Nano, by Saad

After 3+ years of owning a Mac, I finally decided to tinker with the preloaded iMovie software. I’ve learned that preparing a film is like preparing any other presentation, but with a lot more moving parts. For my first effort, I wanted to share with you some of the things I see in Uppsala. Bear in mind that this is, by no means, all-encompassing. Let’s see how I did. (Hm, a couple of the map images don’t appear as intended… something happened during Vimeo’s conversion. Oh well.)

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If you’re giving a slide presentation (typically, with PowerPoint), never again use a laser pointer. I will offer a solution/alternative later in this post, but first, let me explain why laser pointers are bad:

- To use the pointer, you have to look at your slide to ensure that it is hitting the correct spot. As you describe the item you’re pointing at, you end up speaking at the wall rather than to the audience.

- If one hand is committed to the laser pointer, you are forced into an awkward posture and can’t gesture naturally with your hands.

- The “transition” between speaking to the audience, turning to point, and then turning back is inherently choppy. And on top of that, someone in the audience likely fails to see the laser pointer (gets distracted, too much glare, etc) and misses the point of the slide entirely.

I was inspired to write this post after I attended a talk where the speaker was turned 90 degrees away from the audience the entire time he spoke, even when there weren’t slides to point at with the laser pointer. He had turned to use the laser pointer, and never turned back to face the audience!

First, this should be the Zeroth Law of PowerPoint…

If you feel that you need to use a laser pointer, I am guessing that you have TOO MUCH CONTENT on that slide. So, declutter. Cut through the auxiliary info and figure out what your most important message is, and focus on that one message on that slide. Plenty of people who write about how to make effective presentations have advice on how to declutter your slides (fyi, each of those links is to a different guide). With apologies to thermodynamics…

• Zeroth Law of PowerPoint: If Slide A and Slide C are each in equilibrium with just one message, then audience will B happy.

Two alternative solutions to the laser pointer

Even after you’ve decluttered your slides, you might have some important idea that requires the audience to consider multiple graphics at once. Here are two approaches to use that will allow you to remain engaged with and facing the audience. Read the rest of this entry »

Previously, I pointed you to what Steve Jobs does in making awesome presentations.  As I’ve read more on presentations using visual aids, I’ve come across a couple blogs on how to get the most out of Powerpoint for your talks.  I point you to a couple example posts on each blog.

“Takahashi method” – on Presentation Zen

“What’s wrong with templates?” – Presentation Advisors (impressively, only one guy)

There are countless ways to incorporate PPT in a presentation, and the optimal way will vary with the nature of the presentation.  These blogs have so many ideas, I will definitely have fun trying to work different elements into my talks, which will be a challenge since science talks are usually so data/visual-heavy.

On “How I Met Your Mother” the character Robin, anchor of an early-morning talk show, thinks her show is doing really well because a lot of people watch it, including students of her friend Ted.  In actuality…

College kids: “We watch it for the drinking game.  You have to drink every time she says But, um…“

I never thought verbal tics and filler words could be the subject of sitcom tv, but they do a pretty good job with it.  Link to episode; start watching around the 9-minute mark. [Update: the link might no longer work.]

(My filler word is like but I’ve gotten better at using it less, thanks to the Ah-Counter at our toastmasters meetings pointing out how often I’m using it.)

Go here to see a slideshow on “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience.”  Then try to incorporate some of those tips the next time you give a presentation, especially if its a powerpoint.

(H/T Harman.)

Spurred by the news that former President Bush will be the featured speaker at a motivational seminar next week, Slate published a collection of public speaking advice for Bush from different motivational speakers (which was a moderately interesting read).  But it got me thinking…

Opinions of political leaders span the entire spectrum between loved and hated, but most people would agree that President Obama has public speaking skills superior to Bush’s.  Now, imagine if Bush were as eloquent as Obama.  Depending on your opinion of Bush, you might ask:

• What else could he have persuaded America and its allies to stick their noses into, that he couldn’t do with fear mongering alone?  Or…
• What other greatness could he have achieved by motivating people to action by appealing to their aspirations, rather than their (there it is, again) fears?

Fyi, the Slate article containing the public speaking advice is here.

Poor guy.  Seriously, though, this is a FAIL on the part of the team’s media relations director for allowing the player to end up in this situation.

What is Toastmasters?  Find out here.