The Worlds Best Presentation

Slideshare.net recently hosted a presentation competition in which one could submit their slides on a topic of their choice, and it would be put to a panel of judges and the general public. The panel of Judges was seriously experienced and included writers from two of my favorite blogs Guy Kawasaki and Garr Reynolds of presentation zen.

The presentation below is the winning entry as chosen by the judges entitled "shift happens", the content was originally compiled by Bill Fisch and this is a more graphical representation of the facts in question.... well worth a look, and a near perfect example of how to create an engaging presentation

Lecturers: Good vs Bad

Bad Lecturers

1. Can't use powerpoint - most lecturers see it fit slides that are poorly animated, poorly constructed and packed full of text to the point of illedgibilty. If you're going to use it, use it well.
2. Cannot communicate - I'm sure that in their college days they were the best and brightest of whatever academic field thet studied...it just so happens they are not very good at explaining in language us students can understand (esp economics, accounting, finance)
3. Are solely responsible for low attendance numbers - "lying in bed is a better use of my time than listening to you"
4. Engage in "one way traffic" - of the attitude "I will be speaking for the duration, questions shall not be tolerated"
5. Class is over when its over - Once my 1hr slot is up class is over and I dont want to talk about it.

Good Lecturers (few and far between)

1. Add Value to the subject - They don't merely read out their slides to you verbatim, they bring their relevant life/work experience and add a human aspect to the factual content
2. Create Good Presentations - Understand what material overload is and avoid it...they might even use pictures/audio/videos to back up their information in multiple formats
3. Make you want to go to class - There is no better feeling than getting out of bed and actively want to get to the bus and into class asap, creates a great class atmosphere too.
4. Make it a two way process - they ask questions, and invite questions to be asked, interactivity>"listen here YOU"
5. Are your teachers in and out of class - the class may be over, but if you ever need to ask them questions or just want to talk to them about the subject...they are there and want to do so
6. Leave a lasting impression

Pie Charts

I didnt create this pic, its done its rounds on the internet for a while now, but i heavily support its hilarity! Any student in any businessy course will have viewed maaaany boring pie charts in their day. I WILL be using this in a presentation whenever i get the chance

A thousand words?

"A picture tells a thousand words"

I believe that to be very true. I was watching a presentation by Seth Godin (my hero) last wekk and he put up the above slide to describe the differences between competitors in the motor industry. Two circles... and that was it, the entire slide consisted of two circles.

The traditional method of "presenting" utilised by people and encouraged by the powerpoint interface, is to use bullet points and invariably to fill the slide with endless reams of text, that the person proceeds to simply read aloud while looking at the screen.

The slide actually showed an important fact too, the small circle showed the amount per car revenue (the white screen) was spent by Mercedes on advertising, because the car is aimed at a specific group and is an exeptional car that really sells itself. The great big grey circle is the amount of advertising per car that Ford spend. Because they have to sell average cars to average people they have to spend alot of money on letting people know that their new "fiesta" has hit the streets, so to avoid huge costs you try to make your product, rather than advertising budget, exeptional.

The main point im trying to put forward is, using images like the above give scope for a more engaging presentation where you tell stories rather than repeat out bullet points.

Remember, its a presentation not a recital, the information needs to be in your head rather than on the screen

Purple Cows?

I was browsing the web not so long ago looking for marketing presentations due to my interest in both marketing and the art of the presentation. I came across a gentleman by the name of Seth Godin who was talking on the subject of what he considers to be "broken" or not.
I found his presentation truly fascinating and just generally eye opening, his style is so relaxed and the usage of slides really does add significantly to the message being conveyed.

After doing a little more snooping around, i found more videos on the net that has convinced me that Seth Godin is most probably a representation of a god on earth (along with Guy Kawasaki and ironically enough Richard Dawkins)
So i headed out to Hodges and Figgis to purchase his book "Purple Cow" which i must say achieves near perfection by being both educational and entertaining at the same time a feat achieved by a select few. I'm not fully done as of yet, but i feel that this should really be part of the school curriculum in secondary schools or at least at third level.