Quick takeaways from Presentation Summit 2011–Day 2

After coming back from a conference, it’s so easy to get immersed in day-to-day work. I owe you more of my thoughts about the Presentation Summit 2011 and it has been hard to get to it. But I want you to get as much benefit as possible from my attendance. Here are my takeaways from Day 2.

Garr Reynolds on learning from bamboo

The morning keynote speaker was Garr Reynolds, the famous author of the PresentationZen blog and book, calling us via Skype from Japan, where he lives. He talked about learning from nature. He used bamboo, which grows in Japan (among other places), as an example. Garr is working on a new book on the topic. Some points:

• Strength is in kindness, compassion, acceptance and cooperation. Bamboo bends in the wind and as a result it does not break.
• Slow down your busy mind. He quoted a Taoist proverb:  “We cannot see our reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.”
• Find wisdom in emptiness. Bamboo is hollow inside, yet strong.
• Commit yourself to growth and renewal. Bamboo can grow 1 foot or more per day.
• Unleash your power to spring back. Bamboo bends over in winter and springs back in the spring. Garr quoted a Japanese proverb: “Fall down seven times, get up eight.”

Julie Terberg on fixing your templates

Julie Terberg is one of the top presentations designers in the United States and always offers great sessions at Presentation Summit. She talked about templates, how they get messed up, and how to fix them–or how to not break them in the first place.

Some of her points were:

• Leave in all the layouts  in the slide master (this is for PowerPoint 2007 and 2010) so that if you bring in a slide from another presentation, the layout it uses is sure to be available.
• Don’t customize the default layouts; instead, duplicate a layout, rename it, and customize the duplicate.
• Leave the footers on the slide master, in case you need them. Turn footers on and off by choosing Insert tab> Text group> Header & Footer. (Don’t let the wording fool you; there are no headers in PowerPoint, but you can move a footer to the top of the slide.)

 Glenna Shaw–Every presentation is a project

When you find out that you have to deliver a presentation, you are starting a project. Glenna Shaw explained how to use professional project management skills for that project. For that purpose, she created a Project Charter document and an amazing Excel spreadsheet to keep track of everything, including scheduling, human resources, rick, and costs. I learned that a project has 5 phases:

1. Initiation
2. Planning
3. Executing
4. Controlling
5. Closing

Participants of the conference were able to download both the document and spreadsheet for their own use.

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