Presentation Zen: getting your point across

We've all experienced 'death by PowerPoint', and I'm sure we've all been guilty of producing 60+ slides of mind-numbing bullet point, after bullet point, interspersed with dodgy Clip Art. Come on....admit it.

Ever nodded off at a conference? Or completely lost track of the point the speaker is trying to make? Or from the other side of the lectern, ever felt like you've lost your audience? Finding those blank stares from your audience off-putting?

Then read on...we've got some medicine for you.

It's easy to slip into - what we know, what we've always done. But it's lazy. And it's not productive. Great communication is getting your point across effectively and succinctly whilst captivating, educating and entertaining your audience.

In our quest to improve our own presentations and presenting we've been on a journey to learn from others and have assembled the following collection of tips, examples and stimulus.

Hopefully they'll provide you with enough inspiration to challenge your current presentation techniques and perhaps even advance you (and your audience) on a journey to Presentation Zen:

1. Left brain/right brain - a few tips from Seth Godin on avoiding Really Bad PowerPoint.

2. Scott Schwertly of Ethos3 argues it's all about storytelling - well Hollywood are pretty successful at drawing audiences into their presentations, night after night.

3. Where to put stuff on slides to improve composition and draw the viewer in - the rule of thirds.

4. Leave behind the projector and use a hard copy when presenting to a small audience.

5. Neat way to visualise the key point of your story using words and wordle. (Our blog's beautiful 'Word Cloud' sits at the top of the page)

6. The example below shows how PowerPoint, if done well, can get an important message across eloquently and with style.....and it presents itself! For more inspiring examples jump here.

THIRST

View more presentations from Jeff Brenman. (tags: design crisis)

7. Presentations and inspiring talks. Learn (steal, borrow) from some of the best.

8. Best 10 presentations ever? You decide.

Credit and thanks to Team Zen for source material.

The ugly face of beauty

A poster ad featuring Britney Spears, Leona Lewis and Christina Aguilera on the Berlin U-bahn has been ‘defaced’ in a truly original way. The flawless fizzogs of the, let’s face it, not exactly troll-like pop divas, have been stickered with replica Photoshop toolbars.

This example of creative vandalism is also a good example of how originality – even if it is, strictly speaking, illegal – will always garner far more coverage than bland perfection every day of the week.

It is also powerful reminder that the images of ‘perfection’ with which we are assailed on a daily basis are but an illusion, created by Photoshop wizards. As Dove has so ably demonstrated with the success of its ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’, women can handle reality. (Stop the press!) Honesty doesn’t turn them off products; if Dove sales figures are anything to go by, it turns them on.

Truth and transparency is demanded of almost every other sector (food, utility, etc.), while blatant, in-your-face lies are positively encouraged in the fashion and beauty sectors. Why so? Isn’t it time to stop pulling the wool over our eyes (and selling it to us in the form of a new sweater)? NG

The lost art of kindness

I’d like to share with you a truly brilliant essay published in the Guardian Review dated Saturday 3rd January.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/03/society-politics

The article runs to some nine pages so allow me to summarise: kindness is dead.

Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor (just Taylor, not Bradford) put it much more eloquently:

“Most people appear to believe that deep down they (and other people) are mad, bad and dangerous to know; that as a species - apparently unlike other species of animal - we are deeply and fundamentally antagonistic to each other, that our motives are utterly self-seeking and that our sympathies are forms of self-protectiveness.

Kindness - not sexuality, not violence, not money - has become our forbidden pleasure. In one sense kindness is always hazardous because it is based on a susceptibility to others, a capacity to identify with their pleasures and sufferings. Putting oneself in someone else's shoes, as the saying goes, can be very uncomfortable. But if the pleasures of kindness - like all the greatest human pleasures - are inherently perilous, they are none the less some of the most satisfying we possess.”

I believe there is a learning herein for, believe it or not, brands. Yes, brands - the very pillars of capitalism. The economic downturn represents a great opportunity for brands to show some compassion and understanding for their consumers (and store up some goodwill while they’re at it).

‘Nichetributes’ are a great example of how they could do this. The brilliant http://www.trendwatching.com/ coined the term, which denotes attributes/features/additions to existing products, making them more attractive to specific user groups, while at the same time signalling to those users that the brand ‘gets’ it, that it cares. For consumers, anything practical and useful will go down well in these leaner times, while anything that speaks their language will be reciprocated with appreciation and goodwill.

N.B. This trend is NOT about tailoring your advertising message; it IS about tailoring your product.

So, there you have it. Be kinder. If there’s a better New Year’s resolution out there, I’ve yet to hear it. NG