Office softwares Principles of presentations

1. Office softwaresPrinciples of presentations AC 2002

2. Making presentations plays an important role in business • A presentation is a kind of transaction : it is an exchange • Business is about and only about exchanges • Accounting records and displays exchanges • There are many other disciplines that study how to carry out efficient, as well as fair, exchanges • How to make a presentation efficient ? AC 2002

3. How to make a presentation efficient ? • Who are the people exchanging ? • What is the audience ? • Why are they here ? • Who is the speaker ? • Why does he communicate something ? AC 2002

4. It is a human contact... • …but a special one : • instead of a one-to-one talk, it is a one-to-many contact • Aside from that a presentation should be as natural as possible, just like a conversation • Same thing on TV : tv speakers try to make the one-way communication looks as natural as possible • There are training to be natural in a one-to-many communication situation • (Pascale Clarke TV broadcast is a communication no-no) AC 2002

5. A presentation : general topics 1. First of all : try and make your presentation as close as possible to a one-to-one real contact 2. Know what you want to communicate, to whom, why ? 3. Organize your messages to be convincing 4. As far as Powerpoint is concerned : master the tool (it is just a tool) AC 2002

6. Preparing a good presentation encompasses TWO jobs : 1. Define your goal, and organize your thoughts and your arguments to reach your goal. 2. Prepare efficient nice looking slides. AC 2002

7. The three ways to make people do what you want : 1. Constraint (the military way) 2. Fair and convincing communication (fair exchange) 3. Manipulation (used in « power selling » for instance…) From a european cultural point of view the american techniques of communication are always borderline with manipulation. Anyway, let’s see what interesting things Dale Carnegie has to say. AC 2002

8. Different cultures • Most business you’ll carry out will be with people from different cultures : • They will react differently from you • Some jokes don’t work • They interpret signs differently from you • What works ? • Courtesy and respect are universals that always enable you to establish a good communication AC 2002

9. Internet generation • You belong to the Internet generation. • « Who was the Chinese emperor at the time of Marco Polo journey ? » • The Google Reflex : Ask Google « Who was the Chinese emperor at the time of Marco Polo journey ? » ! • Internet generation : • the tedious chore of searching for information vanished • now we can concentrate on sorting, understanding, making sense, deciding, acting AC 2002

10. Technology and problem solving • A hundred years ago, a new technology erased the problem of contacting people quickly : the telephone • But the problem of shipping large amounts of information remained. • The fax was invented in the 30 ’s (it was called the Belinographe) • In the early 80’s telex was still the major way to send large amounts of information quickly (let alone goods) • Internete-mail solved the problem of sending large amounts of information immediately • Google solved the problem of accessing information immediately AC 2002

11. A letter from Kublaï to FrederickII • It would take more than one year to get to destination ! AC 2002

12. For a good presentation • Put the summary message on top • And either details or supporting evidence in the central display AC 2002

13. A concise summary ? • When making a presentation… • … keep in mind your goal… • … and use presentation techniques to reach your goal AC 2002

14. Here, we put the synthetic message : • Here, we put the supporting evidence : • It can be a text • An image • Another multimedia object AC 2002

15. Building a cathedral is a complex project : AC 2002

16. The new branch school in Bora Bora will be a success : AC 2002

17. How to get to Bora Bora : AC 2002

18. Office softwares : the present • They help us create, treat and present basic information AC 2002

19. Office softwares : the future • They will help us think (more than just assist us in ordering our ideas) • They will answer simple questions (asked in natural language) from loads of factual data. AC 2002

20. Office softwares : future (2) • As usual, they will come from a mix of work from the military (cf. the new Darpa pet : TIA systems program)... • ...and the scholars (cf. Shurdlu) AC 2002

21. Please everyone ! • Make a standard slide : • A declaration on top • and supporting evidence underneath AC 2002

22. The best top sentences are action oriented : • Good : The Asian-European links at Escem are strengthening • Better : Escem plans to develop its Asian-European program AC 2002

23. An assertive leading sentence is more efficient than a title : A title : Escem links between Europe and Asia An assertion : Developping Escem links with Asia is the way of the future AC 2002

24. Our top assertion should be POSITIVE : Negative : Don’t spend your time with losers Positive : Spend your time with creative people AC 2002

25. Our assertion should be a bit surprising or, at least, a little bit provocative : Put an example here AC 2002

26. Our assertion should be punchy : Not punchy : China foreign trade used to be small Punchy : China foreign trade is developping fast AC 2002

27. The Internet generation must acquire new reflexes : • Finding information is much easier than before • We must develop the Google reflex AC 2002

28. Making punchy sentences... 1. Is important 2. Is not that easy AC 2002

29. Office softwares of the future will be quite surprising : • Today ’s office softwares help us to write (word processors), to compute (spreadsheets), and to communicate (presentation softwares) • Tomorrow, they will help us think • They will answer alone simple questions from loads of factual data AC 2002