Trainers' Lounge

I've seen simple yet powerful presentations in my life. In fact, 2 of the best presentations I've watched over the internet are (1) Al Gore's keynote in his documentary "the Inconvenient Truth" and (2) Steve Jobs' presentation during World Wide Developer's Conferences.

Although these speakers use an Apple-branded software, "Keynote" - unlike most of us who use Microsoft "Powerpoint" - they exemplify a good but effective and powerful technology assisted speeches. Remember, good presentations do not depend on the tool or program you're using but on the impact it could leave to its audience.

Gore's and Jobs' presentations have a lot in common. Aside from what I've mentioned earlier that they both use "Keynote," the style of their presentations are quite similar.

1. They use dark-colored backgrounds, which add emphasis on the texts and pictures embedded on each slides. Backgrounds should not be literally so dark. Adding a gradient effect - like what you see in Job's presentation - does the trick in highlighting important parts of your presentation.

2. None of them use Times New Roman as font-type. The latter font may be pleasing in the eyes for short-distance reading, however it is quite difficult to read if your put it in a presentation for a larger audience.

3. They do not use comic-like custom animations. Their favorites - classy and pleasing animations. It is not recommended put a plethora of animations in your presentation. Simple zooms (for intros), wiggles (for emphasis) and rumbles (for connoting negativity) are some of the recommended animations in your presentations.

I've seen more similarities and good things about them but I believe some of the sites below tell more than I can. Their ginormous pile of presentation database and tips are quite a handful.

1. See Sample Presentations in Duarte Design.
2. Presentation Tips from Lifehacker.com
3. Get some presentation tips from Garr Reynolds.
4. Newsweek on Delivering A Presentation like Steve Jobs.