Muddy/Clear Presentations

What an exciting lesson. Presentations have come a long way since the old Power Point days. It has become an art with highly specialized people in the field like Nancy Duarte and Garr Renyolds. Duarte has built an entire company that specializes in training for and also the creating of fantastic presentations. Duarte has several videos on the website duarte.com that will open the presenter's eyes to presentations that stick. Duarte provides presentation tools as well as resources. Nancy Duarte explains the difference between slides and documents. How often have you gone to a presentation where the presenter simply reads each slide word? Slides like these are actually more like documents. Documents, Duarte says, can be distributed at the end of a presentation to help solidify the information explored during the presentation. It is extremely important for the presenter to use the slides as a guide while they tell their story to the audience. Slides should have very few word and an image that evokes connection to the part of the story being told. Storytelling is an art in itself. Stories are so powerful in our memories that they have been passed on from generation to generation. When one gives a presentation, they want the information to be memorable and even passed on. Duarte has decoded the steps to success for presentations.

Garr Renyolds is another amazing resource in the field of presentations. Reynolds wrote a book called Presentation Zen that shows how to keep presentation clean, clear and simple. Presentationzen.com is a valuable resource for the presenter. As we know, presentations are part of the business world. They are used for a variety of needs including new products, new work spaces, new technology and training. Like I said, there is an art to presenting. Audiences can loath going to presentations at work. It seems like audiences are more often bored than educated. Garr, through his books, is able to enlighten the presenter and bring excitement back to the presentation world. 

Other resources for creating effective presentations can be found at http://www.heathbrothers.com/ and jnd.org.