| Presenting for the first time at Macworld on Presentation skills - thoughts, aspirations and challenges. | | Date Created: 15 Jan, 2008, 11:02 AM |
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After what felt like a quick flight over (all 12 hours non-stop), I'm now in San Francisco on Monday afternoon readying myself for two Keynotes: the all-important Steve Jobs keynote tomorrow morning, and my own about Keynote, called "Presentation Magic" which is an hour session on Wednesday after lunch.
It feels somewhat odd to be returning to Macworld after nearly a decade absence, and to be here as faculty and with priority seating for my first Jobs' Keynote in person. My senses will be in full radar mode, detecting the RDF of Jobs (Reality Distortion Field).
My presentation covers this concept without using that term, but instead looks at the field of affective cognitive neuroscience, or how we create our own reality using the brain's capacity to generate emotion, thought and feedback loops. While sounding a tad dry and hardly Macworld material, it isn't at all, and hopefully they'll not be any invitation to fall asleep, despite the post-prandial time slot. I am aiming for it to be the antithesis of "death by Powerpoint". Like my friend Garr Reynolds of Presentationzen.com, I am seeking nothing more than a paradigm shift in the way we present using slideware like Keynote.
Naturally, I'll be closely watching Jobs' use of Keynote for his keynote, which I expect will contain no surprises in terms of the Keynote software (unless an update is afoot, which I doubt), but which much of the technology world hopes does contain surprises in terms of products and services.
I haven't put my presentation "to bed" yet, preferring to wait to see if there is anything to include from the keynote, just for fun.
I have checked out my room however (2006 West) and I'm waiting to learn the resolution of the data projector just to tweak my Keynote file. The room holds about 150 people in long rows of tables, since the same rooms are being used for training purposes. Mine is not one of those, more one of "take a break from Macworld and come and have fun with presentations (but you won't be able to go back and present like you usually do once you've been in my session)". It won't be a lecture by any means.
I have been playing with the inclusion of various very short clips of favourite movies to illustrate certain ideas, but being here I have decided to pull them due to concerns over copyright. In this time of DRM and DMCA, it's hard to know what is Fair Use in copyright terms. This is a public performance for which people pay, so it's a dicey decision, and I would like to get invited back next year!
I will have some goodies to give away during the session, some Keynote themes and some books about presentation skills by Garr which I'll work into the session (that should see some positive evaluations!).
But for now, my task is to complete the slide show and rehearse my timings. Then on Wednesday, I need to get to the room early to be miked up, get the Powerbook into a position where I can see it (since I'm not sitting at a desk or standing behind a lecturn) and check the sound levels.
I have about four different introductions planned, and will leave it fairly late before deciding on which to use. How you start you presentation is vitally important when you're an unknown to the audience, unlike the expectations Steve Jobs will walk out with on Tuesday.
As an "unknown quantity" I have about three minutes of "honeymoon" with the audience and after that it's down to business. A good starting sequence of slides which grabs the attention and says "this is not going to be a session like any other you've seen" is vitally important to me. Most places I go I expect to see Powerpoint and by definition be disappointed.
My audience has either come to see me or they like the topic, having chosen to spend an hour with me rather than other Macintosh luminaries all competing for their eyeballs elsewhere in Moscone. (Or the other sessions are filled, and they might as well get their money's worth!)
My hope is they leave my session, positive in their evaluations, so much so that it vindicates Paul Kent (MD of Macworld Expo for IDG) and his decision to make me part of this year's faculty, and offer him an easy choice for next year too. (Next year is earlier - January 5 to 9).
Tomorrow the blogosphere will be filled with Jobs' keynote summaries, opinions and no doubt disappointments, which I'll leave to others initially. More likely, I'll blog again after my session and share with you my keynote thoughts, my own session debrief, and other thoughts on the Macworld experience, from the inside so to speak.
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