"The way of harmonizing with the Flow (of the universe)"
Presentation isn't about subdoing audience, bending them to hour will, turning their energies against them
Presentation isn't about subdoing audience, bending them to hour will, turning their energies against them
- More about connecting with the audience
- Sharing knowledge and ideas for their benefit
- Encouraging them to travel a path with you
- Helping them
- when you speak, they may or may not be giving you attention, respect, etc.
- they are giving you their time (most precious resource)
- recognize it as a gift, start to enjoy it
- be comfortable, confident on stage
- audience doesn't care what saying, only that you are saying well
- talk about topics you genuinely understand, actually use
- talk about real experiences that you have had
- if you can't get out of talk, do research, and admit to audience that it is new to you as well
- the battle is always won beforehand
- adjust languange to audience
- confidence that's reassuring (that material is comprehensible to normal human beings)
- flow that is captivating
- all arranged beforehand
- budget 10 hours per hour of speaking
- Damian does more like 20
- most important decision
- what are you going to talk about? always have a choice about it, even if assigned
- talk about what you care about, passionate about, excited about
- all about attitude
- about enthusiasm
- always trumps informative
- hook 'em at the beginning, before they mentally change channels
- in given time, really only giving overview or sampler
- reassurance -- this material is attainable
- build cognitive framework in mind, that provides framework for understanding
- comprehensible material that resonates with audience
- so they can go and learn details later
- entertaining is the way to do this
- supposed to convey vaguest hint of topic
- engender some sense of intrigue
- try working in a pop reference, those who get it will be smug and on your side
- try to make title short
- state main thesis in first three words, field of interest in last four words
- marketing pitch
- informative, without giving stuff away
- should say that talk is interesting and speaker is excellent
- show it by making interesting and excellently written
- give some sense of structure of talk
- short, easy-to-read, catchy, tantalizing
- register shortage
- structure information hierarchically -- the story
- fundamental point of aikido
- will only remember 5 points, so choose 5 most important things
- find story that fits those 5 points smoothly
- connect to ideas that people already have and understand
- metaphor
- now, ready to begin writing the talk...
- easier to arrange information in word, or text editor, than in presentation software
- outline style, so it translates well to slides
- causal style
- chronological
- layered - drill down, build up; good for when length is variable; can adapt to needs of audience -- can choose when to go deep or stay up
- cumulative -- start simple, and build up
- simple narrative
- flow decides what topics go in, or stay out. if it doesn't re-inforce 5 points, it is extraneous
- where is leap too great for audience?
- need to go back and fill in gaps
- squirt raw material into slides
- fix it
- start deleting words - handout best as proper sentences, slide points don't work as sentences
- this really matters
- coherence -- single visual entity
- harmonious whole
- different styles of presentation are needed for different objectives
- style can be a part of the message
- great secret of persuasion is to not use many words
- short declartive statements, no hedging
- minimize decoration
- can use smaller, bulleted text
- softer hues, etc.
- if you don't have one, don't use MS templates
- thief from apple, cool websites, etc
- reverse-engineer from a cool preso that you say
- almost every slide is too busy
- too much text, too many ideas
- Damian typically runs 120 slides/hr
- use images like seasoning
- better made visually than spoken
- use them in an unexpected manner
- meaningful, occasional
- want to animate a process
- if not easy in powerpoint, too complex
- almost never resort to video
- only if absolutely amazing, and really makes the point
- don't distinguish by color alone (color blindness)
- use luminance instead
- also application for a new font, or draw a luminance box around text to highlight, etc.
- tools for picking color schemes, like how artists can do (PowerPoint in MacOS X has one)
- check under worst case scenario -- set os to go black & white; will make slides that work for people of all visual perception abilities
- side-by-side hard for people to grok
- show transitions, only animate what changes
- break up monotony of talk
- keep audience engaged
- variations in pace and style
- can always come up with more material than there is time -- people try to cram it all in
- people can't absorb all of that stuff
- they will need chance to absorb and digest
- asides, humorous bits, examples, etc. give this needed break
- make sure to intersperse some easier concepts
- can use landings as navigational beacons, to notify audience that new topic is starting
- signpost - common slide (like TOC), that you come back to as you progress, showing topics you have talked about, and what is coming next.
- no-one understands charts
- put it in notes
- break chart down, and explain piece by piece
- same goes for graphs
- the best presentations look effortless
- audience desperately wants the material to seem "easy"
- keys: competence, preparation, practice, organization, style, attitude
- be passionate, connect with audience, give of yourself -- but be self-less
- worst case, read and then give summary that isn't on slide
- secret of timing
- most important
- do it aloud
- great way to show audience what you are talking about
- people visualize better than they hear
- practice
- try and script software demos if at all possible.
- make demo smooth -- hot keys to get to example, and run with one touch