Comments on: Presentations aren’t about the slides

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:04:16 +0000

I enjoy seeing reinforcement of this idea from other people. After attending numerous social media/marketing events, I know what holds my attention and what doesn’t.

In two weeks, I’m participating in the Ignite Boston event and I’m in the process of compiling 20 slides to use to support my talk. Mostly images and shapes, and few, if any words on them!

By: Lavanna Martin

Lavanna Martin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 14:26:57 +0000

If you are a good speaker, you can go up there with a Magic Marker and a newsprint pad.

Thank you,

Lavanna Martin

By: Tim Walker

Tim Walker — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:26:34 +0000

Hey, Matt — thanks for your comment. Now that I have my preso up on Slideshare, I’m going to look into Slidecast, too. I appreciate the tip!

By: Matt Dickman

Matt Dickman — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:37:15 +0000

Bryan — I find this all the time. People ask me for my slides and I tell them that it’s not much help without me. That’s how it should be in my opinion. If you looked at my slides you would see images, no bullets and around 3 words maximum per slide. I have found that Slideshare’s Slidecast took is very helpful. One of my presentations from last year has around 26000 views because I did an audio overdub and synch’d up with the transitions.

I want you to need me to have it make sense. It’s the passion and drive of a presenter that counts. The deck supports that.

By: Sylvain Grand'Maison

Sylvain Grand'Maison — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:16:31 +0000

Some of the greaters speakers I’ve eve seen had no slides and most of the worst had a plethora. I strongly think that if you have slides, what you say should complement the slides and the slides should complement what you say.

When it’s well done, if we only listen to what you say, we don’t understand it all and if we only look at your slides, we don’t understand it all either. If you do it that way, you’ll avoid having faces down their computers and mobile devices working, blogging and twittering while you speak because they will have to listen AND look at what you’re talking about.

There are many more skills that a great speaker need but I’ll save them for a future comment

By: Sue Rostvold

Sue Rostvold — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:56:46 +0000

Great post Brian! Especially since I’m just learning Keynote and putting my first presentation together. I watched this little video from Guy Kawasaki about presentations last night in fact. I’m sure most have seen it before, but I hadn’t.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liQLdRk0Ziw

By: Jim Storer

Jim Storer — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:52:34 +0000

amen – people waste too much time building ppt decks. grab a picture that supports your point and move on.

bullets are for guns… imo/ymmv.

Jim | @jstorerj

By: Tim Walker

Tim Walker — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:06:58 +0000

Amen, sir. I’m reminded of what Kathy Sierra said in one of her SXSW keynotes (I think in 2007): all of us geeks wouldn’t descend on Austin in the spring if our fancy tech tools perfectly replicated the effect of attending something in person.

There’s a lot about a good presentation that depends on the tone of voice, timing, body language, and sense of humor of the speaker, and I don’t think that all of this can be conveyed online. (Let’s hope I deliver on that promise tomorrow!)

By: Csaba Szücs

Csaba Szücs — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:11:09 +0000

I only add to one – at least I hope – useful source to the post:

http://www.changethis.com/35.05.Presentation

And you are right PPT slides just one thing. The presenter sells the story.