Presentations Roundtable

How much did the professional presentations business change in the last year? Well, let's talk about that! We recently sat down with three giants in the field of creating effective and compelling presentations; Slideology author Nancy Duarte, Distinction Services's Jim Endicott, and Julie Terberg of Terberg design - three keynote speakers at the PowerPoint Live conference. It seemed like a great time to catch up on how the presentations business has been doing. Is "death by PowerPoint" in remission? Is there hope at last, and what role are colleges and recent graduates playing here? How do you calculate cost of a bad presentation? What's your pre-presentation game plan? What's different about web-based presentations? We'll cover that, and more in this episode.

How much did the professional presentations business change in the last year? Well, let's talk about that! We recently sat down with three giants in the field of creating effective and compelling presentations; Slideology author Nancy Duarte, Distinction Services's Jim Endicott, and Julie Terberg of Terberg design - three keynote speakers at the PowerPoint Live conference. It seemed like a great time to catch up on how the presentations business has been doing. Is "death by PowerPoint" in remission? Is there hope at last, and what role are colleges and recent graduates playing here? How do you calculate cost of a bad presentation? What's your pre-presentation game plan? What's different about web-based presentations? We'll cover that, and more in this episode.

What is MVP disease? And more important, how do you benefit from it? The annual PowerPoint live conference is a regular opportunity to catch up with some of our favorite presentations professionals, and to record a few podcasts of course. In this first of two episodes we sit down for a session with a record SEVEN commentators. These are the PowerPoint MVPs, an amazing group of volunteers who spend their time and energy helping you out with advice and solutions through web sites and the PowerPoint newsgroups. At PowerPoint Live they help keep the conference running by presenting and running an amazing help center for the duration of the conference, but they still found time to sit down for a chat.

What is MVP disease? And more important, how do you benefit from it? The annual PowerPoint live conference is a regular opportunity to catch up with some of our favorite presentations professionals, and to record a few podcasts of course. In this first of two episodes we sit down for a session with a record SEVEN commentators. These are the PowerPoint MVPs, an amazing group of volunteers who spend their time and energy helping you out with advice and solutions through web sites and the PowerPoint newsgroups. At PowerPoint Live they help keep the conference running by presenting and running an amazing help center for the duration of the conference, but they still found time to sit down for a chat.

Five interns talk about joining the PowerPoint team for a summer in California...

Five interns talk about joining the PowerPoint team for a summer in California...

Even if you don't immediately recognize the name Duarte Design, it's very likely you've seen their work. They've contributed to the design of many of the best brands and thought leaders in the world, and turned a mountain of information that Al Gore was struggling with, into an award winning presentation called An Inconvenient Truth. Nancy Duarte, principal behind Duarte Design, has decided to share their methods for creating really amazing slides by way of a new book called Slide:ology. She, producer Michael Moon, and content developer Doug Neff sat down with me recently to record some insights into the development of this much anticipated book. Along the way we'll also learn how this singular group of professionals turn out great product while having more than a little fun.

Even if you don't immediately recognize the name Duarte Design, it's very likely you've seen their work. They've contributed to the design of many of the best brands and thought leaders in the world, and turned a mountain of information that Al Gore was struggling with, into an award winning presentation called An Inconvenient Truth. Nancy Duarte, principal behind Duarte Design, has decided to share their methods for creating really amazing slides by way of a new book called Slide:ology. She, producer Michael Moon, and content developer Doug Neff sat down with me recently to record some insights into the development of this much anticipated book. Along the way we'll also learn how this singular group of professionals turn out great product while having more than a little fun.

Our recent visit with Presentation Zen's Garr Reynolds was somewhat longer than most, so it was originally published in two parts. In one of our most popular sessions so far we caught up with Garr and learned how the Presentation Zen book has been doing, heard all about his intercontental road trip. Again, we were joined by Howard Cooperstein, software designer and stand-up comic, for a discussion of humor in presentations and the relationships between stand up comedy and stand up presentations. It was a fun and funny discussion, and surprisingly full of good presentation advice you can immediately apply in your own work. If you already caught the prior sessions, this is simply a different edit of the same material, but you may still enjoy listening to the discussion uninterrupted.

Our recent visit with Presentation Zen's Garr Reynolds was somewhat longer than most, so it was originally published in two parts. In one of our most popular sessions so far we caught up with Garr and learned how the Presentation Zen book has been doing, heard all about his intercontental road trip. Again, we were joined by Howard Cooperstein, software designer and stand-up comic, for a discussion of humor in presentations and the relationships between stand up comedy and stand up presentations. It was a fun and funny discussion, and surprisingly full of good presentation advice you can immediately apply in your own work. If you already caught the prior sessions, this is simply a different edit of the same material, but you may still enjoy listening to the discussion uninterrupted.

This is part II of our most recent visit with Presentation Zen master Garr Reynolds. In part one we caught up with Garr, learned how the Presentation Zen book has been doing, and heard all about his recent road trip. Howard Cooperstein, software designer and stand-up comic, joined us for this episode, which took an interesting swing into a discussion of humor in presentations and the relationships between stand up comedy and stand up presentations. If you haven't heard part one, I suggest you listen to it first, but that's not absolutely essential. It's still available at the Presentations Roundtable web site, or through iTunes, Zune marketplace, or wherever you got this episode. The world of stand-up comedy and stand-up presenting have some amazing parallels, and the discussion produces some very interesting insights you can put to use in your own presentations.

This is part II of our most recent visit with Presentation Zen master Garr Reynolds. In part one we caught up with Garr, learned how the Presentation Zen book has been doing, and heard all about his recent road trip. Howard Cooperstein, software designer and stand-up comic, joined us for this episode, which took an interesting swing into a discussion of humor in presentations and the relationships between stand up comedy and stand up presentations. If you haven't heard part one, I suggest you listen to it first, but that's not absolutely essential. It's still available at the Presentations Roundtable web site, or through iTunes, Zune marketplace, or wherever you got this episode. The world of stand-up comedy and stand-up presenting have some amazing parallels, and the discussion produces some very interesting insights you can put to use in your own presentations.

The serious subject of humor in presentations. We bring back one of our favorite people, Presentation Zen master Garr Reynolds.

The serious subject of humor in presentations. We bring back one of our favorite people, Presentation Zen master Garr Reynolds.

If you've read any recent book on improving your presentations you've probably come away with the feeling that you're not getting enough out of the power of photographs in your presentations. This episode we sit down with two experts in the field of putting photos into presentations, to give you some real applicable advice on how to make picture perfect presentations.