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Lessons from the 2010 SlideShare presentation competiton

December 13, 2010 · by Jan Schultink
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The winners are announced of the 2010 edition of the Slideshare World’s Best Presentation Contest. Here are the #1, #2, and #3. Congratulations to each designer:

SMOKE - The Convenient Truth

YOU SUCK AT POWERPOINT!

Social Media for Business

Some lessons we can learn from these presentations:

Remember, these presentations are made for SlideShare/online viewing. In other contexts the style used would be somewhat different.

DesignPowerPointPresentation designPresentation

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7 comments

Jim2010-12-13 20:51:35
Actually, I think that SlideShare ... well ... sucks.

PowerPoint is only part of a presentation. The presenter is the other part. SlideShare forces you to use only one part. There's no audio! You lose a major component of the presentation. So you load up your slides with what should have been spoken, forcing you to commit Mistake #1, "Too Much Info".

Typically, after a presentation, event sponsors and audience members want a copy of my slides. But my slides a nearly all images and graphics. What text there is is limited to just a few words. Without my narration, my slides are kind of meaningless. So instead of SlideShare, I use other tools, such as Camtasia, to make my presentation, with audio narration, into a movie.

Until SlideShare can accomodate audio - and can sync that with mouseclick animations - then it ... well ... sucks.
Arnout2010-12-14 16:14:03
I think each tool comes with its limitations. Slides on slideshare are mainly a slide-only channel (although you can attach audio). You should take that into account when uploading to SlideShare. The other way around also counts. Slide-decks for SlideShare shouldn't be used to present.
We accompany a Slideshare-version of a presentation with an added 'main message' per slide. That way you use both channels how they're best used.

BTW: I think you should never hand off your slides to your audience, as they are a companion to your spoken word. It is of no use. They're yours and shouldn't part from the main part of the presentation: you and your words.
We always make hand-outs to accompany the speaker and the (PowerPoint) presentation. The hand-outs give more in dept details, recommended reading, contact information, etc. All the things that shouldn't be in your preso to start with! :-)
Jan Schultink2010-12-14 03:25:26
Agreed 100%. Most presentations that get a lot of views on SlideShare are designed specifically for online viewing. They probably will work less well when someone has to present them live, clicking a new slide every 5 seconds.
Jan Schultink2010-12-22 03:35:31
No I don't, but I think they will tell you if you email them. Today there are a large number of these type of fonts available. If you are looking for something "grunge" try the boycott font:
Jesse2010-12-14 19:23:45
Hi Jan,

You're right, my presentations I give in person are very different than the ones I upload to slideshare... you gotta design for your audience right?

You can actually attach audio to your slides in slideshare. I just prefer not to, I think people read much faster than I talk and also since most people view my work at the office its not always an option to listen with sound.

Also about fonts, I always export to PDF before uploading to slideshare, they have a very limited selection of fonts on their end and this usually solves and formatting issues.

Jesse
Kathy2010-12-21 21:48:59
Jan do you have any idea what font the Smoking presentation used?
Jan Schultink2010-12-15 04:00:21
Congratulations Jesse