Presentations - new style
Aug 22nd, 2008 by Hans De Keulenaer
(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...Three recent books introduce a refreshing style for doing presentations and running meetings.
Dan Roam’s “The Back of the Napkin” invites its readers to give up slides altogether, and use flipcharts and blackboards instead. The central idea is visual thinking, drawing graphics as you explain them, rather than taking audiences through endless bullet points. The book is full of practical advice for doing this. A must read.
Garr Reynold’s “Presentationzen” is a plea for preparing your presentation offline. Rather than a method, it introduces a presentation philosophy, heavily influenced by Asian culture. The central idea is simplicity. While obviously influencing many of today’s speakers, the concept of presentationzen is relatively unproven for complex subjects, such as science or technology. Nevertheless, a must read.
Cliff Richardson’s “Beyond Bullet Points” introduces a rigorous method for developing convincing presentations. It invites readers to forget about built-in slide designs and layouts. The book is a bit lengthy for its subject matter, but the approach has merit.
If you do not have the time to read any of above books, you may prefer to browse the (unrelated) presentation ‘Death by PowerPoint’ which succintly conveys some of their ideas.
If you know great books on presentation design, I’d much appreciate your comment.