Author: Garr Reynolds

Publisher:New Riders

Pages: 222
Rating:

This week, I read one more presentation-related book. The last one I read was - “Say It With Charts, Zelazny“. A fantastic read, more focused on how to better present your “Charts”.

PresentationZen on contrast, is on the more wider topic of Presentations. A Presentation may be made using various tools- be it MS PowerPoint or Apple’s Slidenote. Doesn’t matter! What the author Garr has to offer is, simple ideas on Presentation Design & Delivery. Staring with why 99% of Presentation are bore, Garr goes on length to present simple ideas on how to go about designing your Presentations.

6 simple concepts- is all it takes towards better presentation.

The most fundamental use of presentation as per Garr is to assist you. Yes! Presentations ‘assist’ you. So many presentations start with the offbeat bullet points. We have tendency to filll the presentation with as much data as we can. Garr, advise this is not what presentations are meant for. Imagine, if presentations could present all the data, then what is your need to be present on the stage. Bullseye! I never thought about it. Yet, I have seen 99% presentations going the wrong way. Now, let me add my thoughts here- I feel most of the time, we use presentations to give facts or serve as documentation- & not really for actually delivering a presentation. My view, most of us think, word documents have become to ubiqious, which has led people to just skip over it. Hence Presentations are used to atleast have people see the important point. Garr calls this “Slideumentation“- a combination of Presentation & Documentation.

More tip- Presentation should have at most 6-7 words, while a contextful image should be used to drive your point emotionally.

Garr has used Zen comcepts (Simplification by Amplification, Bento) to make his presentations simpler. A Collection of his presentations at the end of book, will give you an idea on how to design presentations. Plus, additional notes by renowned presentation experts like Duarte (www.duarte.com) is much help.

Alas, I have limited time to describe what I feel after reading the book. I just can’t stop praising.

The author, Garr Reynolds is Presentation designer & internationally acclaimed communications expert based in Japan. He shares his experience / tips on presentations on presentationzen.com.

The book is well presented (in line with its subject) with good paper quality. Neat fonts, great context images & easy layout makes joy while reading.

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