Prepare·Project·Present

Using Technology to Encourage Effective Presentations

 

The Ambient Notes experiment bore evidence that people are not happy with today's presentation technologies. For two weeks, large posters prompted people with statements such as "PowerPoint Rocks!" or "I was bored in class today..." and allowed them to comment freely on the topic. The consensus of comments had negative things to say about PowerPoint and modern presentations.
This research was carried out in association with Apurva Pangam.

 

Toastmasters International is an organization with the purpose of improving the presentation skills of its members. I visited two local Toastmasters clubs, IU UITS Toastmasters and the Good Morning Toastmasters, both located in Bloomington, Indiana. These groups offered great insights in terms of how they plan their presentations and speeches. Research was done in the form of Ethnographic observation, as well as group and individual interviews.

 

Cliff Atkinson is a management consultant with a focus on presentation and communication techniques. He recently completed a book on this topic, titled Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations that Inform, Motivate, and Inspire. A telephone interview was carried out with Atkinson, and was focused on his opinions of current presentation practices. For more information, visit Cliff Atkinson's site.

Andy Goodman is a consultant for nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies. He aims to help groups make clear presentations, and has written a book on the topic, Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes: And How to Ensure they Won’t Happen to Yours. A detailed e-mail interview was carried out with Mr. Goodman over a 3 week period in order to understand his opinion on a number of insights that were gathered in the previously described observations. For more information, visit AGoodmanOnline.