Hi Garr,
I so enjoyed your Google talk! Having read your book and being a regular reader of your blog, it was nice to "meet" you in person. I'm a teacher at a K-12 independent school in New York, and am pushing for our opening faculty meetings this coming August to focus on creativity. I'd love to have several talks running throughout the day, including Sir Ken's and yours. (I'd also love to have a Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain – http://www.drawright.com/ – session for our faculty.)

I benefit from your regular doses of inspiration, both in design and in general.
Regards,
Laurie

At last! I'd been looking forward to this since you announced your talk at google. An hour well spent, very enlightning, rock on!

I find myself on both sides of the podium these days, both as a presentation designer and speaker. When I set up an environment for speakers or musicians, I try to make sure I bring/acquire a "confidence monitor" - a small display that the speaker can see up front. Often, the AV table is the back of the room - the laptop isn't close enough to see Keynote's excellent presentation view (two screens: current and next). So, the next best thing is to bring a long VGA cable (ours go to 100') and a VGA splitter, and feed it up to a cheap LCD up front. It really helps our presenters face forward during a presentation.

If you speak and don't set up, it's something you should request of the facility. Most often they can accommodate.

Garr, thank you for keeping up the blog since your book release. It's much appreciated - I learn something every time!

Thank you for the presentation. It was inspiring.

I'm wondering about your thoughts on the slides/spoken-word ratio. In this very presentation I sometimes got distracted because the slides were flipping so fast. You always stick to just a few words per slide, and I fully agree with you on that (got your book), but at times there are whole series of slides with just a few words on each. And when you are talking, you flip through them so they are in sync with what you say. Throw in a couple illustrative, emotional photos in between also and it get quite intense.

Sometime I feel that this is somewhat distracting. Either I'm super concentrated on following the slides in order to not miss something (causing me not to pay full attention to what you are saying), or I wonder what word I missed just because a blinked when I sat back just listening.

With your presence on the scene and narrative skill, the message comes across so well anyway, so I think the sections with really fast paced slide flipping is just a distraction. They don't add so much to the message.

Would love to hear you elaborate more on this matter.

Garr,

I think you've talked about Jazz before, but I haven't commented and I don't want to let another opportunity pass.

Jazz and presenting match up at a lot of points, but to me the most important is practice. In both, you don't practice every word or every note. Instead, both require you to practice the structure, the underlying framework, of what you're trying to share with the audience. It's a new way of practicing for most of us, and getting it right makes a huge difference.

Thanks as always for your consistent insight.

John

Very nice job at Google. Thanks very much for posting the video.

A few quick fun comments. "Simplicity is..." to which I would complete it as "simplicity is... simplicity. To say that simplicity is something else (for example, clarity or white space) is to deny the other words their full power. Consider that simplicity is simplicity, clarity is clarity, white space is white space, and so forth. For me this is truly powerful, and gives full voice to the ideas inside that I want to share with my audience."

As far as a great presentation, I once saw and heard the violinist Isaac Stern play a Mozart violin concerto with a symphony orchestra. No slides, no words, in fact. But Isaac spoke the truth through his violin in a way that others would die to be able to do. That was a truly great presentation.

Keep up the marvelous work!

Russ Conte

Garr:
I watched your Google presentation and found it very inspiring. I am preparing for a two-day seminar on presentation for a company. I have been working with your book and I find it very valuable and inspiring for my preparation. I am going to include quite a few of your concepts and ideas and I am certainly going to recommend your book and blog to the people. Any plans for a translation into German?
Chris

Hi Garr,

I have learned a great deal from you and want to say thank you.

Also, a quick question. What is the logic behind sprinkling in those quick questions throughout your talk, e.g. "anyone from Japan"? Audience engagement? Information for yourself?

Thanks again.

Brian Law

hey garr, great presentation - i really love it! after having to put up with many bad presentations here in switzerland, it is a real pleasure to sit back and enjoy this video. thanks, and hope to see you soon in japan ...sebi

Really amazing! .. i wanna be a student in your university course ;p

Garr:
I have watched your Google presentation again and find it both very entertaining and insightful. As a matter of fact, I was surprised how much I was able to learn in those approx. 50 minutes regarding presentation structure, theming/story and visualizing (your slides are a real benchmark: simple, metaphorical and concise).

Still I would like to offer you some feedback on your presentation style. While I appreciate the way you make use of gestures, I wonder whether the way you move across the stage in front of your audience supports your presentation. From your presentation style it becomes apparent that you are an active and engaging character. But maybe here less would be more? Why not take a stand and pace your movements according to the content/images you are communicating? Try to set up different positions on the stage from which you communicate different aspects of your presentation. Listeners learn fast and on an unconscious level. After you have established your positions, they know that at one particular point on the stage you are relating a story (metaphor), from another you are giving hard facts and yet from another you want them to ask questions/participate actively. Keep your positions clean, eg. do not say something negative from a position which is used to touch upon the emotions of your audience.
Rather than cooling down the atmosphere or hampering your enthusiasm, it would add another dimension to your presentation style, making it even more subtle and appealing. You could also anchor laughter (or understanding or agreement) from the audience with a gesture.

I find your metaphor about jazz very appropriate and deep. Although I am not a musician, I know, intuitively, what you mean. It also brings to mind the image of a conductor. She does not say any words but is able to produce - with her gestures - the most magical sounds on earth, spell-binding her audience. Conductors are leaders, which brings us back to one theme of your presentation and to you. You are a leader and a role model.
Best,
Chris

Garr, that was really nice.
I'm so glad that there are people spreading dharma in our real life, and i think you're one of them.
Thanks a lot from Russian zen follower, keep on sharing zen approach to life, communication and all the rest.

This presentation is definitely IT for me in regards to a "How to do it" quick reference. Is worth seeing it over and over.. any plans to make it available for dowload with sampole slides?