What I've Been Reading

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Gary Reylonds. 

• It is more difficult to process information if it is coming at you both verbally and in written form at the same time (according to John Sweller's cognitive load theory).
• Let go of the past - Unlearn ineffective habits learned over the years.
• Some tools are better than others but it is possible to present effectively even with older versions of PowerPoint.
• No dissolves, spins or other. The presentation of the content should be simple, balanced, and beautiful.
• Don't handout printouts of your slides beforehand. They don't work without you.
• Don't use software tools during the initial phase of planning. Before you design your presentation, you need to see the big picture and identify your core messages—or the single core message. This can be difficult unless you create a stillness of mind for yourself, something which is hard to do while puttering around in slideware.
• Always ask yourself these following questions - If the audience could remember only one thing, what do you want it to be? What's my point? And why does it matter?
• Ask yourself if you can pass the elevator test. Elevator Test - When you arrive at the admin desk outside the vice- president's office, suddenly she comes out with her coat and briefcase in hand and says, "...sorry, something's come up, give me your idea as we walk down to my car..." Imagine such a scenario. Could you sell your idea in the elevator ride and the walk to the parking lot? Sure, the scenario is unlikely, but possible. What is very possible, however, is for you to be asked without notice to shorten your talk down, from, say, 20 minutes, to five minutes (or from a scheduled one hour to 30 minutes). Could you do it?
• Slides are slides. Documents are documents. They aren't the same thing. Don't attempt to merge them.
• PowerPoint and Keynote are not good tools for making written documents; use word processors instead.
• In the book Made to Stick , Heath brothers explain simply and brilliantly the  that "sticky" ideas have six key principles in common: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions, and stories. And yes, these six compress nicely into the acronym SUCCESs.
• The biggest reason why most people fail to craft effective or "sticky" messages is because of what they call the "Curse of Knowledge." The Curse of Knowledge is essentially the condition whereby the deliverer of the message cannot imagine what it's like not to possess his level of background knowledge on the topic. When he speaks in abstractions to the audience, it makes perfect sense to him, but to him alone. In his mind it seems simple and obvious. The six principles— SUCCESs—are your weapons, then, to fight your own Curse of Knowledge (we all have it) to make messages that stick.
• Internalize your story, but do not memorize it line by line. You can't fake it. You believe in your story, or you do not. And if you do not, no amount of hyped-up, superficial enthusiasm or conviction will ever make your time with an audience meaningful.
• Formal speech and formal writing devoid of any emotion whatsoever is extremely difficult to stay with for more than a few minutes. Your conscious mind has to remind you to "stay awake, this is important!" But someone who speaks in a natural, human, conversational style is far easier to stay engaged with. Good presenters target people's "left brain" and "right brain."
• Always keep the audience in mind by first keeping your talk as short as you can and still doing an effective job telling your story, and second, after you have prepared your presentation, go back and edit like crazy, eliminating parts that are not absolutely crucial to your overall point or purpose of the talk. You must be ruthless. When in doubt, cut it out.
• The best visuals are often ones designed with an eye toward simplicity. Yet, this says nothing about the specifics of a visual presentation. That will depend on the content and context. For example, even the best visuals used in support of a presentation for one audience on, say, quantum mechanics, may appear complicated and confusing to a different audience. Simplicity is often used as a means to greater clarity.
• Don't have to use slideware for every presentation, but if you do, the visuals should seem a part of the show, not something "over there" off to the side.
• The following Zen aesthetic values can be applied to slide design and web design: Simplicity, Subtlety, Elegance, Suggestive rather than the descriptive or obvious, Naturalness (i.e., nothing artificial or forced), Empty space (or negative space), Stillness, Tranquility, Eliminating the nonessential.
• You can get people's interest by violating their expectations. Surprise people. Surprise will get their interest.
• Use of bullet points in slides should be a rare exception.
• iStockphoto is an excellent resource to get free imagines to use in presentations.
• Quotes can indeed add credibility to your story. Quotes should be short, in most cases, since it can become quite tedious when a presenter reads a paragraph from a screen.
• Empty space in a design is not "nothing," it is indeed a powerful "something," which gives the few elements on your slide their power.The slides have a clean white background with plenty of active empty space that helps guide the viewer's eyes. Learn to see and manipulate empty space to give your slide designs greater organization, clarity, and interest.
• Check out some great slides here and here. 
• Practice Mindfulness - Rather than hating washing the dishes, you just wash the dishes. When you write a letter, you write a letter. And when you give a presentation, you give a presentation. Once we allow our mind to drift to thoughts of success and failure or of outcomes and technique while performing our art, we have at that moment begun our descent.
• Following five principles of Judo offer good advice for delivering effective presentations:

1. Carefully observe oneself and one's situation, carefully observe others, and carefully observe one's environment.
2. Seize the initiative in whatever you undertake.  
3. Consider fully, act decisively. 
4. Know when to stop.  
5. Keep to the middle.

• Remember Benjamin Zander's (author of The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life) words of wisdom - "This is the moment—this is the most important moment right now. Which is: We are about contribution. That's what our job is. It's not about impressing people. It's not about getting the next job. It's about contributing something."
• Humor is a wonderful way to remind everyone around us—no matter how hard the work gets—that our true and most "central" self is not obsessed with childish demands, entitlements, and calculations but is instead supportive, confident, helpful, and even inspiring. A presentation is as good a time as any to let people see that side of you.
• A good tip to always remember - It's not about us, it's about them. And about the message.
• No matter how much time you are given, never ever go over time, and in fact finish a bit before your allotted time is up. We want to leave our audiences satisfied (motivated, inspired, more knowledgeable, etc.), but not feeling that they could have done with just a little less.
• You will make it look easy and natural by preparing and practicing like mad. The more you rehearse, the more confident you'll become, and the easier it will seem to the audience.