Great tips that make tons of sense... unfortunately, all of the presentations I have attended (with the exception of a few), the back of the speaker's head was the norm... and don't get me started on the whole "fit 15 paragraphs of text onto one slide" presentations.

jarhead

This is very similar to Presentation Zen ([www.presentationzen.com]), a style started by Garr Reynolds. We recently had a talk by him at work and it was fascinating. If you search for him on google video, you can see the whole talk as well.

MrCrispy

Like this one, nice post Adam.

rscotta

People do tend to try to put their presentation on their slides, instead of augmenting their presentation with their slides. A skill i learned in school was to have different, unique info bytes on the slides to keep the audience interested.

How to present like Al Gore:
1. Have contradicting facts between yourself and other people that share and populate your view.
[www.seed.slb.com]
2. Ignore the Sun's heating patterns and the status of the rest of the solar system
[www.hno.harvard.edu]
[www.livescience.com]
3. Whatever you do, do NOT connect # 2. with methane hydrates sublmating and causing a cyclical warming event.
[www.hydrogen.co.uk]
3. "Enhance" pictures of glaciers melting, for greater effect of course.
(okay i'm to busy to prove that one, but here's the counter to melting glaciers)
[www.skepticalscience.com]
4. Include clips of popular shows in your presentations so it appeals to the "hip" youth.

+ Watch video

Now don't get me wrong, we could all die in a firestorm, but blame the Sun and the Methane, not yourself. And if you believe Gore so much, turn off your computer right now, before it's to late!!!

Me, I do my duty for the ecology. I recycle almost everything, i use energy efficient machines, and i don't buy things that i'll end up replacing in the next year if i can help it.

metaslugx

Check out [www.duarte.com] ... this is the company that helped Al Gore and advised Garr Reynolds for his book Presentation Zen...

andhapp

@ipodrulz: For that you need a Reality Distortion Field, like he has.

Git Em SteveDave has a crush on the Swedes

I'd rather perform like Steve Jobs.

ipodrulz

Of course, a lot of Inconvenient Truth has been proven to be flash over substance. A British High Court Judge has ruled that it contains nine major scientific errors. How inconvenient for Gore....

"The judge declined to ban the Academy Award-winning film from British schools, but ruled that it can only be shown with guidance notes to prevent political indoctrination."

da5id_nz

@da5id_nz: Truthfulness is not the issue being discussed, effective presentation is. The presentation, though inaccurate, was effective in convincing and motivating a large percentage of the audience to agree with him.

Effective presentations: see also Sales and Entertainment.

grgzfla

One thing not to do like Al Gore.
How harsh this may seem:
Don't act poor like I lost my kid... so come help me fight against the people who make our environment so dirty.
Don't bring your family problems in there... that's about the worst thing you can do

srudes2

@jarhead: I suffered through so many presentations of the back of people's heads and 15 levels of sub bullets on the text slides that I decided to write a manifesto for the appalling presenter - [fortifyservices.blogspot.com] - I am the AntiGore, the AntiGodin! Hear me roar!

manahan-the-magnificent

For me, effective presentation is as much about language as it is PowerPoint-fu. Edward Tufte's banged the "PPT makes you stupid" drum plenty, so I won't rehash here except to say it's a tool to help you present, not compose or think.

In that vein, don't use the word "distil" when you mean the opposite, use "dilute."

duncan7

Doesn't hurt to have a giant, 12' tall LCD display to show your images behind you on either. A little tougher in a room that's 12x12 and if you stand in front of the image your shadow blocks the message/picture. ;)

TechTalk WRLR 98.3FM

@grgzfla: Say what??? That is like saying use threats of violence and Mafia techniques to grow your income - since growing your income is all that is important. His speech was about making a boatload of money and he did it with fear, uncertainty, and threats - Oh yeah and lots and lots of lies.

adp113

Hum,

Maybe telling the truth in a presentation is something you would want to do. Why would anyone want to be like Al, and give a speech propped up on junk science and bent stats.

Oh yeah, it really helps to practice what your preach - again Al does the opposite. But he got his kid a prius, so he can sleep better.

adp113

I've been a skeptic of Al Gore's dogmatic version of global warming for years. It's good to see that skepticism is alive and well on this board. Al Gore will not openly debate his position or do interviews with journalists who ask the tough questions. That said, why should we want to emulate his presentation style?

Will_ND

The last several posters are spot-on. Why, Hitler was an amazingly effective and charismatic orator and look what came of that. We should clearly abandon the techniques of effective rhetoric; to do otherwise is to embrace fascism.

duncan7

On a less political note; does anyone know what software Duarte used to make the graphs in Gore's keynote?

aaroninbeta

Software doesn't matter as much as the wetware he's used to make a case for the ever expanding wealth and sanctification of himself.

That's the element that has to be watched. That and the wetware of all the millions who are so easily bamboozled.

But it was always so.

I'm betting that the words on Gore's marble monument to himself at the end will be: "So long, suckers. Thanks for the fish."

vanderleun

For a guy who invented the Internet, you would think Al Gore could manage to design his own PowerPoint presentation.

Joe Alien

That's funny. Al Gore's full of it, and demonstrably so. Does the How-To explain how to just make stuff up out of whole cloth?

SgtHartman

Hmm... Where was the scissor lifter thingy on that list?

Adam C