After I published the results from my latest Annoying PowerPoint survey, I got two emails regarding the SlideShare deck that I created to summarize the results. Both emails expressed the same concern that the SlideShare had violated almost every rule I teach about effective presentations. One of the emails asked if it was some sort…
Author: Dave Paradi
Dave Paradi has over twenty-two years of experience delivering customized training workshops to help business professionals improve their presentations. He has written ten books and over 600 articles on the topic of effective presentations and his ideas have appeared in publications around the world. His focus is on helping corporate professionals visually communicate the messages in their data so they don't overwhelm and confuse executives. Dave is one of fewer than ten people in North America recognized by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional Award for his contributions to the Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams communities. His articles and videos on virtual presenting have been viewed over 4.8 million times and liked over 17,000 times on YouTube.
AFP Annual Conference (October 23-26, 2016, Orlando, FL)
I will be speaking again at the AFP Annual Conference after being one of the highest rated speakers last year. One of my sessions is part of the new Innovation Series, which will offer more interaction between speakers and the audience. Learn more and register at http://an16.afponline.org/.
Two-day workshop for financial services company (October 20-21, 2016, Lake Mary, FL)
Customized two-day workshop for financial professionals covering planning a presentation, focusing the message, and creating effective visuals. The session includes slide makeovers of their own slides to reinforce the ideas. The second day is hands-on practicing how to create the visuals in PowerPoint.
Full-day workshop for food distributor (October 18, 2016, Toronto, ON)
Customized full-day workshop for marketing professionals covering planning a presentation, focusing the message, and creating effective visuals. The session includes slide makeovers of their own slides to reinforce the ideas.
Dealing with quad charts; Issue #348 October 13, 2015
For those of you not familiar with the term “quad chart”, it is a slide divided into four quadrants, as this example from NASA illustrates. (in case you are wondering, yes, that is the Comic Sans font because the template they use says that it should be the default for text in their quad charts)…
Re-emergence of donut charts; Issue #347 September 29, 2015
Many data visualization experts like to rage against pie and donut charts. They make valid points about the mis-use of these charts by some presenters. But as I explained in my book Select Effective Visuals, pie and donut charts can be useful for showing how one segment compares to the total. Donut charts, in particular…
Full-day workshop for manufacturer (September 27, 2016, Sterling Heights, MI)
Customized full-day workshop for engineering, finance, and other staff covering planning a presentation, focusing the message, and creating effective visuals. The session includes slide makeovers of their own slides to reinforce the ideas.
Axis or data labels; Issue #346 September 15, 2015
On a graph that uses a measurement axis, like column, bar, and line graphs, one question that comes up is how the graph should be labelled. The default is to have the axis only. In my workshops I often show how data labels can help the audience more than the axis. One thing you don’t…
Two-day workshop for healthcare company (September 7-8, 2016, Carlsbad, CA)
Customized two-day workshop for marketing professionals and other staff covering planning a presentation, focusing the message, and creating effective visuals. The session includes slide makeovers of their own slides to reinforce the ideas. The second day is hands-on practicing how to create the visuals in PowerPoint.
Avoiding “Are we there yet?”; Issue #345 September 1, 2015
In a recent workshop, the participants asked how to deal with something that often puts them on edge early in their presentation. In their presentations to senior management, they found that the executives interrupt them with questions after only a few minutes. This often disrupts the flow of what they wanted to say and takes…