Russell Davies

Ten Decks That Shook The World

People were very nice about the book news. That's very kind. Thank you.

So, while people are paying a little attention here's a question where I could do with some help.

I'm trying to write a section called (something like) Ten PowerPoints That Shook The World. You can imagine the kind of thing. Semi-serious / because no PowerPoint has ever really shook the world / loose definition of PowerPoint (any presentation with a screen?) etc.

I guess what I really mean is famous/important/notorious presentations. ie not just speeches, or just diagrams.

I've got some candidates below but it's not a brilliant list, not least because they're mostly men. And because they're from a particular slice of the world: tech/commerce/government etc. I guess that might be because of the Power bit of PowerPoint. But can anyone suggest any others?

Colin Powell at the UN

Challenger/Tufte

Steve Jobs, iPhone launch

Stay Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives

Mary Meeker internet trends

Al Gore / An Inconvenient Truth

Andrew Cuomo / COVID briefings

PowerPoint - Columbus demo

Hans Rosling TED

Patty McCord / Netflix Culture Deck

UPDATE

People have also suggested:

Snowden (especially) (thank you Matt and Tom)

Netanyahu to Trump 

YouTube pitch (thank you another Tom)

Not all of these exactly fit the criteria at the top but that's not a big deal. I can change that. These all need writing about.

I'm very struck by how many of the actual authors of these presentations are anonymous, secret or unknown. Presentations do tend to erase authorship and there's not a Writer's Guild or something to regulate the credits. That's worth fixing. (As Ella says "attribution is a revolutionary activity")

The 48 Laws of PowerPoint

At least two people in the past week have noticed my lack of blogging and wondered if I'm OK. So, before social services are alerted, I thought I should explain myself.

I'm good thanks.

I've not been blogging because I'm trying to write a book about PowerPoint.

Long-time readers will point out that I've been, sort of, doing that for about 20 years but this time I've got to put it all in one place and actually check the spelling because I've got a proper contract.

And, most excitingly of all, Stef is going to design it. ie it's legit, it's a proper thing.

Even just typing this now makes me realise that I should share more of my progress on here. That'll make it better. I'm going to do that.

In the meantime, here's an outtake. I assumed someone would already have done 'The 48 Laws of PowerPoint' based on, but it seems they haven't.

So here's one:

The 48 Laws of PowerPoint

1.    Don’t read the screen*
2.    Lists
3.    Use lists
4.    Lots of lists
5.    But 48 items is way too many - who thought this was a good idea?
6.    Start with a story
7.    End with an ask
8.    Fill up the rest with ideas and images
9.    Repeat the important things
10.  Remove the word ‘key’
11.  Make it shorter
12.  Repeat the important things
13.  Don’t read the screen
14.  Arrive early
15.  Respect the AV people
16.  Be a bit bigger
17.  Make it clear, concise and catchy
18.  Or freewheeling, unpredictable and magical
19.  Just be sure which one you’re doing
20.  Repeat the important things
21.  Arrive early
22.  Double-check the tech
23.  What will you do if your slides don’t work?
24.  Press B
25.  Make something very big
26.  Make something very small
27.  Make something rhyme
28.  Finish on time
29.  Actually, finish early
30.  Never outshine the master
31.  Sorry, wrong list
32.  One hour of prep per one minute of talk
33.  Repeat the important things
34.  Demand change
35.  Make it readable
36.  Make it accessible
37.  Make it memorable
38.  Make it bigger
39.  Remove the word ‘holistic’
40.  No 3D
41.  No pies
42.  Slow down
43.  Speed up
44.  Repeat the important things.
45.  Start with a story
46.  End with a bang
47.  Don’t read the screen
48.  BANG

*But make sure that people who can't see the screen know what it says. See point 36.

Thank you for the nudge Christian : "...it was just that the common wisdom about presenting is to not read the slides but talk around them, but often that does lead to information just staying up there on the screen but not being spoken"

 

June 2020