SlideMagic Blog

I found this great Lego ad yesterday on SlipperyBrick:

Sometimes relying on audience imagination can work, sometimes it does not.

1. Sometimes it can work. Although adults might lose some of their imagination capabilities over time, it is still possible to get across visual messages with very simple graphics. Simple shapes, simple cartoons, even just creative typography. The mind will fill in the missing pieces
2. Sometimes it does not work. The book Made to Stick introduces the concept of Curse of Knowledge. The presenter “hears”/imagines a tune in his head and taps it with his fingers on the table. All is perfectly clear to the presenter. All the audience can hear is… someone tapping.

Somehow I only recently started to follow Gary Vaynerchuk who built a great personal Internet brand through “live” wine tasting sessions recorded to video (most wine critics taste offline and publish later online or in newspapers). This despite being reasonably hooked up to social media, and - more importantly - being a wine enthusiast. Anyhow, better late than never.

I stumbled on one of his presentations (September 2008):

A very passionate presentation. Not a single PowerPoint slide here. Very memorable and entertaining. Still, (a very small “still”), you can see that Gary is used to presenting to a video camera, rather than to a live audience. But he is forgiven, I will seek out more of what he has to say.

His messages in this video:

• Stop doing anything you do not want to do, but do something you are passionate about right now and go all the way, give it your full shot
• Build your brand and presence on every tool you possibly can find
• Realize that you are building your legacy now: this is the first generation that will experience that anyone can see everything you ever did, forever (including your children whom you want to be proud of you)
• Connect, interact with people to succeed

Pocket projectors are starting to ship. Two reviews posted within the last 24 hours: the 3M MPro 110 (around $475) and the Epoq EPP-HH01 ($229).

The reviewers’ comments suggest that although the devices can be used, it is still early days. Light strength is still relatively weak and resolution is not optimal (especially for text). As a result you need a darkened room, put the device 1-2 meters from the wall to get an image of around 40-50cm.

It sounds like we need some patience for 2 things to happen:

1. These devices become powerful enough that they can project a bright, big image. Until then, the laptop screen might be better. Maybe a compromise could work. A projector that is as flat/small as a laptop, but not quite pocket size that does meet minimum projection quality requirements.
2. More interestingly, this technology is incorporated in a mobile phone, providing these devices with a big screen instantly. The first application will actually be a replacement of the mobile phone screen for let’s say web browsing without the need for scroll bars, or viewing Microsoft Office documents for private use, or projecting the latest family pictures. Showing presentations to an external audience is still less obvious.

A number of blogs posted about LiveWeb yesterday, a PowerPoint plugin that lets you open a fully functioning web browser inside your PowerPoint slide show. All links work and are active.

Any live demo in a presentation is very, very high risk. Live web browsing is no exception

• You need to get an Internet connection to work in a strange environment. If finding power lead extension can be difficult, and setting up projectors is not obvious while the audience is settling down, going online is a challenge of a whole different magnitude

• The momentum is gone. If you have 20 minutes to make your pitch, you cannot afford to break the carefully build up momentum in your presentation. Turning away from the audience, “Wait a minute, where is that link, it was there yesterday” will make your audience opens up their PDAs to check email.

• Unpredictable content. A large banner ad for a gambling site. A breaking news story about stock markets tumbling. A sighting of Britney Spears. Distractions that will not help your story.

There are obviously situations where you need live web pages on a projector to work together as a group. In an informal setting, why not open up a regular browser? The only exception for a browser inside your PowerPoint might people that run training courses, either on Internet use, or on using internal corporate intranets.

P.S. Not sure what stirred the blogging activity yesterday, LiveWeb seems to have been around for some time.

See his post here. I agree with all his suggestions, except for the one where he recommends to buy your own font. It might look great, but creates an incredible headache when sharing documents with others, or putting things on the web.