Marion Chapsal, who has been my speaker’s coach and mentor, has a great blog at Geronimo Leadership Coaching.
The aim of this blog is to help you create your unique Leadership and Communication experience for 2010 and beyond!
What could you do NOW to make 2010 the year you deliver outstanding presentations and develop your Leadership & Communication style?
Over at PowerPointNinja is Dilbert on PowerPoint Presentations, a collection of Dilbert cartoons that deals with PowerPoint and presentations. It’s an amusing and interesting way of showing problems in connection with the use of PowerPoint.
There are cartoons on issues such as PowerPoint Poisoning, Presentation Ego, PowerPoint Disability, Boring Presentation and the power of Pie Chart.
While preparing for my assignment as Speaker at Øredev 2009 I got help from Marion Chapsal who acted as speaker’s coach and mentor.
Marion switched between being a coach (encourage, challenge and support) and being a mentor (give advice, share experience and knowledge) depending on what was needed. She guided and supported me through my preparations which helped me get it all done and to feel confident when it was time for my presentation.
If you shall make an important presentation and want to improve your presentation skills then I suggest that you get in touch with Marion Chapsal.
I have read Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds. It’s a beautiful book in itself and terrific when it comes to its topic. The book gives lots of examples, it is inspriring and very well written. Presentation Zen is the kind of book one returns to for reference as well as for new ideas.
I have made some notes while reading the book, things that stuck this time.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Leonardo da Vinci
Communication is about getting others to understand why you are excited. Communication is the transfer of emotion.
Make slides that reinforce your words, not repeat them.
What’s your point? Why does it matter?
If the audience remember only one thing, what should it be?
Simplicity is the essence of clear communication.
Bring everything back to the core message.
You have to believe in your message completely or no one else will.
Garr Reynolds has a blog with the same name, Presentation Zen, that I suggest you subscribe to.
Marion Chapsal recommended this book to me. We talked about books around presentations and she wrote If I could recommend only one this would be THE ONE! I am glad I followed her advice since I really love this book.
Get Presentation Zen at The Book Depository.
I came across this video through How (Not) to Present with PowerPoint at Presentation Skills. The video is a condensed lesson into how NOT to present with PowerPoint.
Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen, has created a page with Presentation Tips on his own site. The tips are three main areas: Organization and Preparation, Delivery and Slides. There are also Samples and Tutorials.
Olivia Mitchell at Speaking about Presenting has created a collection of her Best Posts to help you with every aspect of your next presentation.
Presentation Skills has tips around
• Planning and writing the presentation
• Using visual aids effectively
• Overcoming presentation nerves
• Delivering the presentation confidently
• Answering questions competently
While browsing around at Presentation Zen I came across Living large: “Takahashi Method” uses king-sized text as a visual.
Takahashi uses only text in his slides. But not just any text — really big text. Huge text. Characters of impressive proportion which rarely number more than ten, usually fewer. The goal, he says, is to use short words rather than long, complicated words and phrases.
I can see a point in using text only since images might distract the audience. Keeping the text short, easy to read and easy to remember is also a good idea.
Lifehacker writes about Take your PowerPoint slides Beyond Bullet Points where it says that Bullet points on a screen make information harder to understand, not easier.
In PowerPoint slide design – the basics Olivia Mitchell focuses on design tips for the Assertion-Evidence format. At the top of the slide is a simple sentence which expresses the message of the slide, the assertion. The rest of the slide supports that assertion. There are more tips in PowerPoint slide design – adding elegance and in The Top 7 PowerPoint slide designs.
PowerPoint Design in 2009: Six most recommended tips is a great post and I totally agree with this statement:
The slides should be simple, clear and easy to understand.
The third tip One idea per slide is a great one, it goes well with the Assertion-Evidence format mentioned above.
Read more:
Here’s a quick way to make over a bullet-point slide
New evidence that bullet-points don’t work
How to persuade other people to ditch the bullets
A great site about professional presentation design is Garr Reynold’s blog Presentation Zen. He has a beautiful style, an Asian touch, which is elegant and powerful.
I subscribe to the blog and will refer to several of Garr’s blog posts in my Presentation category.
I have bought his book ‘Presentation Zen’ and will post a review on it once I have finished it.
Update.
My review is here: Presentation Zen is a great book.
I really like Olivia Mitchell’s site Speaking about Presenting which has this introduction: The aim of this blog is to help you with your next presentation. You find:
- Helpful articles to help you with every aspect of your next presentation
- Reviews of books and blogs on presentations and public speaking
- Analysis of great speeches and presentations.
I will refer to several of her blog posts in my own posts in the Presentation category.
