Starting the Year Green

Posted on January 25, 2008 in The Rowan Report with No Comments

Every time I see the GM commercial bragging about its upcoming hybrid Tahoe, I roll my eyes. Or Exxon’s ads about finding cleaner energy. Or the ads about the wonders of clean coal.

Being green is hot this year. Actually, having people THINK you’re green is hot. But there’s been no way for regular folks like us to weigh in on whether these ads are the real deal or what the environmental community calls “greenwashing.”

Until now.

Developed by Enviromedia, the Greenwashing Index is only in its infancy, but has already attracted the attention of BrandWeek and U.S. News & World Report.

Not only can you browse so-called green ads and rate their “greenwashy-ness,” you can submit your own favorite and let the online community rip it to shreds.

Time will tell whether this site will be more than a short-term blip. But it’s nice to see my friends at Enviromedia try to give the rest of us a voice amid the green advertising wave.

More posts coming soon.

The Story of Stuff

Posted on December 14, 2007 in The Rowan Report with No Comments

I wanted to pass along an excellent example of how a group is turning a very complex issue into a simple and understandable one using clever visuals and — you guessed it — the power of storytelling.

I’ve been working with a group called the California Product Stewardship Council, which is urging leaders in California to change how waste is managed — from mining and manufacturing to disposal.

They altered me to a new website called “The Story of Stuff” that’s been getting great reviews (and a whole lot of traffic) in its first few weeks online.

A full tour of the feature video and website will take a while, but you don’t need to spend much time to see how this video has turned what could be an important but painfully boring and tedious issue into one that’s — dare I say — entertaining.

How’d they do it? You’ll have your own ideas. But here are mine.

1. It inserts people into a complex issue that’s usually explained with charts, diagrams and stats. The on-screen presenter delivers an important message, but she’s not angry or preachy. Even the animation behind her inserts people into the story, so we can see how each of us plays a role in the issue. Storytelling is among the best ways for causes to connect with audiences. And stories require people.

2. It’s simple. If you’ve ever sat through a presentation about a global problem, you know that it only takes about 3 minutes to be bored into a coma. This video takes a VERY large and complicated problem and reduces it to an understandable storyline. Certainly, this group spent days arguing which details should be left in or left out of the presentation. And there are probably people who would say this explanation is too simple. But no presentation will ever include every possible detail of every issue. I tell clients to base their presentations on “What do I HAVE to show my audience to get it to do, feel or think what I want it to?” as opposed to “What are ALL the facts I know that I could tell?” This presentation does a good job of deciphering between those two questions.

3. It’s clever. Who thought cartoons could be so effective? So often, less is more. This video accomplished a lot with very simple visuals. Now, that simplicity doesn’t come cheap. The folks at Free Range Studios spent plenty of time and money creating the animation — a luxury that not all causes have. But not having the budget for this kind of production shouldn’t be an excuse to revert to a boring “fact-dump.”

4. Its message is multi-platform. This group created a communication tool that can be viewed on home DVD players, in large groups at events, on individual computers, etc. And they chopped it into chapters and put it on YouTube. More and more applications allow us to cross platforms with our marketing material. Most of us know how to turn printed brochures into PDF files. I recently added a voice-track to a PowerPoint presentation for CPSC and converted it into Quicktime and Windows Media Player files. It’s not as fancy as The Story of Stuff, but it’s been an effective way for CPSC to promote its presentation and message to groups throughout California when they can’t be there in person.

That’s it for now. Let me know if you have other examples of clever and effective message tools.

Presentation Workshop, December 14 in Austin

Posted on November 9, 2007 in The Rowan Report with No Comments

Since launching the Rowan Report, I’ve avoided overt sales pitches about my company. But you’re getting one today.

On December 14, I will be conducting a 3-hour workshop on presentations at LifeWorks (3700 South First Street in Austin). The workshop will be open to anyone who wants to learn about improving presentation skills and materials.

I conducted a short one-hour version of this workshop (without the hands-on and tutorial sections) at the Crossroads Conference in October (hosted by Greenlights for Non Profit Success), and the response has been remarkable. For those of you in Austin who did not attend the October conference, the December workshop will provide a longer, more interactive agenda and more opportunity for Q&A, group interaction and “learning by doing.”

The workshop will include three parts.

1. A plenary session, including research findings and recommendations from the book “Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes,” as well as before-and-after case studies of presentation best practices. A copy of the book will be provided.

2. A group review of “real world” presentations (yes, that could include yours if you want it to)

3. A hands-on tutorial of common presentation software, including PowerPoint and Keynote.

The cost of the workshop will be $159 per person.

Here are the details. If you have any questions, email rsvp@rowcom.com.

What: “Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes” plenary and workshop
When: Friday, December 14, 9 am to noon
Where: LifeWorks, 3700 South First Street, Austin, 78704 (map)

More Details
Cost for the workshop is $159 per person. The fee covers the work session and a copy of the book “Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes.” Group rates are available for organizations sending more than two employees.

Attendance will be limited by space constraints. If you’d like to reserve a seat, please email rsvp@rowcom.com. Please state your name, organization, the number of people who will attend and your employer’s non-profit status. Employees of non-profit organizations will be given priority if the session fills up.

Payment will be accepted at the workshop. Please make checks payable to Rowan Communication, Inc. Receipts will be provided.

Attendees are encouraged to bring laptop computers for the hands-on session.

We will review presentations submitted by the audience. If you would like to volunteer to share a draft presentation, please note that in your reservation email (don’t worry, everyone will be very nice when we watch it).

More details will be distributed to attendees as December 14 approaches.

Killer ads

Posted on October 12, 2007 in The Rowan Report with No Comments

I usually try to use non-political issues to demonstrate good communication practices — there’s no point turning off people who disagree politically. They just stop listening.

But the new ads from Save Darfur are too good to not mention.

I was working yesterday with CNN on in the background when I heard what I thought was just another of those “prepare for your retirement” commercials. It was actually an ad about divesting from mutual funds that do business in Darfur…and the “payoff line” is heartbreaking and powerful and undeniable. Almost perfect for an advocacy ad, I think.

Check them out on YouTube here and here.

I’m not asking you to divest from Darfur. (Though, I must admit, I emailed my financial adviser and asked him to review all my funds to make sure they’re “genocide-free” and “terror-free.” He hasn’t called back yet.)

Whether you agree with the issue or not, the ads are great examples of how to fit a message into a package that will strike a chord with people. This group found something that connects Americans to the genocide happening on the other side of the globe — their money. That’s the kind of clarity and simplicity we should all be shooting for.

Final thoughts (for now) on PowerPoint

Posted on September 26, 2007 in The Rowan Report with No Comments

A friend of mine recently pointed out to me that if I keep going on and on about PowerPoint, then I won’t have much insight left to charge clients for. Good point.

So I’ll wrap up the PowerPoint sermon with a quick “Top 10 Things I Haven’t Mentioned Yet.”

10. Learn the hidden tricks. Pressing the “B” key during a slide show turns the slide black. “W” turns it white. Pressing any number key and return from within a slideshow will take you to that slide number, so you can hide “extra slides” that you’re not sure you’ll need. Learn to use PowerPoint’s “Presenter’s Tools,” which displays the upcoming slide on your laptop while the audience sees the current slide. You can find all of these in PowerPoint manuals, but you have to dig around a bit.

9. Come prepared. Buy a $50 remote clicker (I use Kensington’s) so you don’t get tethered to your computer. Arrive early to set up. Know the room layout and feel confident about asking about moving things around to “fit” the presentation. If you use sound, bring your own speakers. Bring your own power strip and keep an extension cord in your car if you present often.

8. Kill your logo. If you need to, include it on the intro slide. But including it on every slide is not only branding overkill, it takes up lots of room and distracts from the message. As one friend told me, if you need to show your logo on every slide for the audience to remember who gave the presentation, you have a branding problem that your logo won’t fix.

7. Use video. Use it wisely, but use it. It breaks up the monotony of a lecture and attracts attention. I often use it for comic relief, but it also serves a very functional role. PowerPoint is pretty picky about which format you have to use, so stick with .WMV files. Keynote will play just about anything.

6. Ease up on the animations. My personal goal for animations is “gracefulness.” I want them to look smooth and almost unnoticed. Dancing bullets and swirly photos don’t usually do the trick for me.

5. Look them in the eye. Eye contact makes the audience pay attention and puts you in charge. It helps the audience empathize with your message. And it just plain looks good. Presentations should be rehearsed enough that the script doesn’t have to be “read,” so this takes time and practice. But you will notice immediately the renewed impact your presentations have when you look up.

4. Ask the audience to do something — during the presentation and after. This is really two ideas. First, I mean that the audience should have some type of participatory role in the presentation. Ask questions. Invite questions. Secondly, all good presentations are a transfer of an idea, not just a transfer of information. What do you want the audience to do when it leaves? Tell them.

3. Don’t use bad cheap photos. Use good cheap photos. Google Images offers scores and scores of public domain photos (check for photo rights unless you don’t fear copyright lawyers). Istockphoto.com is a cheap place to find professional quality graphics and photos for a few bucks. And please, please, don’t use Microsoft’s clip art. Your cause is better than that.

2. Don’t end with Q&A. Just as the first thing you say when you begin should be prepared and memorized, the last idea you leave the audience with should be a message from the heart. Look them in their eyes and leave them with a parting thought or call to action. If you end with Q&A, your inevitable last line will be “No more questions? Well, thank you for having me.” And everyone will leave sad.

1. Tell them stories. As a friend of mine says “No one ever marched on Washington because of a pie chart.” Telling stories — above all other PowerPoint tips you will ever learn — is the single most impactful change you can make to your presentations. Everyone has seen bullet point slides. Everyone can read your website or brochure to learn about your budget or mission or “success metrics.” But stories have the ability to get people to CARE ENOUGH to hear your message. If you want to move people, tell them your stories.

And with that, my summer-long series on PowerPoint comes to a close. If you want to review the series, click here.

Breaking the Rules – With Style

Posted on August 16, 2007 in The Rowan Report with 1 Comment

So much for all my pious advice about what makes a good presentation.

If you’re a technophile, you may have already seen the Identity 2.0 presentation by Dick Hardt. If you haven’t, click here (you’ll only need to watch a few minutes to “get it,” but I bet you’ll watch most of it).

Hardt’s presentation breaks so many of the “rules” I’ve preached about here.
He reads his slides.
He uses a glaring white background.
It’s long.
He uses distracting text animations.
And so on.

But the presentation is pretty damned cool. Why? How?

Here’s my take:

1. He knows his audience well — they are tech experts. This allows him to present at a breathtaking pace without slowing down to explain some concepts that might confuse you and me. He doesn’t care about you and me — we’re accidental audience members.

2. It’s funny. Part of this is his personality, and part of this is the presentation he created. But he did a great job of mixing up instruction, opinion and humor.

3. It is INCREDIBLY rehearsed and choreographed. I can’t imagine the number of hours he spent making then scripting then rehearsing this thing, but it is as smoothly presented as it is chaotic.

4. It’s simple. Despite its length and technical complexity, each image (screen) is painfully simple, as is his narration. He never tries to prove his brilliance by demonstrating complexity. He proves his brilliance by demonstrating simplicity.

5. He uses images well. The same images are used several times to “call back” points he made earlier.

6. Maybe most importantly, it’s different. It’s more like performance art (Spalding Gray, maybe?) than a presentation. You’ve never seen something like this at the office. And you’ll remember it.

So I forgive him for breaking all my rules.

Give Us a Hand(out)

Posted on August 7, 2007 in The Rowan Report with No Comments

In his book “Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes,” my friend Andy Goodman outlines one simple rule about handouts: Don’t distribute them until you’re done or until they are needed for a specific part of the presentation.

Passing out a stack of material before your performance will ensure only one thing: a large percentage of the crowd will NOT be paying attention to you. They will read ahead. They will find all of your well-planned jokes. They’ll use the handout to gauge how much longer you’re going to talk. None of this helps you.

Alas, even Microsoft’s PowerPoint web page recommends post-show distribution.

Building on Andy’s sage advice, I’ll offer a few more thoughts about how to use handouts.

First, I think it’s useful to think about handouts as reinforcement of your presentation, not a reproduction of it. For this reason alone, I think Microsoft should eliminate the “print handout” option or at the very least, rename it “print boring, ineffective handouts.”

Because slides are supposed to “reinforce” your verbal presentation, a print out of them shouldn’t be very helpful to an audience who hasn’t seen you present it. (If it were, why did you bother showing up? You could have just sent a memo.)

Unless a thorough recap is necessary, I encourage clients and colleagues to identify the one or two things that the audience HAS TO LEARN OR REMEMBER in order to consider the presentation a success and then design a simple handout that reinforces those points.

Consider these simple examples.

1. My colleagues at Environmental Defense have a rather robust presentation about energy consumption in Texas. Lots of charts and data. But there’s one chart that sums up the organization’s opinion about Texas energy. So we created a simple one page handout that explains that chart in great detail.

2. If you’ve seen Al Gore’s 300-slide “An Inconvenient Truth” presentation, you know it’s heavy on science about the global warming problem and light on solutions. So when I began giving the presentation in my community, I figured that people didn’t need a handout that recaps the presentation (they can rent the movie). A simple one-page handout about “what you can do” seemed to be the most helpful leave behind (I print four on a page and cut them into small leaflets). I also hand out copies of a longer report that details the role Texas plays in global warming. But I didn’t create it for the presentation. It’s just a fortunate coincidence that I worked at a place that produces such reports.

3. Sometimes, however, a more robust recap is necessary. When I present Andy Goodman’s “Storytelling as Best Practice” workshop, I often leave behind a front-and-back synopsis of what we discussed (see a portion of the first page here … sorry for the low-resolution). It’s not a word-for-word recap, and you have to have “been there” to remember most of the examples the handout mentions. But it serves as a good reminder for folks who attend the workshop.

None of these examples is the perfect, most beautiful piece. I work on a budget. But all of them provide the audience what it needs or what I want it to have (memory triggers for later, what you can do, more info about a complicated concept) without interrupting the presentation itself.

Amazingly, this approach barely adds any prep time. Here is your chance to give in to your addiction to bullets. Remind the reader what you said, and give him a few bullets that will help him recall your points. Handouts are also a great place to detail source material (New York Times, July 25, 2005 or Science, June 2005) for audiences who require that kind of specificity.

So give it a try with your next presentation. Think about what your viewers really need when they leave the room (or what you want them to have) and give it to them.

Admissions Bored

Posted on August 1, 2007 in The Rowan Report with No Comments

Every now and then, you see something that reminds you how steep the hill really is. I was about to upload a post about handouts last night when I came across a story that took the wind out of my PowerPoint sails (the handout post is coming).

You can read the AP story here…but I’ll give you the short version and why you should be careful about listening to any of my PowerPoint advice.

The school of business at the University of Chicago now requires applicants to submit, with their applications, four “PowerPoint-like” slides. They can cover any topic and must follow only two rules: no hyperlinks (let’s not encourage interactivity) and no video (God forbid). Surprisingly, pictures are allowed.

Not only does the story illustrate that the world has accepted that presentations are awful but necessary, it is now clear that I could never get accepted to graduate school today.

So be careful. If you’re planning to apply to a top-notch b-school, you might want to ignore all of my crazy posts about stories, pictures, simple design and verbal narrative. All that crap wouldn’t be understandable much less compelling if a stranger double-clicked on my .ppt file and ran through my slide show. He’d see four pictures and maybe a word or two. My presentations would get the boot in the first round. I never thought I’d say this, but I’d recommend the Template Wizard. After all, you should give the audience what it wants, right?

Fun With Fonts

Posted on July 23, 2007 in The Rowan Report with No Comments

Admit it. You’ve been holding your breath for a week to read what I have to say about PowerPoint fonts.

Truth is, I know this topic….although important…isn’t very interesting. So I’ll start with some PowerPoint comedy. Check out this video of stand-up comic Don McMillan making fun of bad PowerPoint presentations. It’s kind of scary that there is enough universal PowerPoint badness to fill a comedy routine, no?

Now, on to fonts.

Back in the old days, they used the term “typeface,” not “font.” (I vaguely remember a college professor shaming me in front of the class for using the wrong term). In the printing world, they still care about the difference, but for most of us, font is the word used to describe the “look” or “design” of the text we use in documents or presentations. You know them….Times, Arial, Tahoma, etc.

My general approach to fonts is that they should go unnoticed by the audience. No one will (or should) say “Wow. That guy’s fonts were excellent.” But if I make bad font choices, they will (and should) make fun of me.

There are a couple of websites worth checking out…Microsoft’s “Which Font to Use” page and MasterViews’ tip sheet. They’re pretty similar.

Unlike some of my tips on PowerPoint design, I tend to fall inline with most “expert opinions” about font usage. My suggestions on fonts fall into three categories: font choice, size and consistency. I didn’t mention color because my opinion is so simple. If you use a dark slide, use white text. If you use a light slide, use black.

Font Choice
The general rule is that serif fonts, like Times, are best for large blocks of text that the audience will have to read. Sanserif fonts, like Arial, are best for small text blocks, headlines, labels, etc.

I tend to agree with that general rule, but you know what I think about large blocks of text…I try to not use them unless I have to. And if your 25 slide presentation only has one long block of text, a different font will look out of place.

I’ve been using Arial (or you can use Tahoma or Verdana) in most of my recent presentations. Even for blocks of text. It’s clean, simple, looks good in charts, looks good over black and, just as importantly, is found on every computer known to man. So my preference is to keep it simple and compatible.

One last word on font choice…if you are trying to convey professionalism, I strongly recommend avoiding any font that your grandmother or children would consider “cute.” Handwriting fonts, marker felt fonts and “party” fonts should be saved for family reunion or birthday party invitations.

Size Does Matter
Take two steps away from your computer. If you have to squint to read, so will your audience.

Not every slide needs a title. But for those that do, I go big (50 pt), especially if I have other text on the slide. If the title stands alone or with a photo and no other text, I go a bit smaller (as low as 32 pt). A lot of this has to do with your font choice (sanserif can go smaller) and color choice (white text on black can go smaller than black text on white).

If I have to use bullets, I try to never go smaller than 30 pt. If I can’t fit my whole bullet at that size, my bullet is probably too long. PowerPoint is no help here. If I keep typing, PowerPoint automatically makes the font smaller as if to say “Keep typing, the audience isn’t asleep yet.”

Headline writers at the NY Times have a minimum size limit and a defined amount of space. And they work within those parameters every day. We can, too.

Consistency
Whatever choices you make, stick with them. All charts should have the same font choice, size, color, etc. All titles should be the same. All photo captions should be the same. Inconsistency draws attention to your font choice and away from your message.

Again, PowerPoint doesn’t help here. Though it allows for standard formatting throughout a whole presentation, its tendency to automatically downsize the text to make it fit is pretty annoying.

So that’s it on fonts. In the next post, we’ll look at audience handouts as effective leave-behind material.

Welcome Back to PowerPoint World

Posted on July 18, 2007 in The Rowan Report with No Comments

Based on (1) feedback from friends and readers and (2) the fact that I’ve been creating a lot of presentations for clients, I’ve decided to spend the next several posts on some more PowerPoint tips. Some will seem familiar (my hatred of bullets, for example). But even the familiar ones will have new examples of dos and don’ts.

And if you have any other suggested PowerPoint topics, please send them my way.

First up, Back in Black.

I’ve mentioned this briefly in a couple of previous posts, but I have found that nearly every presentation that I create from scratch is based on a black background. Why? Maybe it’s personal taste. My car is black. My phone. My computer. My t-shirts. My dog.

But there’s more to it, I think.

1. Microsoft template colors are painfully ugly. So anything is better than what PowerPoint serves up. And no matter how much you like your organization’s pre-approved template, chances are your audience would rather see a black slide. Look at these examples…all the same slide but with a white, blue and black background. Which one looks the best?

2. Black doesn’t get old. Most colors age and fall in and out of fashion. Black will always be the new black.

3. Black is consistent across computers. PowerPoint colors look slightly different on different computers, whether they’re PCs or Macs. Black looks black. So you won’t open your slides on another computer and say “that looks different.”

4. White is blinding. And distracting. When you display a blank white slide in front of a group, everyone stares at it (and not you) waiting for you to fill it with content. White also creates an unmistakable square on the wall. So if you don’t fill it up with graphics, you feel like the slide is incomplete.

The borders of a black slide blend smoothly with the color of the screen you display your presentation on. So when a slide is blank, it simply looks like the projector is off, and the eyes in the room focus on you, not a blank screen. This allows you, the savvy presenter, to insert a few blank slides into your presentation when you want the audience to stop looking and start listening…like at the beginning and end of your presentation, or when you are about to make an important point.

5. Black is an easy color to match. I like to delete the backgrounds of my photos and graphics so not all of my graphics are rectangles and so they appear to “hover” above my slides. To do that, I use PowerPoint’s “transparent color” feature which works pretty well but always leaves a few traces of color around the edges. These “traces” can stand out on color slides, but blend right into a black background. See examples here and here.

6. Simplicity speaks volumes.

7. Black makes other colors look more vibrant and vivid. You’ll be amazed at how the same colors look so different when suspended over a black background. Use the same shading effect as before, but use white as the shade color instead of black and the shapes or line charts seem to jump off the screen. Check out this example in white and black, and this one in white and black. Both versions look pretty good, but I think the black slide gives the colors more impact.

8. At least for the time being, it’s different. I assure you, your presentation will stand out. People will ask you what software you’re using, because they’ve been inundated with the template wizard’s rainbow of bad colors. I posted this before, but look at this QuickTime version of a recent presentation and see how the simplicity of the black background stands out.

Next up is fonts. Doesn’t sound terribly exciting, but if you’ve tried to be fancy with clever fonts, you know that using the wrong ones can be a big headache.