| By Tad Anderson | Article Rating: |
|
| September 20, 2012 07:00 AM EDT | Reads: |
1,867 |
| Being a consultant has landed me in a ton of different roles. Sometimes those roles required giving a lot of presentations and some of them did not require me to give any. A few of those positions had me using PowerPoint more than Visual Studio. There were also a few that wanted the presentations recorded live and some made without an audience. I have presented enough now that I don't mind presenting at all, but that doesn't mean my audience always likes sitting through the presentations I create. I have never had food thrown at me, but I have seen the zombie gaze staring back at me as though I had successfully pulled off mass hypnosis. This usually happens when I have a mixed audience and I am not targeting a mixed audience. Sometimes things are too technical, boring the end user and managers, and sometimes they aren't technical enough boring the developers. This book offers a ton of advice on how to not to preform mass hypnosis on your audience. It is a well organized catalog patterns that provides sound advice for designing, creating, and delivering your presentations. It is broken down into three parts. The parts of the book coincide with the parts of the recommended process to follow when creating presentations. I have listed the parts and the chapters they contain below. Part I: Prepare Chapter 1. Presentation Prelude Patterns Chapter 2. Creativity Patterns Part II: Build Chapter 3. Slide Construction Patterns Chapter 4. Temporal Patterns Chapter 5. Demonstrations versus Presentations Part III: Deliver Chapter 6. Stage Prep Chapter 7. Performance Antipatterns Chapter 8. Performance Patterns I like the way the book is structured. It covers the entire process from the inception of the presentation, to building it, to delivering it. The process helps you think about presentations the right way for the given part of the process you are in. The book does not skimp on the building of the presentation. There are tons of pointers on how to correctly layout and structure the presentation. The book also include interludes that help put the pattern into context. The authors don't only list positive ways to improve your presentations, they also list a ton of Antipatterns along the way. An example of an Antipattern is dealing with hecklers. I have personal experience with them and this book is spot on with how to deal with them. My favorite part of the book is that it was written by technologists. As a software architect one of the most critical aspects of my job is to communicate efficiently and clearly to a diverse audience. Following the advice in this book will definitely help with that in the future. All in all I highly recommend this book to every Enterprise and Software Architect. The authors speak our language and have laid the book out in a very comfortable format. I also recommend it to anyone that has to do presentations. It is a great compilation of advice on how to deliver successful presentations. |
Presentation Patterns: Techniques for Crafting Better Presentations |
CIO, CTO & Developer Resources
Published September 20, 2012 Reads 1,867
Copyright © 2012 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.
Related Stories
More Stories By Tad Anderson
Tad Anderson has been doing Software Architecture for 16 years and Enterprise Architecture for the past few.
- Cloud People: A Who's Who of Cloud Computing
- Cloud Expo New York Speaker Profile: Dave Linthicum – Cloud Technology Partners
- Cloud Expo New York: Cloud Is Changing the Economics of Business
- Best CIO Practices Shared from SHI’s Customers
- Big Data Isn’t About the Database, It’s About the Application
- Cloud Expo New York: Rethink IT and Reinvent Business with IBM SmartCloud
- Cloud Expo New York: API Security, Does My Business Need an OAuth Server?
- Session Topics: 12th Cloud Expo / Cloud Expo New York
- Cloud Expo New York: Developing the World’s First IaaS Marketplace
- Cloud Expo NY: Best Practices for Delivering Oracle Database as a Service
- BEA Updates WebLogic SOA Portal for Web 2.0 Era
- UNIT4 Business Software: Three Retail Accounting Tips to Help Retailers Leverage the Cloud and Back Office Systems
- Cloud People: A Who's Who of Cloud Computing
- Cloud Expo New York Speaker Profile: Dave Linthicum – Cloud Technology Partners
- Cloud Expo New York: Cloud Is Changing the Economics of Business
- Best CIO Practices Shared from SHI’s Customers
- Cloud Expo New York: Deploying Hybrid Cloud for Performance and Uptime
- Big Data Isn’t About the Database, It’s About the Application
- Cloud Expo New York: Delivering Digital Marketing on the Cloud
- Cloud Expo New York: Rethink IT and Reinvent Business with IBM SmartCloud
- Cloud Expo New York: API Security, Does My Business Need an OAuth Server?
- Cloudant to Exhibit at Cloud Expo & Big Data Expo New York
- Session Topics: 12th Cloud Expo / Cloud Expo New York
- Cloud Expo New York: Basics of SSD Technology and Its Use in Cloud
- The i-Technology Right Stuff
- The Top 150 Players in Cloud Computing
- Who Are The All-Time Heroes of i-Technology?
- Where Are RIA Technologies Headed in 2008?
- Get the Message
- i-Technology Viewpoint: Is Web 2.0 the Global SOA?
- ESB Myth Busters: 10 Enterprise Service Bus Myths Debunked
- i-Technology Viewpoint: Thinking Outside the VC Box
- i-Technology Viewpoint: When to Leave Your First IT Job
- SOA Web Services Edge Conference Coverage on SYS-CON.TV
- SYS-CON.TV's "SOA Web Services" and "Enterprise Open Source" Programs To Air in December
- Five Reasons Why Web 2.0 Matters



















