A really amazing presentation does more for the audience than just teaching them something new. A really amazing presentation also inspires, entertains, engages emotion, and opens up a new way of seeing. One way to help that along is to institute surprises into your delivery. Here are some ideas, mostly based on ideas from amazing producers and [...]
To serif or to sans serif? That is the question!
Clients ask me what fonts are correct for on-screen presentations and/or printed documents. They also ask me the different between serif and sans serif fonts. The tip I share is one I got from an old colleague at McKinsey: Replace serif with feet. San serif means that the font has no feet (like Arial) and [...]
Goals when running a rehearsal
A big part of what I do when coaching events is run rehearsals. This is when everyone meets each other, participants frequently get to give their talk for their first time, and the real meat of presentation coaching happens. When presentations are short, I like to run these as a workshop. I’m sure some [...]
Reboot Workshop and UnConference attendee tips
Next Saturday, Jan 26, we will be sponsoring and facilitating at the Reboot Workshop that will be from 10-4 and will be held at New Work City in NYC. You can get tickets and learn more about the event here: http://rebootworkshop.com/ The workshop will feature a panel of 7 experts that freelancers typically need to [...]
Happy Chinese New Year!
This is the year of the water dragon. Wikipedia says that characteristics of the water dragon include: Magnanimous, stately, vigorous, strong, self-assured, proud, noble, direct, dignified, eccentric, intellectual, fiery, passionate, decisive, pioneering, artistic, generous, loyal. Can be tactless, arrogant, imperious, tyrannical, demanding, intolerant, dogmatic, violent, impetuous, brash.
Implications of SOPA and PIPA passing on presentation designers
You’re probably thinking, wow Presentation School, you’re a day late! We disagree, these bills will not be debated until February so this issue is still alive and well. If you can, you really truly should use legal images and videos in your presentations when you can (more on why here: Why Legal Images are [...]
Lesson from an educator
I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Sean McManus of The Economist on their upcoming conference about innovation in March. (Check it out here: http://ideas.economist.com/event/innovation) My task is to put together 5 San Francisco based speakers to do Ignite-style presentations on the topic of innovation. The best part about the current stage [...]
Gantt charts, part 2 of the timeline series
We talked about timelines on October 10, 2011 in this post. Ane we promised a future post about how to group your activities together. This is that post! Here’s a refresher of what a Gantt chart looks like: The true effectiveness of a Gantt chart comes from 2 things: Are [...]
Tips for planning your new year
Like many, we at The Presentation School are in the process of planning out our projects and plans for the new year. And maybe like you, we’ve got all kinds of ideas we’re excited about. Alas, our enthusiasm may be bigger than our available time and energy. (No doubt a problem many of us have.) [...]
How to structure a case study
Many clients have been asking for help with design and execution of case studies. And we’ve been giving a pretty similar answer for each cases, so we want to share that answer with you! For those of you not in the know, a case study is a business term for a business example that illustrates [...]
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