Silver Goldfish Project

Don't risk the main point to interpretation or insight. State it. Plainly. Clearly. Early. Often.

According to Nancy Duarte, an hour-long presentation could take from 36-90 hours to prep for. Many will have far less time to prepare, but we can use the following rubric from Duarte:

1/3 time collecting, organizing and sketching
1/3 time building slides
1/3 time rehearsing

Credit: https://divergentmba.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/slideology-by-nancy-duarte-2/

The picture superiority effect refers to the phenomenon in which pictures and images are more likely to be remembered than words. This effect has been demonstrated in numerous experiments using different methods. It is based on the notion that "human memory is extremely sensitive to the symbolic modality of presentation of event information."

People remember 10% of words compared to 65% of pictures.

Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_superiority_effect

Size matters. Minimum size font is 30.

I love this tip by Guy Kawasaki. Take the age of the oldest person in the room for your presentation and divide it by half to find the minimum size font for your slides.

Credit: YouTube

The audience will remember the first thing they hear. Start strong with a good story. Bill Stainton says "Start with your second best story... finish with your best one"

There is a concept in psychology called the serial position effect (also called the primacy and recency effect) that was first coined by Hermann Ebbinghaus. What the concept implies is that when people are asked to recall a list of items that are presented to them, they tend to be able to best recall those at the end of the list (the recency effect) and those at the beginning of the list (the primacy effect) better than those in the middle of the list.

Credit: Bill Stainton and https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/customer-relationships-and-primacy-and-recency-effect

Don't walk in front of the projector when presenting. Here are three tips to avoid the light Carol Ann:

1. If the projector is mounted overhead, test how close you can walk next to the screen during set-up. Use some masking tape on the floor for a mark/cue.

2. If the projector is on a table or cart ... just walk around it.

3. Use the blackout button on the slide advancer/clicker.

You play like you practice. Go through your talk like you will be giving it. Some words sound different out loud than in your head. You will also find repeated phrases easier that way. And it's just good practice. Bonus: record yourself and listen as well.

Practice stories in different levels of detail = different time. This allows you to manage time on the fly. Aiom for three minutes, but have a one minute and a ten mintue version as well. The moral doesn't change.

Watch video of "behind the scenes voiceover" of your favorite animated flick (Toy Story?). You'll see actors/actresses in the studio acting in full character. BUT their voice is the only thing that makes the film. You cannot make a wild gesture or a crazy facial expression and NOT have your voice change. You can hear a smile over the phone

have an entire message before you fire up PPT. DOn't copy from another person's slides. Make the points, organize the talk, fill in the detail, and THEN have slides only if you need them.

Note that "to remember what to say is NOT on this list"
1. To reinforce an important point (they HAVE to get the message)
2. When it’s easier or quicker with a visual (e.g. trends in numerical data)
3. To make a point from data (never just show data!)
4. To show progress
5. To connect with audience emotion

Ever.
People who can read cannot not read

Examine when they are used, who needs them, and their purpose. Three tools. Three purposes

We live in the information age. I can find any fact in 30 seconds with my phone. I can watch every lecture from MIT for free. I can find information. By itself, it's uselss and doesn't differentiate (or entertain). INSIGHT is valuable. Apply the data.
Three questions to answer from data.

1. Big or small
2. Trend/expected or unexpected
3. What's it mean (to audience) 1.

"There is no such thing as a natural-born pilot. Whatever my attitude or talents, becoming a proficient pilot was hard work, really a lifetime's learning experience. The best pilots fly more than others; that's why they're the best."
Applies to speaking as well

A new teen driver has to spend ALL of their attention just to make a car go straight. An adult driver can change the radio, carry on a conversation, find their sunglasses, discipline a child, and flip off another driver and still keep the car straight. Why? Because they don'[t have to think about it. Until yo ucan make your skills (eye ocntact, gestures, voice, posture) autonomous, it will take mentla power away from your content and your audience.

No one every remarked about posture on an evaluation. But people/audience INFER from your posture. Lazy. Arrogant. Defensive. Nervous. Doens't want to be there. Use netural posture to remove distractions and send the most positive impression possible.

They may guess. But if you can master skills, you can fool an audience. Nervousness is no excuse. Execute. And don't ever tell them you're nervous. It's not as connective as you think.

Learn to honor the period, dash, comma, and ellipsis. STOP. Don't use and, so, well, now, you know, right to continue. Stop. And start a new sentence. Audiecne can't process thought until you quit. International audiences are still trying to translate. PAUSE. It's a gift to the audience.

12 seconds according to Forbes (2012).
Reputation. Dress (take your woman friend's advice), and posture.

Single thought, one person. Best advice ever. Don't ever speak unless you're looking at a set (not sets) of eyes. Solves reading slides. Solves reading notes. Connects. Feedback for presenter.

Gestures shoudl be away from body. With shoulder, not elbow. Above the shoulder. Bigger than you think is necessary. And appropriate to space.

Figure out where you can move. Change it if you can/must. Dry run electronics if you can.

For time. Volume. Errands. Scribe. You have other things to do on stage

Don't "Wait for a few more to show up " to start. Either start or don;t. Never say "before we get started" (you already did)