All Expenses Paid Trip to Summit Up for Grabs

San Diego Sweepstakes Worth Over $4,500 In its 16-year history, the Presentation Summit has offered plenty of drawings for free passes. This summer, however, lays waste to the entire landscape of Summit giveaways with the San Diego Sweepstakes, worth over $4,500. For the month of June, and in conjunction with its promotional partner eLearningArt, the […]
The Summit and the Guild: Match Made in Heaven?
Attend the conference, join the Guild for free Two organizations with arguably the most passion for the presentation experience are joining forces, as the longest-running conference for the industry, the Presentation Summit, and the Presentation Guild, the newest voice for the community, announced a strategic partnership for 2017. The benefits to the end-user community are […]
Happy Accidents with Triggers

You never know what you might discover when you thought you were looking for something else. One of our more loyal Presentation Summit attendees, Mary Hampton, had a recent dilemma and she came to us in search of a solution. On a map of the United States, she prepared information boxes for states that were […]
Surviving Handout Hell

The height of my client-visiting season is May through August when I visit or connect remotely with dozens of client sites and meet with many hundreds of people. Almost to a person, the following two statements hold true: The biggest issue that presentation designers and content creators face is placing too much text on a […]
Which Layout am I Using? Good Question!
With little doubt, the single most significant improvement that came to PowerPoint in version 2007 was the redesigning, revamping, and rebuilding of the slide master/slide layout relationship. An awkward and unintuitive mash-up of functions in prior version, now the engine is easier to use and much more powerful. While there are various idiosyncrasies with the […]
On Software and Trust

“I don’t see how a software tool can create trust.” “I am fascinated by your analysis of trust and how animation contributes to it.” My last post, The Phenomenon of Attention, generated no small bit of commentary, including the two above. This doesn’t surprise me: the Animation engine within PowerPoint has been blamed for everything […]
The Most Valuable PowerPoint Feature that You’re Not Using

The best-kept secret of modern versions of PowerPoint? That’s a no-brainer, as I experience it almost every time I interact with users. When I am brought into an organization to consult on presentation skills, most in the room don’t know about it. When I give webinars, I can practically hear their oohs and aahs when […]
Fighting the “Look at Me!” Syndrome
This is an excerpt from the soon-to-be-released third edition of Rick Altman’s provocatively-titled book on presentation best practices. Available by mid-June in paperback, PDF, ePub, and Kindle. You can learn more about it at the BetterPresenting website. AS WE APPROACH OUR TENTH ANNIVERSARY of the Presentation Summit, it is fitting that we look back on […]
Oh, the Pain…
This is an excerpt from the soon-to-be-released third edition of Rick Altman’s provocatively-titled book on presentation best practices. Available by mid-June in paperback, PDF, ePub, and Kindle. You can learn more about it at the BetterPresenting website. THIS BOOK IS NOT ABOUT PESSIMISM, despite the somewhat bawdy title. In fact, I would argue that this […]
The 2012 Design-a-Template Contest
American Idol Meets Slide Design As the Presentation Summit enters its tenth season, we continue the happy tradition of our Design-a-Template contest. From several dozen entries, we will award a trip to the conference (Oct 7-10, Scottsdale AZ) to the person whose work is chosen as most appropriate to serve as the conference template. For […]