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Editor's Notes

• #3: We’ve all sat through painful, seemingly interminable presentations. You know– the ones where you are either falling asleep, updating your Linked In profile or falling asleep while updating your Linked In profile. Then there are those presentations that make you sit up straighter, make your heart beat faster, make you see the world differently. You feel changed and inspired and ready to act. What makes the difference? I suspect that Robert asked me to present on this topic because he knows I’m capable of both. I’m aiming for the latter today, but it’s possible that you are out there answering emails and playing Words with Friends while I’m talking. I don’t confess to having any particular expertise in this area, but I’m happy to talk for a few minutes about what I have observed as the differences between sleep-inducing and awe-inspiring presentations.
• #4: Because I like order and categories, I’m going to structure things around these ideas…
• #5: And finally, we’ll look at some resources for creating infographics, and for finding and editing images.
• #6: The very most important thing is this. Who is your audience? Are they subject specialists or people who just stumbled in, looking for a place to sit? Are they required to be there or there of their own free will? What do they already know? What do you want them to walk away with? How do you want to make them feel? What grabs your attention? Ways to engage the audience: let them participate. Ask questions, let them arrive at conclusions. Be real and vulnerable. If you’re nervous, say so. Make them laugh. Engaging people’s emotions is a powerful way to hold their attention.
• #7: Research it, polish it, believe in it, practice it. You can make a bad presentation with a good idea (I’ve done this), but it’s nearly impossible to make a good presentation with a bad idea– ultimately, it’s about substance, not form. Tell a story– in two ways: 1. illustrate your points with an image, a story, or supporting data. 2. Lead your audience through a transformative experience. Remember your audience, and reduce your topic down to the most relevant, bare bones structure possible. You will never be able to convey all that you want to convey. Be aware of time! Frame your topic for your audience and let them know what sets this information apart from any other information they could access. The best way to do this is to research– see what is out there and what other people have said about it. Personally, I am all about mini course corrections. If I’m presenting in a line-up, I’ll always try to be one of the last presenters. For me, there’s no substitute for being able to make a few last minute changes to the delivery. Which brings us to the next idea…
• #8: Know yourself. If you need to practice eight hours a day for a full week, take a week off. If you like to memorize your presentation, do it. If you feel most comfortable with notes in your hand, have them ready. Know what works for you. That being said, TED talks presenters are coached beginning six months in advance of their presentations. By the final month, all of their material is memorized, and they work on fine-tuning. There is nothing like practice to make your presentation sound, look, and feel natural and conversational. The best presenters are the best practicers. Really the small things do, ultimately, make a big difference. Take one of my colleagues, who had developed an airtight presentation and exceptional visuals to accompany it. He began speaking to the library board, and about a minute into it, the sound person adjusted his mic volume up. He was suddenly much louder, and it clearly threw him. He was unable to recover from this, and his presentation fell apart. It’s for this reason that, if at all possible, it’s really helpful to practice in the presentation location…. This brings us to “know your venue.”
• #9: Whether you’re presenting online or in person, know everything you can about the location and again, if it’s possible at all, practice on site. Know where you enter and exit, know if you’ll be standing at a podium, if you’ll have to ascend stairs, if you’ll be mic’d, if there will be lights on you. Practice with the in-house technology. Have a backup plan. Think about the time of day. Bring water. Dress appropriately. Think through every minute of the presentation, from the time you have to park your car to the time you finally leave the building.
• #10: Since we’ve covered the knows, I thought maybe we should also talk about some “no’s.”
• #11: I still think it’s surprising to see slides like this, and even more surprising when speakers try to read them word for word during a presentation. Don’t do this. Robert was present when I gave my final Eureka summation, and I was dinged for trying to fit too many online comments into one slide. Images and graphics really are more powerful than words. Think about what you want to say, and find a way to represent it. Pretend you have to rely on cave painting– PPT and Prezi really are just modern day cave paintings. Use word words in your oral presentation, and give your audience something captivating-- but not distracting-- to look at. Toward the end of this, I will list some good places to find images.
• #12: It’s hard to pay attention to someone who spends the whole time self-aggrandizing or who focuses on their role rather than the topic. If you feel your qualifications are very relevant, make them brief. On the other hand… we want to know who you are.
• #13: Use this space. I’m a big tweeter at conferences, and I hate having to dig through my conference app or schedule to find out who the heck is speaking and what the title of the presentation is. Also, if you took the time to put together a good slide deck, share it. Places like �ݺ�ߣ Share are great for getting your name associated with specific subjects or movements. Your own internal staff site is a fantastic place to post things also. Just make sure you take credit for your work by including your name where it counts.
• #14: Make it easy by including the presentation, title, your name, and other relevant information. Perhaps your organization’s logo?
• #15: Just don’t let yourself do it. I know how easy it is to slip into these words. Even excessive and drawn-out aaaaands count against you. I’m notorious for using these. Instead, pause. Breathe. Better a moment of silence than to dilute your excellent message with this stuff. You sound more authoritative and in control when you work to omit these. (story about Toastmaster’s ah um counter)
• #16: Spell check doesn’t catch everything, but there is really no excuse for presenting a slide deck with misspelled words that it does catch. The squiggly red line means something!
• #17: Okay, enough already with the nos. A few more tips and resources and then you’ll be expert presenters. Let’s talk about visuals. What do you see here? What makes a good visual presentation? Visual consistency (color, font, font size, images) Readability (both text and infographics– should make sense) Visual relevance to topic (serious level up here) Subtle repetition, but not the same thing every time Fun, whimsy, humor– where appropriate Look at other people’s slides! Borrow, steal! Give yourself freedom and time to develop a style. This really is like making art. http://noteandpoint.com/ http://designshack.net/articles/graphics/5-gorgeous-note-point-presentations-you-have-to-see/
• #18: Don’t do this. (Make your infographics bite sized and CLEAR). Convey one or two concepts or ideas at a time.
• #19: Do this. http://piktochart.com/ $ http://www.creativebloq.com/infographic/tools-2131971 (list of free ones)
• #20: Or this.
• #21: Also, structure. What makes a good presentation structure? Clarity of structure: tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them (essentially a structural version of the rule of 3) Rule of three: easy to remember, feels satisfying, smallest amount of info that creates a pattern. Example: stop, drop, and roll. Or shake, rattle, and roll.
• #22: Vocal variety also can express meaning and hold your audience’s interest. Think about aspects of vocal variety: Cadence- the rhythm of your speech Speed- the pace at which you speak Volume- how loudly you speak Pitch- the degree to which a tone is perceived as high or low– as in music Duration (of sounds)– holding them longer can create emphasis http://katepeters.com/blog/2011/12/09/what-is-your-vocal-variety-saying-about-you/
• #23: http://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Infographic_CanIUseThatPicture4.jpg I don’t want to be flippant about this, but I do believe in careful, lawful, and ethical reuse of images. I do find and use online images, but cautiously.
• #24: I realize that I’m breaking my own rules here, but this is useful for considering when to use or not to use an image. Here’s a link: http://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Infographic_CanIUseThatPicture4.jpg Always try to find public domain, creative commons licensed, or fair use images. You can, of course, also buy images for fairly nominal amounts if they are for sale. If something is strictly copyrighted, this is your best bet. If something falls into the gray area– say, an image you found in an image search (which is my favorite way to search and to get ideas), try to get permission. I’ve made new friends this way, and it also gets your organization’s name and (good) reputation out there. The other thing that works for “gray area” images is to edit them heavily. There are a million image editing sites out there. I use PicMonkey A LOT. You can do pretty amazing things with it. Since I’m not super proficient with professional tools, this seems to work well for most applications. If you want to explore the options, just Google “image editing site” and you will get 59,000,000 results in 32 seconds, plus or minus a few. Again, be careful, be respectful, be aware of the law.
• #25: I got this off Pexels, which is a site I love. I learned about so many more prepping for this presentation! I’m taking these back to my library’s marketing and digital branch groups!
• #26: Ok, we covered a lot. Quick review…
• #27: The Knows: audience, material, yourself, the venue.
• #28: The Nos: Not too much text! Easy on the self-promotion No filler words- just breathe Anonymous presenters begone– say who you are and what you’re talking about (preferably on every slide) No misspelled words- make spell check work for its money
• #29: How to create a powerful visual presentation. Visual consistency (color, font, font size, images) Readability (both text and infographics– should make sense): how and where to create your own infographics Visual relevance to topic (serious level up here) Subtle repetition, but not the same thing every time Fun, whimsy, humor– where appropriate
• #30: Bonus points for visual and conceptual relevance to topic
• #31: And finally, where to find all the stuff. Well, some of it.
• #32: Thanks very much for listening. Obviously, I’m still learning this too. I hope it was helpful. Please drop me a line to say hello or to give me some presentation pointers or to tell me what you’d like to see at CLA!