Ugh. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio presented the City’s new budget yesterday with a series of not ready for primetime slide-aments. Can’t seem to find the full deck, but here’s just one highlight.
I completely stole Hackernoon’s headline for my own, but it’s quite a good question, especially with regard to this TechCrunch Disrupt speaker.
Check out their take here.
And get this guy a guest spot on Silicon Valley pronto.
We had another great Presenters Network Get Together this week organized and hosted by David Grupper of PointMade Animation. Saw old friends, some very old friends and met lots of new designers and presentation professionals from the New York area. And we had some great presentations from speakers.
Take a look at all the pics here!
The good folks at PointMadeAnimation are again hosting the Presenters Network, an evening of drinks, talks and networking for anyone involved in the world of presentation. Last year’s event was a huge success and a lot of fun (check out pics and videos here), so if you’re in New York, come by on July 19th to this rooftop event. Registration is required, but be sure to put in the discount code “pointmadeanimation” for a big discount.
And as I did last year, I’ll be one of the event speakers. This time I’ll be talking about Office 365 and the latest game-changing features to have come to PowerPoint.
Hope to see you there!
And, it’s also time to start registering for this year’s Presentation Summit, being held this year in Las Vegas.
The 2016 lineup for the world’s only conference dedicated to presentation is very exciting. the always amazing Nancy Duarte will be delivering a keynote address, and we will also be welcoming Sunni Brown for a first time visit and talk.
As always, there will be breakout sessions galore including a number that I will be giving. I will also have the pleasure of moderating a late night roundtable discussion with Nancy on the business of presentation. Check out the entire schedule and list of presenters here.
I know I say this every year, but this is really a conference not to be missed. It is unique among business conferences in so many ways, but mostly in how intimate the organizers keep it. You have direct access to the best minds and players in the world of presentation, and there is no way to attend and not leave a better presenter and creator of presentations. The conference always sells out, so sign up soon, and use the following code for a nice discount: “nh75”
If you have any questions or are on the fence, drop me a line, and I’d be happy to convince you further!
President Obama’s 2016 State of the Union last night was more “big picture” than is typical, and so was the traditional Enhanced State of the Union. Fewer charts and graphs and numbers overall and more imagery and singular statement “slides.” I also liked that they didn’t feel the need to fill every moment with a visual.
Watch it here:
There has been an increasing trend in companies these days of insisting presentations be limited to just a few slides. I’m hearing more and more from clients that bosses are demanding “5 slides only” or “10 slides maximum” for an internal presentation.
So, what does this actually mean and how do you handle a situation like this?
First of all, I have always been slide number agnostic. For an on-screen presentation, it makes no difference if you present 10 minutes worth of content with one slide or with 20 slides. In my trainings, I routinely use upwards of 100 slides per hour.
But herein lies the clue for you when given a cap on number of slides. Anyone who asks you to limit your number of slides is actually asking you to limit and focus your content. Most people assume content is related to slide number the way that a newspaper article is related to word count. But it’s just not true. It’s quite possible to put 60 minutes of content onto 5 slides—and that’s precisely what some people do…
The first step in answering this challenge is to truly examine how much time you have to present. When preparing a presentation, overall time and time per slide are two of the most important metrics to consider. If you’re given 5 minutes to present next year’s sales strategy, that’s a pretty good indication that this is not the place to discuss the work history of your 25 new sales reps and the 15-phase implementation plan for the new B2C website. Given 5 minutes, you can only address the big picture and the actionable takeaway, if any.
And that gets us to what most people are actually asking for when they ask for a cap on slides. They simply want the big picture and the takeaway. But for whatever reason, corporate America has failed time and again in adequately expressing and teaching people how to deliver this. Raise your hand if you’ve ever delivered more than you knew you were asked for. Why did you do it? Well, nobody has ever been fired for including too much…
So, let’s accept some collective blame here, and now understand why you are being limited to 5 slides only. It is a clumsy attempt to force people to not put needless details up on the screen.
Clarify the presentation’s objectives with whoever has requested the slide cap. Talk in terms of time allotted to present and ask what level of detail and takeaway is required. In most cases, people don’t want all the detail behind the overall message. If it seems as though the requested information can fit into the allotted time, but is still more than what will comfortably fit on 5 slides with one message per slide, then ask for an exception and explain why. If the requested information is too much for your allotted time, then ask to provide additional content in a handout that will never be projected. Detailed tables and endless research notes have a place—just not on the screen in a live presentation. And keep in mind:
“5 Slides Only” = “Just Give Me the Big Picture”
Think you can’t possibly present your entire business idea in a few minutes like your boss has asked? Take a look at the Three Minute Thesis project from the University of Queensland and see how PhD candidates (not known for their conciseness to begin with) manage to communicate their theses in just 180 seconds.
H/T to Rob Nachum for this!
Here’s one of the 2014 winners…
Nice TEDBlog post about a body language study from Science of People.
Not so surprising, but helpful to hear again: the best presenters smile, use their hands, and audiences make their decisions on a presenter in the first 7 seconds.
This will be my first of a number of upcoming projects and trainings with the AMA. “Creating Visual Presentations” will be a regularly offered 90 minute webinar, and the first session is March 19th. Every webinar includes plenty of Q&A, so if you can’t register for this one, keep checking AMA’s site for future times.
* * *
On May 6th, I’ll be returning to speak at this annual conference dedicated solely to agency new business. Each year Mirren brings together top names from the biggest creative agencies in the country for two days of sessions that cover everything from prospecting to creative execution to compensation with a whole lot of case studies and endless networking thrown in.
In my session, 5 Principles for Transforming Your Pitch Deck, I’ll again discuss how agencies can make their pitches more effective and more visual.
The conference always sells out, so register now and save $300 before April 3rd.
* * *
My favorite event of the year will now be in one of my favorite cities in the country! For those of you who always remain undecided, this is the year to attend. The only conference dedicated to presentation in the world, the Summit gathers together the top people in the business. If your business involves presentation and PowerPoint, this is your conference. And did I mention New Orleans?
Register early and use the code NH75 for a special discount for my readers.
* * *
Stay tuned for more information on my next completely free webinar for PresentationXpert on October 21st…
* * *
The above are just my public appearances and trainings, of course. My calendar is already filling up for the year with speaking and training engagments in Colorado, California, Minnesota, Illinois, New York and Massachusetts. If your organization is interested in customized presentation, data visualization and speech coach training, drop me a line!
Receive a discount off registration for MirrenLive with this code: “NolanHaims@Mirren”
Mashing together two copyrighted names and adding in a healthy heaping of Second City, it’s PechaFlickr: Select a topic, then improv a 6 minute, 40 second PechaKucha.
