Suddenly it was 30 minutes later, and it occurred to me, although we weren't really having the "conversation" he intro'd with, thanks to his lack of text in the presentation, all of us were so "in" to him and his stories, we on the edges of our seats. His presentation was indeed well planned, but instead of writing it out, he just knew what he wanted to say, and spoke... using well placed slides to guide him and amaze us with the cool things his agency has done. The result: a room full was totally engaged from the beginning to end. I came home telling my wife all about Richard, his agency, and how hard it is to keep up with the technology he is expected to know, create killer digital solutions, I-phone apps, web programs and then run a creative agency at the same time. Richard's presentation didn't leave the impression, as much as he himself did. It was a great example to learn from. Let the power point guide the framework and demonstrate a captivating image/video here and there, but don't let power point speak for you. Nix the text, and do all the talking yourself. Just know your material, map it out with your power point, and go have a conversation. Well done Richard... Now, I just have to get a my phone to be "sweet" like his.
Related article In Business Week today:
http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2010/09/lets_click_off_powerpoint.html
Let’s Click Off PowerPoint
Yes, PowerPoint serves as a competent visual aid to convey your meaning at meetings, but it’s tedious for speakers and boring for audiences. Pro or con?
PRO: SLIDING INTO A COMA
Did your co-worker present a 90-slide PowerPoint (MSFT) show on the new sales strategy? Or maybe you sat through a new product-overview slide deck with a word count that rivaled a Jane Austen novel. These PowerPoint horror stories are sadly more common than not.
If you bombard meeting attendees with too much information and read from way too many drab slides, they won’t be able to absorb the points you want to make. Most presenters lean on PowerPoint as a crutch rather than use it for what it’s intended—a broad framework or outline of a presentation rather than an assault of text on a slide.
There’s a clear way to focus a meeting and make your desired impact without slides. Knowing your audience in order to be relevant, having a dialogue rather than a one-way broadcast, and ending with no more than three core messages are keys to success. I start many customer meetings or presentations by giving an overview of the general direction of the conversation and asking questions to confirm what attendees want to get out of the meeting.
Once I understand their side of the story, I rely heavily on relevant analogies and storytelling to make what I’m saying relatable to their own pain points. And, in the end, I reinforce my three key messages so when the presentation wraps, the audience is left with the main takeaways. We forget the time-tested presentation rule of "Tell them what you’re going say, tell them, then tell them what you told them." This trumps PowerPoint any day.
CON: COMPELLING WHEN USED PROPERLY
Whether you like to admit it or not, PowerPoint is a useful meetings tool. In a digital era where meetings are less frequently face-to-face, PowerPointserves as the de facto resource to keep meetings efficient and on topic. Video teleconference technology makes a great tool to replicate in-person meetings, but PowerPoint is what keeps a meeting focused and effective.
As the CEO of a startup company that targets global retailers and brands, I find it crucial to be able to run virtual meetings with staff members or prospective clients. The key is knowing how to avoid the kind of PowerPoint misuse that causes everyone’s eyes to glaze over. The application’s bad reputation comes not because of a flaw with the tool but rather because of the lack of skill of the user. Many speakers are ignorant of the fact that a 50-slide presentation won’t get anything but complaints and grief. Essentially, the message is lost in the size of the deck.
PowerPoint will most certainly evolve as a meetings tool. Recently, the export-to-PDF function has become my new favorite functionality. We’re using it to draft one-pagers and even brochures, and not worrying about sharing decks that will be misused.
Where do I see PowerPoint in 2020? We’ll be able to have a much richer experience in meetings with more multimedia functionality added. The long and short of it is that PowerPoint is here to stay.
a great follow up to this article below from Business Week:
ReplyDeleteSteve Jobs: 10 Presentation Tactics for Ad Agency New Business
Small to midsize ad agencies, Steve Jobs has something to teach you about pitching for new business. Every new business pitch should do three things: inform, educate and entertain.
BusinessWeek.com columnist Carmine Gallo reveals the techniques that have turned Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, into one of the world’s corporate presenters. Here are his 10 Ways to Sell Your Ideas the Steve Jobs Way:
Plan your presentation with pen and paper.
Begin by storyboarding your presentation. Steve Jobs will initially spend his preparation time brainstorming, sketching and whiteboarding before he ever opens PowerPoint. All of the elements of the story that he wants to tell are thought through, elements are planned and collected before the slides are created.
Create a single sentence description for every service/idea.Concise enough to fit in a 140-character Twitter post. An example, for the introduction of the MacBook Air in January, 2008, Jobs said that is it simply, “The world’s thinnest notebook.”
Create a villain that allows the audience to rally around the hero—you and your product/service. A “villain” doesn’t necessarily have to be a direct competitor. It can be a problem in need of a solution.
Focus on benefits. Your audience only care about how your service will improve their lives. Make the connection for your prospective clients. Don’t make them make that mental leap leaving them to figure it out for themselves.
Stick to the rule of three for presentations. Almost every Jobs presentation is divided into three parts. You might have twenty points to make about your service, but your audience is only capable of retaining three or four points in short term memory. Give them too many points and they’ll forget everything you’ve said.
Sell dreams, not your services. Steve Jobs doesn’t sell computers. He sells the promise of a better world. When Jobs introduced the iPod in 2001, he said, “In our own small way we’re going to make the world a better place.” Where most people see the iPod as a music player, Jobs sees it as tool to enrich people’s lives.
Create visual slides. There are no bullet points in Steve Jobs presentations. Instead he relies on photographs and images. When Steve Jobs unveiled the Macbook Air, Apple’s ultra-thin notebook computer, he showed a slide of the computer fitting inside a manila inter-office envelope. Keep the presentation that simple.
Make numbers meaningful. Jobs always puts large numbers into a context that’s relevant to his audience. The bigger the number, the more important it is to find analogies or comparisons that make the data relevant to your audience.
Use plain English. Jobs’s language is remarkably simple. He rarely, if ever, will use the jargon that clouds most presentations—terms like “best of breed” or “synergy.” His language is simple, clear and direct.
Practice, practice, practice. Steve Jobs spends hours rehearsing every facet of his presentation. Every slide is written like a piece of poetry, every presentation staged like a theatrical experience. Yes, Steve Jobs makes a presentation look effortless but that polish comes after hours and hours of grueling practice.