Slideshare's World's Best Presentation Contest
June 27, 2008
As I sit here waiting for a flight to Wellington via Sydney, here are a few things...
(1) Slideshare announces another "Worlds Best Presentation Contest"
Slideshare announced the "World's Best Presentation Contest" again. Entries are due by July 31st. Judges include Guy Kawasaki, Bert Decker, Nancy Duarte and me. The prizes include a MacBook Air, Amazon Kindle, iPod Nano, iPod Touch, and even copies of Presentation Zen. Check it out.
(2) PZ in Sydney on the 4th of July!
Wow! I am humbled and honored that the response has been so big in Sydney (and Wellington as well; first seminar sold out). I'm really looking forward to presenting In New Zealand and Australia. I know I'm going to fall in love with both countries (can't believe I have not been Down Under yet).
(3) Lessons are all around you.
The mantra I repeat always: the lessons are all around. So here are a few snaps I just took in the airport in Tokyo a few moments ago. It is said (and Nancy Duarte does say it in her new book) that presentations slides have a lot in common with billboards (they need to be big, get the message across, be clear, easy to understand, etc.).
Above: Here is one that is a good reminder that black and white photography makes for really good contrast with warm, big, sans serif text on top.
Above: Proximity.Text elements (or other elements) which are close together will be seen as being part of the same group, so make sure you are clear when a text element belongs to another group (through spacing, color, size, etc.). This sign above looks OK you may be saying (and I suppose it is OK), but while walking fast and being just a big confused, I at first made a mistake. The space indicates that the numbers belong to two different sets (go left or right). For me the spacing was not enough to prevent my confusion (though as a photo frozen in time it looks fine). But the sign below has better spacing between the sets making it clear that there are two different sets even when you are rushing.
Re. the gate numbers. That's an excellent point. It would be much more helpful if the numbers were slightly smaller so that there's room for a thin white line that surrounds each group. The line would form a box that is joined to the arrow. That way, there'd be no doubt that there are just two sets of gates. One group of gates is found this way, the other is found that way.
Posted by: LeeH | June 27, 2008 at 10:00 PM
Garr, I was excited to see the slideshare contest - until I observed that it seems that there can be no audio track in slideshare presentations.
I've designed some great presentations this year, but I think they could be hard to understand without any voiceover. What do you think? Is it worth entering, if people have a hard time understanding the content? Is this simply a visual design contest, or does story carry weight in the judging?
Subtitles might help explain things without being too visually distracting. That's what I used to do when I was developing a lot of animation - I'd make a series of frames in Flash with a subtitle track for the client to understand what was going on.
I'd love to hear your thoughts. I work for an organization with a great vision and gorgeous content - it makes presentations easy to work on.
Posted by: Allan W. | June 28, 2008 at 03:25 AM
Hi Garr.
My "Manga preso" are on the spotlight in slideshare now!
I am really grateful to you for your lesson.
Will you do any preso in Osaka?
Posted by: Masahiko | June 28, 2008 at 12:40 PM
Garr - thanks very much for a great workshop today. As for the weather you've experienced, sorry about that. Wellington really does get a lot of beautiful days - even in mid-winter.
Posted by: Lance Andrewes | June 30, 2008 at 05:41 PM
Hi Garr,
No Sydney Apple Store visit? You seem to have gone quiet on this one.
Cheers, Chris
Posted by: Chris | July 02, 2008 at 07:32 AM
I think another factor that makes the second sign easier to read than the first is the position of the arrow. The first sign has two arrows with a string of numbers between them, making the gap less evident. In the bottom sign, the second directional arrow also helps separate the second group of numbers from the first.
Posted by: Dawn | July 07, 2008 at 01:03 AM
Hi Garr,
I tried to apply all your good advices and tips on presentation and put one of my presentation on vegetarianism in Slideshare for the contest : http://www.slideshare.net/sdeniau/go-veg/
Posted by: Sylvain | July 07, 2008 at 03:00 PM
Garr,
Thanks for the info!
I've put my presentation up and I hope it will gain enough votes that you can judge it! ;)
However, here's the direct link to it: http://www.slideshare.net/mooh94/designing-a-world-contest-presentation
Posted by: Alexis | July 08, 2008 at 03:07 PM
Garr, do you even realize how you're influencing the world of presentation? Just take a look of this year's best presentation contest. So many of contestants admit to being your fans and a lot of presentations even adapted your style. If this level of awareness keeps increasing, you could win the Nobel Peace Prize for helping people of the world convey their message more effectively! :p Great job, Garr...
Posted by: Kreshna Aditya | July 10, 2008 at 11:22 AM
Hi Garr, your tips helped me incredibly! The book is really awesome! Even at work, after one of my presentations I received praises from almost all attendees. And to think one year ago I had done a presentation for the same people - it was long, boring and without orientation. Everyone was tired afterwards.
Now, even after a 90-minute workshop for another group of people I received the comment "Well, it's unfortunate that the workshop was so short".
It might have even increased my chances at my job.
I will submit to the "World's Best Presentation Contest" soon, I won't tell you my name for now, but I will write here if I win something :-).
Cheers
Posted by: Someone | July 11, 2008 at 08:43 PM