PowerPoint 2.0

Larry Lessig has been called a PowerPoint virtuoso, and his approach recently inspired Dick Hardt, Founder and CEO of Sxip Identify, to use a similar film-inspired approach in his recent presentation, "Identity 2.0" at a conference called OSCON 2005.

You can view his presentation at this link.

It's very creative, visually interesting, and makes great use of visual humor. You're sure to be inspired to try some of the techniques he used on your own storyboards; and it's a good example of a completely bullet-free presentation.

From a delivery perspective, Dick would have dramatically improved his performance by using a remote control instead of being chained to the keyboard of his computer to advance his slides.  And from a structural perspective, I don't recall the 3 or 4 main points that Dick wanted us to remember and apply after his presentation.  But those are relatively minor quibbles, in light of the innovative and engaging visual story that Dick told.

Although the content of Dick's presentation was "Identity 2.0", I think that the form of the presentation really demonstrated "PowerPoint 2.0", or technically since he was using Apple presentation software, "Keynote 2.0".  Whatever you call it, it presents the much more interesting future that we have to look forward to.

Comments

[Ed Barks]

The measure of a successful presentation -- whether the speaker uses presentation software or not -- is the ability to move an audience to some type of action.

Forget about Hardt's slide deck; that is merely a tool. If you were unable to remember his three or four main points, that equals a failed presentation.

Sad to say, such failures are often due to the fact that audience members are so bored with slides they all but ignore the presenter's message.

Ed Barks
Author of The Truth About Public Speaking: The Three Keys to Great Presentations

[Yin Kreher]

Thanks for sharing the presentation with us. I felt that the slides were flying by in a frenzy before me and though they were beautifully designed and the presentation was humorous, the main points were not retained or lost because it seemed technique became more important than the message. I just thought the audience deserved to be given some time to view the slides and digest the ideas, esp. the main ideas, from the text or graphics.

[Ben Langhinrichs]

I have to say I came away with a very clear view of his message, quite aside from his technique. It may be because I saw the presentation on-line and didn't have to see him "chained to his keyboard", but I thought he did an excellent job of transcending the delivery and getting across a message.

[Grace Judson]

I actually remember his points and message very well, and I will continue to follow his work because I think he's right - Identity 2.0 is not only very necessary and needed, but highly inevitable.

I wonder if the impact of the message has as much to do with the viewer's background and interest as it does with the format of the presentation?

[DJosephDesign]

MAKE IT STOP!

I felt sick after watching his presentation, and I really wonder how much of the text was legible or readable because of the 100% white light behind the black text.

He's a great speaker, and it didn't fall into the common traps of digital presentations, but it was still overkill.

I would have stopped looking at his visuals after just a couple minutes.

[mark o'brien]

to me, the biggest issue in this presentation was that you were forced (by the speed of the slides) to either focus on the slides or the speaker, and really you were probably drawn to the slides because they're the candy flashing in front of you. the upshot results in what one of the other folks said up above... it makes for a great pre-packaged presentation, where there probably wasn't a huge benefit gained by actually being there with the speaker in the room in front of you.

to me, the one edge you have as a live speaker is that you can engage with the audience in a personal way that multimedia cannot... so you want them to focus on you most of the time, not your slides. most speakers still tend to give up centre-stage to the slides, which is really what separates the ok from the best.

thanks for a cool site... just discovered it and will be back.

[Terry Elliott]

Wow! The envy is dripping here. New paradigms, old criticisms. The use of film vocabulare in this presentation is nothing short of revolutionary. Much is hidden in Hardt's approach. Remember, too, that this was only fifteen minutes. If you forgot the points how hard would it be go back. I can hear the dinosaur death rattles already. Ppt is dead, long live ppt!

[Kevininspace]

I loved it. It got me thinking how can I quickly "convert" some of my existing presentations into bite-sized slides that I can return to to edit. I came up with this VBA script (you need to set the security settings in PowerPoint to Medium to use it).

http://www.redfoxsolutions.com/blog/index.php/archives/2005/12/09/making-your-own-identity-20-presentation/

This is not intended to give you a final presentation, but just gets the grunt work out of the way. There would still be a ton of work left to edit, add pictures, change slide transitions, and practice practice practice!

[Bjorn]

I just saw a similar Identity 2.0 presentation by Dick live, and it was amazing. The first time I have actually paid attention through an entire presentation (and I've seen a lot of them). Maybe it tailors more to a younger crowd that is used to mroe dynamics and interactivity.