A few days ago our buddy Seth Godin had a great riff about the future of presenting at conferences and meetings. As online presentation technology gets better — and the cost and inconvenience of travel continues to get worse — our expectations for the live events we attend is going to go up. In other words, says Seth, "'I flew all the way here for this?' is going to be far more common than it used to be." On presentations at conferences, Seth says, "If you think a great conference is one where the presenters read a script while showing the audience bullet points, you're wrong." (The quote is in the slide above — click to get the full size.)
This too is a great line and has direct relevance for just about any live presentation: "Here's what someone expects if they come to see you on an in-person sales call: that you'll be prepared, focused, enthusiastic and willing to engage honestly about the next steps. If you can't do that, don't have the meeting."
And speaking of Seth Godin — who I consider to be a fantastic presenter with a relaxed, natural presence — let me remind you of this presentation that Seth did at Google a couple of years ago. I pointed to this before, but never featured it. I couldn't find it while searching the Authors@Google talks on YouTube, but you can find it here on the Google video site, or just watch it below. Even if you have seen it before, it's well worth watching again (hey, there's nothing on TV anyway!). It looks like a similar room to the one I talked in at Google. It's a good room, but there are no monitors so you can't see your screen unless you turn your head (or stay behind the lectern, but who wants to do that?). No worries for Seth though. A great presentation with wonderful, memorable material.
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Thanks Garr! I'm always looking for Seth Godin presentations. Also, I just received my Brain Rules book. Can't wait to read it.
Thanks for all the valuable information.
Posted by: JT | May 24, 2008 at 05:41 AM
Very interesting, thanks.
Did anyone else notice the slick fade around minute 44, just after the "Why is GoogleMaps not working" question? Someone edited the footage and cut out a couple of minutes. He went from talking about GoogleMaps to talking about Howard Stern on radio.
The really exciting question is... what was the censored question?! ;-)
Posted by: Noah | May 25, 2008 at 06:34 AM
Totally off topic: so you weren't kidding when you earlier responded that you'd like to visit New Zealand. Sadly I have doubts I'll get $approval$ to attend your presentation, but I'm sure you'll enjoy your time here.
Posted by: Lance Andrewes | May 27, 2008 at 08:54 AM
Also totally off topic: The slide showing in the Google Video preview is a great example of alienating a portion of your audience. I am colorblind and I know that there is a word above personal (I can see the compression artifacts) but I can't read it. Slides such as this frustrate me more than normal sighted folks can imagine.
When designing slides it may be a good idea to show some compassion to those of us* with less than perfect color vision.
On the plus side, this is one of those slides that adds little -- if any -- value. Charts and graphs which are color coded are much worse.
Sorry about the rant... It is a sore spot with me.
Thanks,
Jeff
* us = approximately 10% of all guys (women are rarely colorblind.
Posted by: Jeff | May 28, 2008 at 09:49 AM
Sticking with the off-topic topic: my attendance at your June 30th presentation in Wellington is approved! Thoroughly looking forward to it. Lance.
Posted by: Lance Andrewes | May 29, 2008 at 05:29 PM
I liked that Seth used pictures for his slides and very few words.
Posted by: Chuck | May 31, 2008 at 04:00 PM
Garr, I would like to thank you in kind for the pointers to these excellent presentations. This is Mark Pesce's excellent presentation on Mob Rules. This is Mark at his best and I am sure your readership will enjoy it. Beautifully timed, superbly illustrated and memorable.
http://www.viddler.com/explore/mpesce/videos/12/
Regards, John.
Posted by: John Larkin | June 01, 2008 at 11:56 AM