Great advice about giving presentations. Totally changed my thoughts about how to structure a slideshow and create slides. ( )

You have to be good if you’re going to sell more than 100,000 copies of a book about how to be a better presenter. Jerry Weissman is good. And he gets to the heart of great presentation skills by reminding us, throughout this wonderfully engaging book, of the importance of story if we want to hold the attention of audiences at a time when attention spans are as ephemeral as yesterday’s tweets. Whether we're new to the art of presentation or are experienced presenter-trainer-teachers benefitting from the useful reminders Weissman provides, he carries us through the presentation cycle with lots of guidance, including warnings of how we can go wrong: not offering clear points, not offering a clear benefit to our audiences (what's in it for them, not us), not creating a clear flow of thought and information in our work, offering more details than an audience can absorb, or creating presentations that last too long.

He also offers the structure that telling a good story provides: taking listeners from where they are (Point A) to where they need to be (Point B) in ways that focus on them rather than on us. He provides a concise survey of structures we can incorporate into presentations to make them flow and reminds us of the importance of "verbalization"--rehearsing our work out loud "just as you will on the day of your actual presentation" (p. 164) numerous times so that the story that is at the heart of all we do will flow naturally from us to those who are depending on us to make that all-important journey from Point A to Point B. Furthermore, he models the very skills he is trying to develop by incorporating presentation stories throughout his book in an effort to help us understand the process viscerally as well as intellectually. It's often the lines that seem to be most casually tossed off that take us most deeply to the heart of presentation professionalism. Writing about his attendance at investment banking conferences, he tells us that he is there "because they let me observe many presentations in one place, in a short time." And if someone of his experience and reputation is attending presentations to pick up tips, it makes us ask ourselves why we aren't equally engaged in seeing what others are doing if we're at all serious about continually honing our own skills. There's no mistaking the seriousness with which Weissman expects and encourages us to approach the art of presentation: "...every presentation is a mission-critical event" (p. 168). With that as our guiding light, we should all be on our way to successful and engaging experiences for those we serve. ( )

Some useful information on persuasion and how to move your audience from Point A to Point B.

Putting together a Powerpoint presentation, just practicing an oft told story, hoping to spice it up. Nothing really new hear, but well presented. Useful for student, businessman, and just ordinary citizen ( )

This book is overhyped. I have a great passion toward delivering powerful presentations and I found this book disappointing. While it will certainly be helpful to the absolute amateur, a lot of Weissman's techniques are mediocre at best. The best sections of the book had to do with the verbal and organizational aspects of giving a presentation - how to brainstorm, how to think of a presentation, how to construct a storyboard, and how the audience's mind works. The worst parts of this book were about the actual craft of creating a presentation - bad Powerpoint advice, bad graphics advice and especially bad advice on how to use bullet-points. Weissman conveys the key point correctly - keep visuals simple, including simple typography, simple use of text, simple use of graphs and images. But the examples he provides are not at all impressive.

If you are a complete beginner to delivering presentations, you may want to browse through this book for some decent advice. If you've been doing this type of work for a while, avoid this book and pick up something by Nancy Duarte or Garr Reynolds. They're both brilliant writers on this topic. ( )