About a year ago I designed my first big presentation for my boss. It was nerve-wracking, because unlike most work I do, I was going to be in the audience when he presented. In fact, I was in the control room behind the computer. We worked very closely on the deck and reduced text to an absolute minimum. The presentation, like all good presentations, was about him, not his slides. As I often tell people: 

Less Slide, More You

And yet, I really had no idea if this was going to end up as a “See-Say” presentation. We all have seen this where the speaker simply voices everything that is written on the screen leading most to ask which is the redundant part: the speaker or his slides? A great slide should serve as a jumping off point for the speaker to explain the message further. Sometimes, I even like slides to make absolutely no sense absent the speaker. (This certainly dissuades printing and distributing a deck.)

The challenge with avoiding a “See-Say” presentation is that most people simply are not good speakers. Their slides become their crutches and they are incapable of living in the moment and truly owning their material. Fortunately, my boss was and is a fantastic speaker who doesn’t tie himself to a verbatim script. 

At right is an example of one of that presentation’s transition slides. My worry was that he would simply say, “We kept our clients’ confidence.” But he didn’t voice those words at all. The words are the takeaway headline here. What he said was much more insightful and in the moment.

That experience led me to one of my favorite presentation metaphors. A good speaker is like a good musician…

• You, the speaker, are the singer
• Your speech is your singing
• Your slides are your guitar

A good speaker needs to be able to multi-task in the moment. Sometimes it’s all about an a cappella verse or line (a black slide), and sometimes it’s all about a guitar solo (a great picture, graphic or chart that speaks for itself), but mostly it’s about slide and speech together. And like a great song, you can’t just play the melody and sing it as well. (That would be the “see-say” version of a song.) It’s about instrument and voice doing different things, but achieving harmony. 

Rock on. 

Pecha Kucha (Japanese for “chit chat” or “chatter”) is a presentation format created in 2003 by two Tokyo-based architects, and it couldn’t be simpler: Presenters use 20 slides, each of which is automatically timed to advance after 20 seconds, making every presentation 6 minutes, 40 seconds. No more, no less.

Pecha Kucha Nights are now held regularly in over 260 cities worldwide, and I attended my first one this past weekend at New York’s Cooper-Hewitt. Although a Pecha Kucha need not be themed, this one was a fundraiser for Haiti, part of a series of Pecha Kuchas that in total hope to raise $1 million for the relief effort. Saturday’s event raised over $10,000. The event’s speakers were mostly architects, some discussing Haiti specifically, some discussing their own work and some talking about art and architecture in general. My favorite was probably Sam Jacobs of FAT Architecture who spoke about architectural disasters and the amazing things that happen when you “combine ingenuity and failure.”

Pecha Kucha was initially begun partly to showcase the work of architects and designers. It is often difficult for these folks to disseminate their projects and ideas, and apparentlty architects tend to ramble, so the time cap is perfect. It subsequently took on a life of its own. In some cities like Tokyo, Pecha Kucha Nights are held in cool club-like spaces making the whole affair a rather hip event.

I’m coming to absolutely love strict time constraints and rules for presentations. (The TED conference is notorious for their time rules.) While I’m generally agnostic about the number of slides one uses in a presentation, I would love to see a CEO demand a Pecha Kucha-like structure for all internal presentations. Imagine how much clearer and direct people would need to be in presenting their ideas. And maybe the greatest thing about a slide existing for only 20 seconds is that text must be kept to an absolute minimum if used at all. It forces visual thinking.

If you’re interested in finding a Pecha Kucha night near you, take a look at their website.

Some more pics from Saturday’s Haiti event…

In meeting and event-speak, a “pickle” is a handheld remote that allows a presenter to manually advance slides at his own pace without being tied to a laptop’s keyboard while onstage. 

Why is it called a pickle? I have no idea.

For more elaborate presentations, this remote often just cues an offstage operator to advance the slides (sometimes you just can’t trust those CEOs…)

But it doesn’t matter whether you’re presenting to one person or to 10,000. Unless your presentation is scripted, memorized and you’ve rehearsed endlessly with your operator, you should be using a handheld remote, or a pickle. Yes, Steve Jobs uses one.

It allows you freedom of movement on stage (or even around the conference table). It allows you to be natural and not hunched over your keyboard. It allows things to seem less “PowerPoint-y.” But most important, it allows the presentation to be more about YOU and it allows you to focus on your audience and to make more eye contact. 

Additionally, it just makes it look like you’ve got your act together and know your material. 

There are numerous handheld remotes on the market, but my favorite is Logitech’s Presenter, available from Amazon for about $45. 

Though it’s a little large than I’d like, it stores the USB transmitter (which you plug into the computer) within the remote, so you don’t have two pieces to lose. Plus, it includes a timer and a laser pointer all in one. And it uses RF, so you don’t need line of site to your computer. But please, don’t point the thing like a gun at the screen or anywhere else. A soft click is all that’s needed to advance your slides.

And if you want to see a cool “magic” presentation, take a look at this short video. Notice something in his left hand…?