On his blog, Presentation Zen author Garr Reynolds gives well-deserved credit to Bill Gates for improving his presentations over the years.  Being the master of gorgeous visuals, Reynolds of course addresses the tremendous improvement of Bill Gates’ slides.  Gates slides now include full screen pictures, minimal text and greatly simplified data.  Having attractive slides has an overwhelmingly positive visual impact on a presentation.  And since sight is the sense we as humans seem to trust the most, improving slides is very important.

Reynolds also …

Mistake #2 – Audience Disconnect

Joe knows his company’s software product.  That’s why he was asked to accompany the sales exec on a call with a new prospect.  Joe shared with me later that he sensed that the prospect was not “with them” during the executive’s presentation or later when Joe stared the demo portion of the presentation.  “At least, they weren’t with us, until the very end… and by that point, the appointment was over.”  When I asked Joe how the …

Technical presentation often get a bad rap.  Over the next few posts, I’ll take a look at the top mistakes technologists make when presenting – and how to avoid them.

Mistake #1 – The Justification Start

Bob wasted my time.  Bob wasted the other audience members’ time.  Why?  Because Bob spent the first seven and a half minutes of a twenty minute presentation telling us about Bob.  Bob’s experience.  The size of Bob’s company.  Bob’s roles before becoming CIO.  Blah, blah, blah, blah …