Panelists:
Jared Goralnick, Productivity Evangelist, AwayFind
Cliff Atkinson, BBP Media
Craig Ball, Pres, Craig D Ball PC
Kathy Sierra, CreatingPassionateUsers
#brain is the hashtag
Jared says:
- we’re distracted
- engage your audience
- introducing the panelists
Cliff says:
- no research that says what we’re doing with presentation software is the best way to learn and communicate
- talking about research that shows stuff in presentations like charts, bullet point words, etc don’t really work
- we have an “eye of the needle” task in presenting – we have a lot of info we want to share, and our audience’s limits of short-term memory
- sync the two channels – visual and aural
- guide attention – show and say what we want our audience to pay attention to
- we’re shifting from looking at presentations as a sheet of paper to more of a filmstrp approach with a beginning, middle and end
Kathy Sierra says:
- your brain and mind are in an epic battle
- the brain’s spam filter – we can’t tune it very well
- the brain cares about chemistry – stuff that sends a little chemical signal
- novel, strange, or a little weird get noticed. stuff that stands out (a purple duck in a sea of yellow ducks)
- thrilling, exciting, scary, innocent and might need help
- sense of joy
- faces – real, drawn, etc
- brains love to resolve things and fill things in
The brain does not care about:
- tablet PCs, code
- cheap trick vs useful tool (putting cool face with code) – makes people think about their girlfriend, and not the code
- talk to the brain, not to the mind (her main point)
Craig Ball says:
- he’s been a trial lawyer
- talking about juror retention. ear input only, not so hot. eye also was better. hearing & seeing – bingo!
- showing how he pulled the imprtant stuff out of boring documents
- uses Ken Burns effect sith backgrounds of slides
- he actually took parts and pieces of a photo out, then put them back in using the animation feature of powerpoint (that almost no one uses)
- showing how he uses those animation techniques to introduce complex ideas to people
What’s the biggest mistake people make?
- Cliff – using the screen as speaker notes. Instead, use the screen as visual cues
- Kathy – showing a slide of a brochure vs an instruction manual. Don’t teach about the tool. Instead, teach about what people want to DO with the tool.
- think more like a marketer
- Craig – when you talk AND put text on the screen at the same time, you’re forcing people to make a choice, and you wil lose
Lightning talk format or going through lots of slides quickly – is this helpful?
- Kathy – that’s not the important question – it’s a technique. The better question is what is it that happens between your ears when you present?
Visual persuasion tips?
Craig – go to my website, I’ve written lots aobut it
When is it appropriate to use bullet points?
- Cliff – that’s a loaded question.
- our culture is stuck in a bullet point mindset …
- when is it appropriate to put bulletpoints in a filmstrip? Never. Does anyone ever put up the script in a film? No.
- instead, think story with a beginning, middle and end.
- Kathy – she sometimes uses bulletpoints. Sometimes you just want to show a collection of stuff
- Craig – it depends. But don’t read the bulletpoints to people.
- if the bulletpoint has to wrap, it’s a bad sentence – change it.
- is there a better way to present it? Then use that instead of a bulletpoint
How can we present so that we don’t leave just with a good reaction, but with good stuff to take away?
- Kathy – orientation is everything – how you view the audience and your role to the audience is everything.
- in a panel on doing better presentations – that’s the wrong focus. Instead, we need to focus on what YOU do.
- Focus on how to make individuals int he audience do whatever they do better.
- Cliff – like a modern website – focus on the user!
Backchannel thing – how does that affect people’s ability to retain info?
- Craig – he knows he has failed his audience when his lawyers go into “blackberry prayer” mode.
- Cliff – it depends. If you use it as a note-taking device, that’s cool. Audiences don’t put up with bad presentations anymore. We can now hear when we’re off the mark.
- Kathy – not that important of a question. She trusts that we’ll do whatever we need to do. If the presenter has done their job, it’s ok.
end stuff:
Craig:
- powerpoint is a lousy word processor
- never use a template!
- tap into popular culture
Kathy:
- use puppies.
- ask this for each slide: does it have a pulse? Is it begging to be there?
Cliff:
- … read his book.
Q&A:
Q: she works at NIH – there’s an expectation for slides to be … boring. What to do?
A: Cliff – powerpoint culture – it’s strong in research organizations. So start by educating people that what they’re doing is not based in research
A: Kathy: Include both, switch back and forth.
Q: Varying education levels, lots of computer-based training. Not sure if she’s engaging them… what to do?
A: Cliff – how people learn is the same in live and online training. So use the same types of concepts.
Q: he presents to executives – they interrupt a lot – what to do? and his presentations need to be portable – how to do it when there’s no voiceover?
A: Cliff – include text notes in with the slide in a handout, pdf format – works both live and later.
Cliff – on the first part of the question – open slides up to dialogue – prompt the conversation so they feel like they can talk without interrupting.
A: Craig – record your presentation while you’re doing it – then you have the audio too.