Opening Gambits for Presentations

In the book "Presenting to Win" the author gives some great ways to open any presentation:

1. The Question... "how may of you know that...?"
2. The Factoid...a very striking fact.
3. Retroactive/Perspective.... "We used to do it that way, now we do it this way."
4. The Anecdote... a very short story.
5. The Quotation
6. The Aphorism (familiar saying)
7. The Analogy ... compare two seemingly unrelated items... "this project is like a house..."

Link: Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, Updated and Expanded Edition

Pecha Kucha for Chunky Learning

I was just out surfing the 'net, and found some interesting stuff about a presentation technique they call Pecha Kucha

"Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each - giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show." www.pecha-kucha.org

Just pondering what could be the implications for training in a concise way? with Pecha Kucha the slides change automatically every 20 seconds... so it forces the story along, forces the ideas to be focused.

(This reminds me of a time back around 1995 when I was working on a project in Santiago Chile, and one of the managers was giving a presentation using PowerPoint. This was back when using PowerPoint was still novel. He had something like 80 slides, and 5 minutes, and he used the PowerPoint feature that made every slide change automatically. Do the math. Went something like this... "I am presenting today about the mission and vision of our.... ok next slide! we feel that our most important values are the values of.... sorry but it is going to fast... here you can see the list of our strategies, which are ranked here from the most ...... next slide now..." )

More Books about PowerPoint

Thanks for suggestions about other books about PowerPoints and Presentations. Your recommendations include:

Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter)

Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story

Reading Today: Persuasive Presentations for Business

Today (and a bit yesterday and a chunk a month ago) I have been reading a book called "Persuasive Presentations for Business" by Robert W. Bly. I ordered it from Amazon.

The reason that I picked up this book is because I had to give a presentation about change management and was frankly a bit nervious. This was a ten minute presentation to a CEO and her staff, and I was browzing the books and found this one. I am glad I did!

This book, which is written in an easy to understand style, gives some great tips on how to write the speach, how to engage the audience, etc. The author has a "number one secret" which I am going to let you in on because you are so nice in reading my blog.

"When I am speaking to a group," Bly writes, "I look into the audience as I begin talking, find one person who is looking back at me, and make eye contact. Then, I talke to just that one person as if we were having a private, one-on-one conversation. I know everyone else can hear us. But notice: I am not 'giving a lecture' or 'making a speech,' those activities that the average person approaches with fear and trepidation. Instead, I am just having a conversation with one person."

When I speak to big groups, I always like to meet people at the door, shake their hands, and try to find a person who seems genuinly interested in what I am going to talk about. That is the person who I give my presentation to: someone who I know and not to strangers.

Now I am preparing for another big presentation (this one for a group of 300 executives) and I am going to use some of the tips and secrets that I am learning in this highly readable and concise paperback: Persuasive Presentations for Business.

click here to see it on Amazon