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.: January 2006 --> Tips for More Effective Presentations

Tips for More Effective Presentations

» Alan Nelson talks about his approach to using Powerpoint in presentations. He includes links to other resources, notably Edward Tufte and Garr Reynolds. I would describe my approach as even leaner than Alan's. Until recently, I refused even to use slides. Now I use them strictly to illustrate concepts that would be muddy without an example. I turn them off when I'm not actively using them.

Of course I'm always looking for ways to improve my presentations. What approaches and resources can you recommend for crafting presentation slides — and for crafting effective presentations in general?

Update: Garret Vreeland points me to his presentation tips, accumulated over years of speaker support. Face it: the guy who has to watch you night after night probably has a pretty good sense of what works and what doesn't.

 [ 01.19.06 ]

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AN UPDATE TO THIS POST: Rebecca Blood points to this advice by Garret Vreeland. There are a million here's how to present pieces on the web, and this is the most frank, lucid, and absolutely spot-on set of counsel I've Read More


2 Comments

Beyond Bullets http://www.beyondbullets.com is quite popular but is focused on PowerPoint. I'm also not so sure about being too strict on following Cliff Atkinson's approach on most presentations I do. It's definitely worth looking into though.

Currently, I prefer Garr Reynold's blog, Presentation Zen http://www.presentationzen.com/ which is much cooler, less prescriptive, and generally has a nicer aesthetic.

Now I use them strictly to illustrate concepts that would be muddy without an example. I turn them off when I'm not actively using them.

Good advice, that. Something I didn't note is that we prefer to pass around a handout that serves as the lasting artifact (and which is written with real-life prose!) of the speech or presentation, and have the slides only serve as signposts (reminders of what we're talking about ... useful if it's a long list, speech, etc.) or as ways of augmenting the emotional content.

Lean and clean, that's the way.



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