How to Jazz Up Your Next Presentation….

On July 13, 2010, in Education, Featured, by tgoodridge

42-17626624We’ve all been there. That Trade Show, team meeting or company meeting where someone drones on giving another boring powerpoint presentation.

Well, thankfully at last week’s Social Media Breakfast #18 (hosted by Bob Collins and Communispace- thank you!) we were treated to three clever presentations by Robert Davis of PJA, Pawan Deshpande of HiveFire, Inc. and Andrew Davis of Tippingpoint Labs.

My favorite presentation was by Andrew Davis.  He took a subject as simple, likeable, and “relate-able” like meatloaf (?!) and gave us a crash course in “Content Creation in the New Age of Search and Engagement”.

Don’t take my word for it- take a look at his presentation below (click on arrow) and tell us what you think. If you want to bring it to life, click on the a quick one-minute video (he gets the crowd roaring at around 20 seconds) to get a feel for it…

Content Creation in the New Age of Search & Engagement on Prezi

Food for Thought
So, while we’re talking about meatloaf or “Meat Loaf”, here’s what I’m taking away from his presentation…

- Don’t just use Powerpoint. His presentation was put together by Prezi, a new platform I’ll probably use for my  next talk at the Apple Store. It’s interactive, fun, and is designed in a way to give the audience context and a framework for whatever subject you’re talking about. Think about it, without even being in the room, you get a pretty good feel about what he said and how he said it.

- Poke fun at yourself. If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at? You’ll notice the Jim Henson/Muppets reference early in the presentation. He does a terrific Grover impression which loosened up the audience. (NOTE: if you’re not good at impressions, don’t even thinking about trying to pull off what he did)

- Tell a story. This is the cardinal rule of giving presentations, but many people STILL forget to do this. Choose a topic or concept (who can’t relate to meatloaf?!) that your audience understands

Any other thoughts? how do YOU Jazz up your Presentation?


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  • http://davewrites.com Dave Atkins

    I was also impressed by Prezi. The way he used it really worked for this audience. But it also kind of made me dizzy to watch his stream of consciousness web wanderings. I think the point was to illustrate that without content curation, we are like ADHD rats in a pinball machine maze.

    When I look at the presentation now, is is very helpful that it is NOT a linear deck. I can recall the introduction, the crazy meatloaf wandering (but very few people really are this distracted!), and then, the point of how branded content aggregators can help provide order and structure to the chaos. I can zoom past the many web pages and quickly see the whole arc of his story.

    I think audience is key. Telling the story in an entertaining way that people in the room can relate to works for making it all memorable. Then, the non-linear presentation makes it all quickly accessible later. The best of both worlds.

  • http://www.enterdialogue.com Tyson Goodridge

    Dave, couldn't agree more. One point that I didn't make was that by the very way Prezi is laid out, it helps you THINK in non-linear terms….So, when you CREATE a presentation, Prezi helps here. Simply getting all of your thoughts/ideas on the Prez “canvas” helps you think through HOW you are going to present information…

  • http://blog.tippingpointlabs.com/blog tpldrew

    Tyson and Dave,
    Thanks so much for taking the time to write such a great post. I really enjoyed the experience speaking to the SMB group. Everyone was receptive and open to new ideas and thinking. Thanks for being part of that.

    As far as Prezi goes, you're absolutely right. For someone like me that has a really hard time conforming to a 1024X768 square for a slide. I like building a series of separate stories and putting them together into a larger presentation.

    Prezi is great, the number one thing to concentrate on is keeping your moves logical and close. Your audience gets lost when you zoom for no reason.

    Thanks as well for shooting the video! Nice work. Great phone! We just uploaded our longer version of the Meat Loaf section – or Meatloaf… :)

    Thanks again!
    - Drew

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qODcLDvMU9Q

  • http://www.enterdialogue.com Tyson Goodridge

    Dave, couldn't agree more. One point that I didn't make was that by the very way Prezi is laid out, it helps you THINK in non-linear terms….So, when you CREATE a presentation, Prezi helps here. Simply getting all of your thoughts/ideas on the Prez “canvas” helps you think through HOW you are going to present information…

  • http://blog.tippingpointlabs.com/blog tpldrew

    Tyson and Dave,
    Thanks so much for taking the time to write such a great post. I really enjoyed the experience speaking to the SMB group. Everyone was receptive and open to new ideas and thinking. Thanks for being part of that.

    As far as Prezi goes, you're absolutely right. For someone like me that has a really hard time conforming to a 1024X768 square for a slide. I like building a series of separate stories and putting them together into a larger presentation.

    Prezi is great, the number one thing to concentrate on is keeping your moves logical and close. Your audience gets lost when you zoom for no reason.

    Thanks as well for shooting the video! Nice work. Great phone! We just uploaded our longer version of the Meat Loaf section – or Meatloaf… :)

    Thanks again!
    - Drew

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qODcLDvMU9Q

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