I’m sitting in the ‘classroom’ in LTS attending the ‘Inspiration’ sessions that Ewan McIntosh organises for us. (I can see a few bloggers infront of me – John Johnston, Neil Winton, David Noble, Mike Coulter, Bill Boyd), David Gilmour, Tess Watson) Today we’re looking at Hans Rosling and how much your presentation style says about your content. He makes statistics seem sexy – if you haven’t seen the presentation, then watch it below:
How often have you seen someone presenting data or text in a presentation in a visually poor way? A picture says a thousand words.
The tool that Hans Rosling uses is gapminder – a collection of tools that makes presenting data visual.
Ewan has asked us to work in a groups to identify what makes his presentation good, and what could have been done more effectively – here are some of the suggestions from the room:
Good?
Enthusiasm, humour, passion, approachable rapport, software (use of graphics and animation), multimedia, leading up to a punchline, (free up your data), telling a story (health not wealth), we shouldn’t generalise about areas of the world, supported metaphor, software enhanced what he was saying, cultural metaphor (day at the races) – who’s in the lead, he knew his presentation (software and subject matter) expertly, few words or bullet points,
What could be done more effectively?
Very fast in his delivery (Ewan noted his pace a positive pace), too long, quite often had his back to the audience, quite political in points?
We then had a quick look at Steve Jobs presentation style. Why is Steve Jobs a good presenter? He tells stories really well. Fairy stories – triumvirate colons – repetition – using transitions at the right place (transitions are best used when you make a transition in the points you are making)
Are we good at admitting where we’re not doing well? Or are facing challenges?
We had a quick look at probably the most famous speech in history – ‘I have a dream‘ – did you know it’s 12 minutes before MLK utters his famous phrase?
Compare presentation styles – Steve Balmer – look how animated he is, and how often he says the same thing over and over again. He is a classic example of how not to present!
Ewan then asked us to spend time on a presentation that we give. He gave us a few tips to think about presentation styles – pecha kucha, 10-20-30 rule (10 slides, 20 minutes, 30 point font), Flickr for images, zamzar for grabbing video to use in a location where we cannot access video, splashr, or piclens to mix your presentation up. Bring along a real live example – Jill Bolte Taylor – her example is quite extreme!) – rehearse your key points if you are speaking, rehearse the entire thing if you are presenting, always ask to use your own laptop, get a roving mic. Numerous good points for us to consider!
Ewan has provided all the links used today over on the connected live site.
