Update on presentation technique
I finally has the chance last week to try the new presentation style on an external audience. I gave a talk about authentication and authorisation in enterprise systems and how our software dealt with the issues.
The audience was a mix of both techies and business people - people who understand the need for security but to whom the implementation details can get a little, ah, mind numbingly dull. This kind of subject is a perfect candidate for a detailed, text heavy and dense style of presentation. Maybe 10-15 slides, each of which could almost be a document in and of itself. And in the past I probably would have gone this way because I didn't know any better.
Instead I sat down and had a good long think about how to use the light and clean presentation style and convey the message conversationally, using the powerpoint deck as a backup for the discussion, not the source of the discussion. In the end I came up with about 80 slides, and a mix of visuals as well as single-line text slides.
When I presented, it took about 30 minutes to run through, and I dealt with all the main questions in a way that both the business people and the techies understood. There was some open discussion at the end, but because the presentation covered most points it was more clarification of concepts and improving understanding than questioning the rationale or reasoning behind it.
The feedback after the session closed was very positive, and personally quite a relief since it was the first time I tried the new style on an external audience and I was a little unsure how it would go down. Trying something new on an internal audience when they all report to you is not exactly scary - after all if it goes wrong, it's only your staff you annoy. Doing it with an external audience is another matter - there ain't no safety net :-)
The audience was a mix of both techies and business people - people who understand the need for security but to whom the implementation details can get a little, ah, mind numbingly dull. This kind of subject is a perfect candidate for a detailed, text heavy and dense style of presentation. Maybe 10-15 slides, each of which could almost be a document in and of itself. And in the past I probably would have gone this way because I didn't know any better.
Instead I sat down and had a good long think about how to use the light and clean presentation style and convey the message conversationally, using the powerpoint deck as a backup for the discussion, not the source of the discussion. In the end I came up with about 80 slides, and a mix of visuals as well as single-line text slides.
When I presented, it took about 30 minutes to run through, and I dealt with all the main questions in a way that both the business people and the techies understood. There was some open discussion at the end, but because the presentation covered most points it was more clarification of concepts and improving understanding than questioning the rationale or reasoning behind it.
The feedback after the session closed was very positive, and personally quite a relief since it was the first time I tried the new style on an external audience and I was a little unsure how it would go down. Trying something new on an internal audience when they all report to you is not exactly scary - after all if it goes wrong, it's only your staff you annoy. Doing it with an external audience is another matter - there ain't no safety net :-)