Mark Lanier and Cliff Atkinson

Life is never-ending discovery. Even at the age of 74. It happened to me yesterday. Just as it does nearly every day that I put out my “bucket.”

Soon after Cliff Atkinson’s book, Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire came out, I’ve known about his star case study, attorney Mark Lanier and his 253 million dollar wrongful death settlement with Merck.

You see, this case study fits into my visual aid research pattern. To look at Lanier’s PowerPoint opening statement (well over 200 slides and two and one half hours long) is an investigation into excellence and several note worthy lessons.

And, I only study the very best.

This guy just won 253 million from one of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the world, that had just spent a billion dollars on lawyers and expert witnesses in it’s defense.

Lanier (and his consultant, Cliff Atkinson) must have done something right.

And what ever that was, all we like PowerPoint users should take note and learn. (The heck with what the crazy dude in the cubical next to you says about using PowerPoint.) Lanier’s stuff works!

We should (study and) follow suit!

Back to my discovery! It was a series of 9 videos on YouTube.com. These videos were of Lanier speaking (I think, to group of Harvard law students) about that blockbuster trial, , , the one where his client won a settlement of 253 million dollars.

In it he shows some of the slides he used in his opening statement. Fellow PPT user, , , here is real value! His opening arguments were a two and one half hour speech, , , supported by well over 200 PowerPoint slides.

My observation is that such a presentation is a tasty recipe for a nap.

Not so here! Observers at this trail said that the jury of 12 were on the edge of their seats for the entire time. (Which is cool, in and of it self.)

But the results they delivered, , , 253 million bucks, , , is what really counts.

I have drawn several conclusions after watching all nine videos through twice. And I’ll discuss them with you in part two of this article.

For now, if you are a serious presenter in any field, I highly recommend that you watch this series through, at least twice. Here in this post is Part One of the series.  Then you can watch the rest of them one by one.

After you have watched this string of videos, then I’ll get back to you and we can see what we have learned.

Enjoy!

Wayne

The Six-Slide PowerPoint Presentation, Wayne Kronz

PowerPoint supporters insist that “it’s only a piece of software, , , it’s the users who are coming up with all the Really Bad PowerPoint.”

I say differently. Right out of the box, implications are made, , , “anyone can do it.” Bluntly, I proclaim, “no software program can make you an instant public speaking success.”

I am 74 years old, , , and I’ve made thousands of up-front pitches. (I made my first one when I was 14.) And I have a dirty little secret I need to share with you, , , “It is not that easy!”

Everything I know about speaking, teaching and presenting, I’ve had to learn the hard way.

Over 200 books, well over 12,000 hours in front of critical audiences and a lifetime dedicated to the study of how visual aids work in public presentation.

And, I work my butt off in preparation and practice for every new presentation I make. I can honestly say that a great majority of my speeches have been well received.

Maybe, , , all except one! And WOW, did it bomb.

It wasn’t the quality of the material.

It wasn’t that I did a lousy job. I had presented all the stuff many times before with great success. I knew what I was doing.

It was because of my visual package, , , I used PowerPoint. My very first PowerPoint. So, I can easily say, “I’ve had my own bad PPT experience.”

As I have studied that presentation, I read far and wide. And I discovered that, like me, everyone was not pleased using PowerPoint.

Cliff Atkinson knows presentations like few in the world today. That’s why he wrote the book, Beyond Bullet Points.” Instinctively, he knew that the “out-of-the-box PPT” suggestions about using a lot of bullet points was a bad idea.

(One of his consulting clients’ presentations won a $253,000,000 settlement with a huge pharmaceutical company.)

Seth Godin is the best-selling business book author in the world today. (Number One!) And he’s a very prolific seminar leader and professional speaker.

And he wrote the book, Really Bad PowerPoint.

Tom Antion earns well over a million dollars a year as a professional public speaker. He has literally taught the public speaking industry how to sell their wares on the Internet.

And he maintains a website called, PowerPointStinks.com.

(Tom has a cute little alternative to using PPT. I’ll share it with you some day on this blog.)

Dan Roam is the hottest speaker in the world today on the topic of Presenting. His book, The Back of the Napkin, has opened the presentation world’s eyes to what works and what does not in the realm of using visual aids.

He made a comment in one of seminars that triggered my thinking for this article, , , “after five or six slides, no one pays any attention, , ,” speaking about large, multi-slide PPT slide shows.

The reason this comment rang a bell in my thinking is that for the last few years that’s been my exact observation. I’ve thought many times, “Five slides and they're loosing ’em.”

And if most audiences are “good” for five or six slides, why not build PPT presentations with only six slides. Result; I’ve developed the Six-Slide PowerPoint Presentation concept.

I am including two “six-slide” presentations for you on this blog. I hope you learn from them and can put the idea to work in your presenting.

Wayne