OSCON Tutorial: Presentation Aikido with Damian Conway

"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

• More about connecting with the audience
• Sharing knowledge and ideas for their benefit
• Encouraging them to travel a path with you
• Helping them

presentation as a privilege

• 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 competent

• 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

humility

• if you can't get out of talk, do research, and admit to audience that it is new to you as well

plan

• 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

making kick-ass preso

• budget 10 hours per hour of speaking
• Damian does more like 20

step zero

• 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

don't be boring

• all about attitude
• about enthusiasm

be entertaining

• 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

the title

• 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

blurb

• 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

tell a story

• register shortage
• structure information hierarchically -- the story

less is more

• fundamental point of aikido
• will only remember 5 points, so choose 5 most important things
• find story that fits those 5 points smoothly

connect ideas

• connect to ideas that people already have and understand
• metaphor
• now, ready to begin writing the talk...

write handout first

• easier to arrange information in word, or text editor, than in presentation software
• outline style, so it translates well to slides

build a flow

• 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

what is missing?

• where is leap too great for audience?
• need to go back and fill in gaps

create and condense slides

• squirt raw material into slides
• fix it
• start deleting words - handout best as proper sentences, slide points don't work as sentences

visual style

• 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

persuasion

• great secret of persuasion is to not use many words
• short declartive statements, no hedging
• minimize decoration

to inform

• can use smaller, bulleted text
• softer hues, etc.

develop a style

• 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

slide detail

• almost every slide is too busy
• too much text, too many ideas
• Damian typically runs 120 slides/hr

images

• use images like seasoning
• better made visually than spoken
• use them in an unexpected manner

animation

• 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

color

• 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

highlight differences

• side-by-side hard for people to grok
• show transitions, only animate what changes

surprise them

• break up monotony of talk
• keep audience engaged
• variations in pace and style

put landings in staircases

• 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.

charts

• no-one understands charts
• put it in notes
• break chart down, and explain piece by piece
• same goes for graphs

look effortless

• 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

don't read your talk

• worst case, read and then give summary that isn't on slide

rehearse

• secret of timing
• most important
• do it aloud

demonstrations

• 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