009-2010, however, I was not. [click to continue…]

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A great dialog took place last night during my breakout session at the Cleveland Social Media Club meeting. Since remote presentations are taking greater precedence today in lieu of travel and in-person meetings, how can we use current tools to make these types of presentations more effective?

I answered as best I could, and the group discussed the pros and cons with interest, but the best, more comprehensive answers are delivered here by the industry’s best: Nancy Duarte gives her six tips for remote presentations. (Six self-running Flash presentation segments, as slides with audio, from around two to five minutes apiece.)

Photo from http://www.bbc.co.uk/speaker/images/nancy_206×116.jpg

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