Comments on: Presentation Zen: No excuse for tedium: Advice on giving technical presentations http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/17/presentation-zen-no-excuse-for-tedium-advice-on-giving-technical-presentations/ Jeff Nolan's take on investment, innovation, entrepreneurship and the technology industry Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:44:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Zoli Erdos http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/17/presentation-zen-no-excuse-for-tedium-advice-on-giving-technical-presentations/comment-page-1/#comment-615 Zoli Erdos Tue, 21 Mar 2006 00:08:42 +0000 http://jeffnolan.com/wp/?p=233#comment-615 Why just on Wednesdays? :-) But joke apart, a good powerpoint deck is one that does not contain enough info to be self-explanatory. That's why sending ppt's in advance does not make sense. If the reader can fully get your message from the ppt, it's too busy, can't be used to enliven a presentation. Why just on Wednesdays? :-)
But joke apart, a good powerpoint deck is one that does not contain enough info to be self-explanatory. That’s why sending ppt’s in advance does not make sense. If the reader can fully get your message from the ppt, it’s too busy, can’t be used to enliven a presentation.

]]> By: Thomas Otter http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2006/03/17/presentation-zen-no-excuse-for-tedium-advice-on-giving-technical-presentations/comment-page-1/#comment-556 Thomas Otter Sat, 18 Mar 2006 16:21:03 +0000 http://jeffnolan.com/wp/?p=233#comment-556 Jeff, first problem with ppt at most companies is that it is used as a speaker aid rather than an audience aid. People focus on building-assembling the slides, not on what they say. The best presenter at SAP is Les Hayman. He doesnt use ppt at all. According to Les If you cant explain it without slides. dont bother. Our slides tend to have everything on them. They make okay handouts but lousy presentations The best use of ppt I ever saw was Lary Lessig at Oxford Union hall 4 years ago. He talked for an hour with 8 slides or so. Each one only had one word on. I can still remember it today. afterwards he gave a handout with all the details he mentioned in the talk. second problem. Not enough people get paid to speak." Doing a half an hour presentation to a room full of customers is blah blah and not real work." in Wdf often the head of the department feels they have to do the presentation because they are the boss. They dont like presenting, so they avoid preparing properly. They then end up reading the slides and boring everyone to death. Too many people get paid to make slides. I normally take the risky assumption that the audience can read, but too many people read out the slides. It would be much better if we took people who were good speakers, and turned them into brilliant ones, and made it their job to speak. If my name was Henning I'd ban powerpoint on wednesdays. Jeff,
first problem with ppt at most companies is that it is used as a speaker aid rather than an audience aid. People focus on building-assembling the slides, not on what they say. The best presenter at SAP is Les Hayman. He doesnt use ppt at all. According to Les If you cant explain it without slides. dont bother. Our slides tend to have everything on them. They make okay handouts but lousy presentations The best use of ppt I ever saw was Lary Lessig at Oxford Union hall 4 years ago. He talked for an hour with 8 slides or so. Each one only had one word on. I can still remember it today. afterwards he gave a handout with all the details he mentioned in the talk.

second problem. Not enough people get paid to speak.” Doing a half an hour presentation to a room full of customers is blah blah and not real work.” in Wdf often the head of the department feels they have to do the presentation because they are the boss. They dont like presenting, so they avoid preparing properly. They then end up reading the slides and boring everyone to death. Too many people get paid to make slides.

I normally take the risky assumption that the audience can read, but too many people read out the slides. It would be much better if we took people who were good speakers, and turned them into brilliant ones, and made it their job to speak.

If my name was Henning I’d ban powerpoint on wednesdays.

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