SECRETS

a book by Alexei Kapterev

Presentation

Alexei. Hi. Im

SOME OTHER GUY

ALEXEI KAPTEREV

I live in Moscow and I teach at the Moscow Universitys business school

tation esen a pr hare Slides on

s ago year 4 lished I pub

TV!

As se

en on

hich became one the worlds W most popular presentation about presentations (funny, yes)

make me

ut let B

confession... a small

guru myself

much of a

wasnt really

Back then I

making my first steps

I was just

But when Death went viral, lots me asking for by Powerpoint

of people came to

helP!

I had no choice but to become an expert

Q:

So, 4 years later, do we still suffer from Death by Powerpoint?

A:

YES.

Most presentations still have:

Incomprehensible structure

Lousy slides

Sleep-inducing delivery

structure
You cannot summarize the argument No answer to the question why bother? No story arc just tons of facts

Typical

Typical slides
Too much text and data Aesthetics? Whats aesthetics? Pictures for the sake of pictures

better, but still)

(it did get a bit

Typical delivery
Talking to the mic, not to the audience Mo-no-to-ny-mo-no-to-ny-mo-no-to-ny Scripted, canned inauthentic

What is still wrong?

Bad presenters share either of the 2 extreme beliefs: or

Its voodoo magic, you have to be born with it You can do it 3 simple rules by following

OK, presentations

difficult
(This is true and Im not

are
gonna lie to you on this)

ight SEEM like It m you have to become:

Scriptwriter
YOU

Designer

Actor

doing it myself Im convinced:

But after

EVERYONE CAN DO IT

Its just NEVER a matter of simple rules. For example

4 RULE PRESE

1. Dont e

2. Use san

3. Avoid u

4. Always

Use pictures not words

The rule

often leads to cheesy slides irrelevant,

3 PRINCIPLES (not rules):

So I suggest adopting

Focus

Contrast

Unity

Focus

Contrast

Unity

should FOCUS only on few things and leave out the rest.

Our attention is limited, so we

Focus

Contrast

Unity

We can truly understand facts only in CONTRAST to other facts.

Focus

Contrast

Unity

you achieve internal consistency.

SIGNLE UNIFIED METAPHOR

By working from a

Theory

pracTice

Now, principles are easy. Let me give you some examples. Applying them is hard.

Structure

st

point point point point

GOAL

nd rd

3 4

th

ONE GOAL supported by 3-5 KEY POINTS.

Ideally, a presentation should have

Slides

BIG STATEMENT
Much Smaller Supporting Points

LARGE PICTURE

KEY INDICATOR

A slide should have a CLEAR FOCAL POINT, something it is about.

Delivery

FOLLOW.

they can

making sure

attention,

the audiences

has to GUIDE

A presenter

Structure

and PROBLEMS otherwise its POINTLESS.

The story must describe both solutions

Slides

or show things CHANGING.

Best illustrations COMPARE

Delivery

Great presenters ENGAGE

*

the audience.

Engage [engj]:

1. occupy, attract, or involve 2. enter into conflict or combat

Structure

+
Intro Problem

Solution

Call for action

The S-curve is a CLASSIC PATTERN of CHANGE. Whats the overall pattern of your story?

Slides

This font works with this object

This font works with this object

Whats your OVERALL DESIGN METAPHOR? For this presentation its a whiteboard.

Delivery

Improvise

Rehearse

INDISPENSABLE if you want to look authentic.

Both improvisation and rehearsal are

the principles.

book is NOT about

important, but this

OK, principles are

EXAMPLES, CASES.

ILLUSTRATIONS,

It is mostly about

I believe that by

studying examples you learn to APPLY those principles CREATIVELY and this is the secret Get your copy of on WILEY.com. of GREAT presentations. Presentation Secrets

ALEXEI KAPTEREV www.kapterev.com