Becker IT

I was getting ready for a presentation recently and had seen a brief overview of Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule. I only found time to read his whole entry today, but the main point of it was clear to me - keep the font large, and use a minimum number of power-point slides to get the message across; then leave lots of time for discussion. It was one of the best presentations I have been to in a while and one that I (and I think the others) really enjoyed. In fact, as Guy points out, someone always needs to leave early. In this case three of our participants actually had important people sitting in the lobby waiting for them for three separate meetings - and guess what, they stayed with us because the discussion was highly energetic. It reminded me of my capstone business class back when I was studying for my Bachelors degree. I had a teammate who made the statement “I think we can say everything we need to say in 15 minutes and leave the other 15 for questions.” And he was right! Not only was our presentation more lively then others we had seen, but people where actually engaging with the conversation. (Thanks Thad for the great memories.) From now on I will do everything I can to stick with Guy idea and to keep the presentation down, but Guy, can we please say it in six, not ten slides cause I think I hear some ringing in my ears.

Update 1/16/08:

Guy has since added a new posting about Presentation Zen and some additional tips for making great presentations.  In case you have not yet looked at the book he mentions you can find it here.