"Great Technical Presentations"

Yesterday at SHARE I attended a "personal development" session titled, "How to Give a Great Technical Presentation." It was given by a guy who apparently has a consulting business that helps people and companies be more effective speakers and such. Overall it was fairly interesting. I learned a few things. The speaker also confirmed many things I already knew about giving presentations.

One thing I picked up and will use is the tactic of turning OFF the Powerpoint display when I want to draw the attention of the audience back to me to emphasize some point. With a blank screen people have nowhere to focus but back on the speaker. He used black slides in his presentation at key points to do just that. Clever ... I like that.

I had some disagreement with his emphasis on humor. I'm all for humor in a presentation, but it has to be humor that is easy and natural for the speaker, and it has to be appropriate for the setting. Those are nuances I'm sure the speaker yesterday knew, but he didn't point them out in the presentation.

Finally, he was pointing out that non-Powerpoint things can be used for visual aids. To demonstrate, he used Lego blocks to demonstrate the architecture of the iSeries system. It was effective, I'll admit. But it's also something you do only if you're certain the audience will accept that. I've been in more than a few situations where had I broken out a set of Lego blocks I would have been kicked out of the room. Props like that can be perceived as condescending and trivial by some.