Session 3 was held from 1:00pm - 1:45pm.

Four concurrent events were held during Session 3.

1. How to Engage Your Audience with Twitter. Olivia Mitchell (remotely from New Zealand)

2. Creation Myth: Brand Yourself or Your Organization. Terry Gault

3. Social Games and the Alexander Technique. Olya

4. Sliduments: Slides, Documents or Both?  Don Campbell

In this session we talked about how many presentations get "overloaded" by trying to be both a presentation and a document containing all of the details. We discussed the tradeoffs of presentations that are designed to be a tool for a presenter to make her point vs ones who are made to stand on their own.

• Presentations are all about intent, which should inform the delivery solution  (big problem -- delivering presentation for the wrong purpose)
  • importance of audience analysis at outset of creation/planning
  • importance of establishing audience's trust that you will provide the info they need
• Danger of reliance on Powerpoint or other template structures / confines

• discussion within the group on idea of best practice re: notes, with many believing that if MUST deliver notes, should distribute as a separate document to attendees at conclusion / after  [however, some felt could tackle this differently, such as by including an Executive Summary upfront within the presentation to provide audience comfort it's addressed.]
• tip:  use of black (blank) screen as a simple technique to draw the audience's focus to the speaker  (also helpful if there is audience chatter)
• tip:  DotSub ( http://dotsub.com/ ) translates any video into any language via subtitles, leveraging a community of volunteers
• tip:  need a hook to REIGNITE audience interest every 10 minutes or so
• helpful resources:
  • Duarte Design  http://blog.duarte.com/ , the team behind Slide:ology.  Site includes links to their upcoming workshops, resources, articles, etc.
  • Presentation Zen  http://www.presentationzen.com/  Garr Reynolds' blog on issues related to professional presentation design   (great overall site, be sure to check out his Brain Rules for ppt and keynote presenters (based in part on Dr. John Medina's book of the same name): http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2008/05/brain-rules-for.html  )
  • Mandel Communications http://www.mandelcom.com/
  • Book (and related blog):  Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson  http://www.beyondbulletpoints.com/
  • Mindmap on Making Great Presentations

Also, Heyward mentioned that it's okay to be bolder / more expressive or animated than in your normal dealings.  During a past training program, they emphasized going beyond your normal comfort zone and that it really is an extreme to cross into the "Bozo zone."  Move around, project your voice!