I join forces with Pixxa, makers of Perspective, to present a workshop on the future of presentation.
After giving dozens of talks in the last year using an iPad with Perspective I’ve learned a few things. Having also spent years using Powerpoint to try to do the same thing, I’ve experienced first hand how slideware has gotten in the way of great storytelling.
So we teamed up to understand how stories come alive using data and drew inspiration from Aristotle, Welles, Tufte and Rosling to build a new theory of presentation.
We believe that we have summoned up enough cohesion in the theory to put it forward to an audience and tell the story of storytelling; practicing what we preach, so to speak.
Here are some of the questions we are putting forward:
- How and why are presentations different from one-on-one interactions?
- Can mobile technology help tell stories better than the Powerpoint metaphors?
- Is motion and interaction effective, and if so how can it be choreographed and directed?
- Does “camera position” affect the focal point of a story? In other words, should the presenter think of the camera as a character in the story?
- Can presentations be built more quickly and can the presenter obtain confidence without rehearsal?
- What are some of the constraints of venue and legacy AV equipment that perpetuate ancient dogma? How can the presenter eliminate or mitigate these constraints?
At a minimum, the workshop is designed to recruit and equip a new cadre (no more than 50) with a new algorithm of presentation built on rhetorical, theatrical and cinematic foundations.
We call the workshop Airshow. June 9th, 10am to 4pm, the day before WWDC, in San Francisco. Sign up here.
