When I was coaching TEDxHarlem, a number of the speakers asked me for talk references. Typically, my next steps would be to look up videos of those speakers already and then dive deep into finding existing TED talks that seemed like appropriate models for those particular speakers. Not everyone has the same speaking style, after all. However, there are a few that I shared with everyone, just because they’re cool. So, i share them with you!

Nancy Duarte on the structure of a great presentation:

Ben Zander, who’s got more energy than any other presenter I’ve seen:

Dave Eggers and his fantastic tutoring idea:

PIPA and SOPA were defeated.  Yay!  But alas, the battle is not over!

Up next:  CISPA.  It stands for Cyber Intelligence Sharing & Protection Act.  It encourages private companies to monitor for cyber threat on their websites.  And as far as you are concerned as folks designing presentations that could be distributed on SlideShare, SlideRocket, your website, in a video that lands on YouTube, Vimeo or anywhere else means:  You really have to make sure your content is legal.  Otherwise your content will not be distributed beyond the presentation room.

To learn more about this, you can check out this video here:

When you’re going to present with a new organization or on a new stage, there’s a lot you should check before arriving.  To make that easier, here is a list of questions you should ask your event organizers:

• What kind of mircophones will be used?  Lavaliere, hand mic, over the ear?  Will surgical tape be available if over the ear?  (esp important for those of you who lack hair on your head)
• Will there be a confidence monitor?  What will the confidence monitor show?  (that’s a screen in front of you so you don’t have to turn around to see when your slides change, frequently it’s just the view that is on the screen at the time.  Sometimes it’s the notes page view)
• Will there be a teleprompter for notes?  (perhaps your script could roll by?)
• Am I allowed notes on stage?  (Do you need to memorize ro can you bring a paper prompt?  Notecards look better than actual paper)
• What is the aspect ratio for the slides?  (If you design slides for 4×3 and you find out that ti’s a wide screen set up, your slides will look really messy when they convert.  You really need to design your slides for the right screen.  Which could be 4:3, 16:9 or 16:10, or something custom)
• Will there be a podium?  Chair?  If there is a chair, what height will it be?    (you should rehearse in whatever set up is going to be provided)
• Will I be allowed to walk as I speak or will there be a specific area for video?    (this has ramifications for rehearsal)
• What color is the stage set up?  (this has ramifications on what outfit you choose)
• Are there any preferences for my outfit?  (self explanatory)
• Will I be videotaped?  (If yes, you should consider wearing slightly darker makeup than usual, and also avoid patterns)
• When do you need by slides by?  (and please follow this, there is a lot that happens to your slides once you pass them onto the event organizers, just showing up with a thumb drive before you speak is disrespectful to and stressful for your organizers who only want you to shine)
• Is there presentation coaching available?  Will there be a rehearsal?  (If you want extra help, find out if you need to arrange your own!)
• Anything else I need to know?

Knowing these things sooner rather than later will cut down stress the day of your event.

Frequently when working with a presentation designer, you need to also act as the liaison between the presentation designer and your print/web designers.  Web, print and presentations designers all speak a slightly different language, which can leave you spinning in confusion of you aren’t able to navigate them.  Hopefully this post will help you navigate the designer waters better and help you keep to your timelines.

Print designers:

• Create anything that is printed, like annual reports, magazine advertisements, etc.
• Have deep concerns around typography, frequently more so than other designers
• Have a bias for Adobe products because of clearer pixels and training
• Frequently have a huge distain for PowerPoint because it’s a Pixel off, will push for Keynote when possible
• if you ask them to work on a presentation, more often than not, they’ll trat it like a magazine and put it in In Design, creating a lot more work for your presentation designers
• Are typically the folks that set your visual brand guidelines
• Have a bias for taking time to get it right
• Come from a designers perspective
• Some can create spot illustrations or have access to a network of illutrators
• Almost work exclusively on Macs
• Work in CMYK

Web designers:

• Create anything that is on your website or interactive, like an iPad app
• Have deep concerns for web legibility, wanting file sizes to be small enough to read clearly on the web
• Also have a bias for Adobe products, but for different reasons than print designers.  Are also most open to new software packages
• Don’t really have an opinion about presentation software, but are frequently intrigued by online preso software, like Prezi
• Save their files for web optimization and will need files to be saved for web optimization
• Have a bias for speed, you can always fix it later
• Come from an interactive perspective
• Almost work exclusively on Macs
• Work in RGB

Presentation designers:

• Create anything that will be part of a presentation:  PowerPoint, posters, Keynote, Prezi, etc.
• Have deep concerns around messaging and if designs will look good projected
• Can frequently use Adobe products like Illustrator and Photoshop, but have deeper expertise in Microsoft and Apple products.  Sometimes know Flash.
• Prefer to work with print designers’ source files when possible, and get extremely frustrated when they receive In Design files that are frequently not in the right aspect ratio, not containing all of the right pictures and needing to be converted
• Have a bias for speed and exactness.  Will be extremely anal about things like spelling the client’s name properly.
• Are usually in the hot seat, most presentation designers are pulled in at the last minute.  Most have a very high threshold for stress
• Can work in motion within presentation software
• Many are able to create spot illustrations
• Many are also infographics designers
• Come from a communications specialist’s perspective
• Frequently work on Macs and PCs, have to create files that look good on both
• Work in RGB

The best way to help everyone get along is as follows:

• Get all source files up front saved down to CS3, fonts (ideally in .otf which works on Mac and PC), brand guidelines and images used by the print designers.  Not having these up front can be a HUGE bottle neck for the presentation designers.
• Delegate roles as follows:  You are the key stakeholder (Print designers frequently push in on presentation designers, the faster you set the boundaries up, the faster you will get your work).  Print designers to provide .jpgs (pictures) to your presentation designers.  Web designers frequently provide screen shots of their work to your presentation designers.  Presentation designers collect everything and execute on your messages.
• If you have enough time, pull your presentation designer into the storylining phase, there’s an extremely high chance that they’ll have ideas that will clarify your messages more.  Be sure to let them know about your audience and their preferences.
• If you can, introduce all of your designers in person or on a conference call, letting them all know who’s role is what and getting their sign off then.  It will save a lot of battles in the future.

Happy team managing!

Having just worked on 2 major events, I’ve been deeply reminded of the bane of most speakers’ existence:  STAGE FRIGHT

Stage fright is what causes speakers: to forget content that they know inside and out, to speak with a nervous voice, to fidget, to close their body language up and just generally not perform as well as they could.  (Remember, a good presentation is a stage performance)

Nothing helps stage fright more than experience (the more you present, the less scarey it is), but in classic TPS blog style, I’ve got some tips:

• Pretend your audience is only 4 people, 1 person per corner of the room.  This way you both look like you’re looking at everyone and are mentally shrinking your audience.
• Practice.  Yes, I’m a broken record on this.  Practice really does make perfect, but in this case, it also helps you fall into autopilot for your presentation.  Autopilot is the savior of the paralyzed.  You may feel completely paralyzed, but to the audience, you’ll look like you giving a presentation.
• Center yourself beforehand.  Before my speakers go on stage, I lead them through a visualization exercise, encouraging them to visualize themselves giving an amazing presentation and getting all of the accolades that they want.  If you don’t have a coach to help center you, try finding a meditation corner.
• Open your body language before getting on stage.  Head up, chest open.  Uncross your legs. Hold that for as long as you can stand before you go on stage, it’ll translate.
• Bond with your fellow speakers.  Feeling like you’re in the same boat with someone else can alleviate some of the stress.
• Channel it.  We get nervous because we’re doing something worthwhile.  Recognize that nervousness for what it is:  extreme reaction to an awesome opportunity!

Happy presentation giving!

On March 28, 2012, I will be introducing 6 amazing speakers at The Economist Ideas Economy:  Innovation conference in Berkeley, California, that I had the pleasure of curating, coaching and assisting in the design of their presentations as appropriate.  Their topic:  The demonstration of some of the facets of being an innovation practitioner, as I see it and had agreed upon.

Because this was developed for The Economist, and gosh darn it it’s one of the most important publications of our time, their rapid fire format is unique to them.  It is 20 slides x 16 seconds.  Compared to Pecha Kucha which is 20 slides, 20 seconds and Ignite which is 20 slides 15 seconds (Check out my best practices infographic for Ignite here).  Anyway, there’s a lot I could say on this topic, and in fact plan to (watch this space for a white paper, soon!)  But, there are a few high level tips I’d like to share:

1. Think of your rapid fire presentation as a monologue with specifically timed visuals.  Meaning, that you should wing each slide, 15-20 seconds goes by VERY quickly.
2. Don’t try to accomplish too much.  Focus on only one purpose for your presentation:  awareness of your idea, energizing the audience, running through a check list very quickly, etc.  Many presentation have more than one purpose such as “explaining something in depth, selling my product and convincing the audience to change their mind about something.”  To accomplish more goals in an effective manner, you need more time.  Save that for another speaking gig.
3. Keep your visuals very very simple!  No more than 8 words on a slide, or 1-2 images.  the audience already has a lot to take in.  Don’t overwhelm them.
4. Memorize your talk.  Rehearse it until you can’t stand it anymore.  But no more than once the day of.  Remember that actors get 6 weeks before you see them on stage.  hey spend the most time on their monologue (which you’ll be doing)
5. When putting your presentation together, be very clear with your curator about what you need to talk about from the beginning.  It’s tempting to turn your rapid fire talk into a commercial for your latest endeavor.  Most curators don’t want that of you.
6. Practice with the proper timings set on your laptop.  Many speakers freak out about the speed on stage because the slides go faster than they expected.
7. If you are giving a talk you give a lot, a good way to shorten it is to give just a section of your talk.  Focus on one section or aspect.  It’s ok to say you’re only talking about part of the talk you typically give, people know you don’t have a lot of time.
8. Plan for 2-3 sentences per slide.  Anymore content and you won’t fit it in or have a slow enough pace where you can, you know, breathe.

Hopefully these 9 tips will help you give a better rapid fire talk!

I’m deeply involved in TEDxHarlem as their speaker coach, which will be happening the week after this post.  In that role, it’s critical that I push speakers to abide the TED Speaker Commandments.  For your reference, they are here:

TEDx SPEAKERS: THE TED COMMANDMENTS

These 10 tips are the heart of a great TEDTalk.

1. Dream big. Strive to create the best talk you have ever given. Reveal something never seen before. Do something the audience will remember forever. Share an idea that could change the world.
2. Show us the real you. Share your passions, your dreams … and also your fears. Be vulnerable. Speak of failure as well as success.
3. Make the complex plain. Don’t try to dazzle intellectually. Don’t speak in abstractions. Explain! Give examples. Tell stories. Be specific.
4. Connect with people’s emotions. Make us laugh! Make us cry!
5. Don’t flaunt your ego. Don’t boast. It’s the surest way to switch everyone off.
6. No selling from the stage! Unless we have specifically asked you to, do not talk about your company or organization. And don’t even think about pitching your products or services or asking for funding from stage.
7. Feel free to comment on other speakers, to praise or to criticize. Controversy energizes! Enthusiastic endorsement is powerful!
8. If possible, don’t read your talk. Notes are fine. But if the choice is between reading or rambling, then read!
9. You must end your talk on time. Doing otherwise is to steal time from the people that follow you. We won’t allow it.
10. Rehearse your talk in front of a trusted friend … for timing, for clarity, for impact.

TEDx SPEAKERS: SLIDES

These tips come from TED’s Director of Film + Video, Jason Wishnow:

LESS IS MORE

A single, strong, graphic image or succinct line of text will tell your story better than a crowded collage or packed paragraph. Remember, people need to process everything

~~~~

These are great when you want to give TED-style talks.  Which are emotional, focused on giving awareness to a general, curious, and educated audience.  If that’s your speaking gig, go for it!

However, they’re not appropriate for every talk.  For example, if you’re giving a rapid fire talk, you really should memorize your presentation.  If you’re giving a keynote at a conference, you should ask your curator if it’s ok to have notes on stage, if not, then yup, memorize your talk.  You will also want to start with your audience:  do they like to be spoken to in stories or do they want to be deeply informed?  If deeply informed, then you should move towards a different structure, though a story is frequently the right way to set the tone.  And, obviously you should be selling from stage if you’re at a sales conference, etc.

Points 2 & 3 should ALWAYS be followed, regardless of who you’re speaking to.  Plain language is almost always best!  the lighter lesson in point 8 should always be sondiered, rambling is horrible for your audience to listen to, but not every curator will let you have notes on stage.  The lesson:  REHEARSE!!!

But if you’ve always wondered what the guiding principles of TED are, now you know.

Those who work with me, know that I’m a HUGE Nancy Duarte fan.  Her book slide:ology is one of my favorites, as is her TED talk where she determines the structure for inspirational talks.

Now it seems that her firm is at it again with a library of templates, that they’re calling the Diagrammer.  Each template is 99 cents each, which can be a bit steep if you’re going to download a lot of templates.  BUT it’s a fantastic solution for when you are in a pinch and really template that doesn’t look like Smart Art.

I decided to try one of the templates out to see how it worked.  I downloaded Flow_Merge_and_Divide_683.

On the upside, they’re easy to download.  When you download one of the templates, it comes for the lowest common denominator of PowerPoint:  2003.  The templates come with a set color scheme already, but you can customize them for your own needs (color, sizing, etc).  However, there are some shading layers on some of the elements, so you’ll want to ungroup items and play with the various gradients individually.

On the downside, they’re not easy to graphically edit.  I played with it a bit to see if the color scheme would automatically update with the template master, but alas, it doesn’t.  So, you will have to update those colors yourself, which can be a pain for those of us that aren’t as advanced in their PowerPoint usage.  Fonts will have to be manually updated as well.

As a bonus, though, you get to see what the Duarte basic template is, which is kind of fun.  As I would have predicted, they use Helvetica Neue, the font that Arial is based off of.

Templates are easy to find, especially if you’ve read slide:0logy, since the organization of the site follows that taxonomy.  You can learn about the taxonomy through their fun video, as well!

That’s one of the most comment questions I get:  ”How many slides should I use for my xx minute presentation*?”

I always respond with “I don’t know, where’s your script?”

“yeah, but in your professional opinion, how many slides for xx minutes?”

“Again, I don’t know, where’s your script?”

I say that because of one of my core mantras a visual communications specialist is:

Content drives design

Visuals are not the end all be all in a presentation, they’re aids to your messages.  They are meant to enhance the meaning of your content.  In other words, you shouldn’t be speaking to the page, the page should be supporting your speaking.

To get around that, I push the people I coach through this process:

1. Brainstorm their topic based on the curators wants/needs and the audience’s expectations
2. Write out an outline to follow for the talk
3. Write out a script
4. Look through script, determine what content needs a visual
5. Build the visuals
6. Rehearse
7. Edit visuals to fit script better
8. Rehearse
9. Show time

Once I explain this, most of the individuals I’m working with understand it better.

* If working on a rapid fire presentation, the answer is always 20

I was quoted in Mediabistro, talking about best practices for being on a panel.  Mediabistro members can check out the article here:

http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a11460.asp

click this link to see the entire article in .pdf:

mediabistro_panel_schwartzberg

Read the entire list of panel tips I sent to the reporter here.