Oliver Adria, who blogs about presenting at ReThink Presentations, has just come out with an e-book called PresentationEssentials: 39 Ideas on Content, Design and Delivery. (I like his categories — I use the same ones to describe the components of a presentation.)
Oliver has a great sense of design; the book is beautifully designed. But more important, he has written and collected short essays on how to create presentations that really work. These ideas, or principles, will help you avoid the Death by PowerPoint trap. The book also makes a great gift for someone who is still using text-based slides.
Here is a smattering of the topics included:
- If a situation doesn’t need a presentation, don’t make one
- Short doesn’t mean unimportant
- Create a storyline with the 1-3-1 method (“Candywrapper” method)
- Design is more than just the slides
- Use interactivity to include your audience in the presentation
- Close the feedback loop
- The one page handout
And more…
Each idea is short and sweet. You won’t find technical details on how to use PowerPoint. But you will find a wide range of valuable concepts.
Full disclosure: When Oliver first started with this book, he invited people to contribute and I contributed two of the ideas. As a result, he’s offering me a percentage of each sale. Of course, I think my ideas are good! But I do really think that you’ll find the entire book valuable. You can purchase it here.