Re: it's been a while since we discussed the use of PowerPoint in meetings

[t.p. <[e-mail]>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mukom Akong T." <[e-mail]>
To: "Tony Hansen" <[e-mail]>
Cc: "IETF Discussion" <[e-mail]>
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2014 3:54 AM

If a presenter is bad, no tool can rescue him (PowerPoint or Keynote or
Prezi or etc etc). The problem is that most people were never taught (or
took the time to learn) how to present to an audience. There are really
simple rules of effective presentation and the tool (PowerPoint vs
Keynote
etc) is insignificant .

What the organisers could do to help speakers is to present presentation
guidelines for speakers

<tp>

So true, and IETF89 provided plenty of case studies thereon.

But you do omit what I would see as rule zero of any presentation -
introduce yourself; not your life history, not all those I-Ds you have
authored, just a  statement of your name and, if it is relevant to what
you are about to say, the context within which you are involved with the
topic.  Not doing so is a powerful message to the audience, along the
lines of if you don't know this already, you do not belong here:-(

In the same vein, I was surprised at how many Working Groups at IETF89
like to be anonymous; walk into a room, hoping to have navigated to the
correct one, to be greeted by a blank screen and then someone - who? -
starts talking about 'Note Well'.  You could be anywhere:-)

Tom Petch


a) No more than X slides per 15 minutes

b) Minimum font size (I personally don't go below 25 for bullets and 18
for
text on a diagram)

c) Good visuals (as most of the talks might be about networking ... the
organisers could commission a designer to provide standard elements to
be
used in presentations ... router, switch, server etc. But then you can
get
all of that from free from openclipart.org)

d) A ration of text : graphic slides. (I personally try to have every
other
slide be graphic/illustration .... but I'd say 1 graphic slide to every
4
is ok)

e) Maximum number of bullets points per slide ( 5 - 7 max)

For those who might be interested. Nancy Duarte (a presentations expert)
released an online copy of her book "Resonate" for free. Find it at
http://resonate.duarte.com

And yes .... slides are not the only way to present and not every
presentation must be in the format of slides.



On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 5:44 AM, Tony Hansen <[e-mail]> wrote:

> I ran into this article and felt it worth sharing:
>
> Physicists, Generals And CEOs Agree: Ditch The PowerPoint
> http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/03/16/
> 288796805/physicists-generals-and-ceos-agree-ditch-the-powerpoint
>
> Actually, the article is not all one sided -- it does also discuss
some
> times when they feel that PowerPoint *is* useful.
>
>     Tony Hansen
>
>


--

Mukom Akong T.

http://about.me/perfexcellence |  twitter: @perfexcellent
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