Slideshare of the Day: Advice for Graduates

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn has written one of my new favorite books and produced two decks that have absolutely inspired me as we move into the second half of the new year. The Start Up of You explains how an entrepreneurial spirit and approach can help all professionals (even us teachers) grow and develop.

His second deck, “The Three Secrets of Highly Successful Graduates”, is a must share (and view) from teachers to students. It’s also inspired me to add a few bits of Hoffman insight to my latest deck, “Tweak Your Resume”. Check out the deck below:

Tweak Your Resume Preview

I felt Hoffman’s discussion of what competitive advantage means fit right in with why a visual resume is so useful.

What are your assets, aspirations, and how do those fit in with what your industry wants and needs?

Finally, here is draft two of my unemployment slide. What do you think, Margaret?

Tweak Your Slides: Presentation Delivery Redesign

One of my goals for the month of February is to “tweak” and in some cases completely overhaul several of my decks for class, Slideshare, and the blog. This week, I’ve devoted 12 hours in class to discussing delivery, and another 16 hours on redesigning the deck that accompanies this slideshow. So far, I’ve only incorporated information from Garr Reynolds’ The Naked Presenter. I plan on moving back and forth between Reynolds’ ideas and Nancy Duarte’s approach via the Harvard Business Review’s Guide to Persuasive Presentations. The blending of these two approaches will be a challenge (in particular because the structure is built around the “naked approach” (agenda slides, color scheme, specific verbiage). However, I am confident that I can meet the challenge. Look for a debut of this deck on Slideshare in the next few weeks!

Sneak Peek: Tweak your Resume

One of my favorite parts of teaching visual design is the visual resume project. While my visual resume continues to be a source of frustration for me (I recently ditched the old one completely and started from scratch), I enjoy sharing what I’ve learned about this dynamic form of professional persona building. This afternoon, I will be holding a GoTo Training for my online students as they prepare to submit their visual resumes. In preparation, the students study among other resources, Jesse Dee’s Really Ugly Resumes, Emiland’s How I Landed a Job with Slideshare, and my deck, Visualizing Resumes.

For this session, I want to draw attention to the examples they already have on hand and take this opportunity to rework my original deck on visual resumes. So, I have developed a new set of slides for this mini-workshop that I hope to continue building on and developing. Here is a sneak peek of my new approach to teaching visual resumes, Tweak Your Resume:

 

Update: I’ve made a few changes based on some critique. On my way!

 

What are your thoughts? I am not sold on the color scheme so far, but I am enjoying the process of laying out my type in a different way!

Ignite Orlando 2013: One Small Tweak

Alex Rister and I became curators of Ignite Orlando in August, and things have been slow going because of our schedules. After a rather disappointing day of image searching (sometimes that tweak just won’t come!), I decided to revisit my second PechaKucha, “The Universe is Half Full” and adapt it to the Ignite model, as I hope to present in this new format soon. This presentation will focus on my love of science fiction and the impact the genre, in particular Star Trek has had on me as an individual, scholar, and teacher.

In revising this deck, I’ve begun varying and expanding my examples beyond Star Trek to include other series, authors, and filmmakers. My first addition is William Gibson, father of cyberspace and fellow nerd. The quote below really speaks to my love of the science fiction genre. More on this tweak as the month unfolds!

Deck of the Day: Generation Y by Orsolya Nemes

I learned about this talented young lady by way of her introduction on Prezi. Since then, I’ve followed her blog, which is all about presentations for and by generation y. Orsolya has embraced the presentation revolution started by Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds. Her latest deck just debuted on slideshare.net (and on her blog, Y Generation Presentation)

Orsolya has a true design-centered mentality. She seeks out the advice of those with established experience in this field and passion for the subject; she has immersed herself in her craft and her latest deck illustrates that. Keep on tweaking, Orsolya, creator of today’s slide swag:

 

Is Your Speech Toxic?

Hello readers! I am happy to share my latest deck with you, “Your Speech is Toxic.” Enjoy!

Warning, corny side note: this deck was made in honor of Mrs. Nancy Duarte, whose work started this whole crazy ride down the 21st century presentation rabbit hole.

First draft of Your Speech is Toxic is done!

Phew!  I’ve been working on this epic deck for months (probably 3 or so). I first had the idea to create a deck about this basic idea:

Everyone says, “I am a great communicator” or “I have great communication skills” but from my experience as a student, friend, teacher, mentor, and presenter, most of us are really not very good at communicating.

This belief was reinforced for me after a rather terrible interview I had for a faculty development position. I am convinced that it was this interview that cemented in the hiring manager’s mind that I was enthusiastic and clearly passionate about teaching, but I really had no clue how to manage or lead others. I tried to rectify this in my thank you letter and in the proposal for a new faculty orientation we were asked to submit, but my efforts at rectifying a failed communication situation were little compared to that impression I’d made.

I was involved with an epic Nancy Duarte experience this month and last. Alex Rister and I were privileged enough to speak to Nancy (who just turned 50–check out the amazing deals in the Duarte shop. If I could afford that workshop and a flight to California, I’d be there in a heartbeat) three times, the final time for an hour via Skype with some amazing superstudents. Instead of writing my experience (you can read Alex’s here, here, and here), I’ve decided to incorporate a few lessons I’ve learned from Nancy, my fairy godmother of presentations, in this latest deck, “Your Speech is Toxic”. I would go as far as saying this deck would not have been possible had I not run across Slide:ology while perusing the “PowerPoint” section of the now sadly late Borders Books. Here is a shot of a portion in the Light Table view of Keynote. I still have some tweaking to do, but I can’t wait to share this with others!

Featured on Six Minutes: How to Create Pro Slides in Less Time

Today, my article “How to Create Pro Slides in Less time: Don’t Worry, Be CRAPpy” is featured on Andrew Dlugan’s Six Minutes. I was introduced to the concept of CRAP via Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen, and I am happy to share this useful tool for designing and revising slides with Six Minutes readers and beyond. Check out how you can use Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity to help you create great slides or revise your decks to awesomeness!

Photoshop fun

So, I’ve decided to learn to use the Adobe CS5 suite, partly because I realize my Keynote shortcuts actually take much longer than what I can do in Photoshop, and because I know that I cannot take myself seriously as “presentation designer” if I can’t master these designer-tailored programs. Here’s what my tweaking produced. I hope to see much improvement over the next few weeks! Thanks to Rachelle Fox of the Full Sail University English department for an excellent 2 hour tutorial.

Image: Rachelle Fox

Tweak of the Day: The SOTU Visualized

As I gear up for slide design day in class, I peruse slideshare.net for examples of the elements of design: contrast, hierarchy, proximity, unity, flow, and whitespace. Here is Obama’s recent SOTU address visualized. Give this rich deck a moment to load!