Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter) | 
 enlarge | Author: Garr Reynolds
Publisher: New Riders Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
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Rating:  81 reviews
Sales Rank: 192
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.5
ISBN: 0321525655
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.58
EAN: 9780321525659
ASIN: 0321525655
Publication Date: January 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: All orders ship same business day via standard shipping (USPS Media Mail) if received by 1 PM CST.
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Product Description
Presentation designer and internationally acclaimed communications expert Garr Reynolds, creator of the most popular Web site on presentation design and delivery on the net -- presentationzen.com -- shares his experience in a provocative mix of illumination, inspiration, education, and guidance that will change the way you think about making presentations with PowerPoint or Keynote. Presentation Zen challenges the conventional wisdom of making "slide presentations" in today's world and encourages you to think differently and more creatively about the preparation, design, and delivery of your presentations. Garr shares lessons and perspectives that draw upon practical advice from the fields of communication and business. Combining solid principles of design with the tenets of Zen simplicity, this book will help you along the path to simpler, more effective presentations.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 This should be required reading for all presenters... January 1, 2008
Thomas Duff (Portland, OR United States)
145 out of 146 found this review helpful
This is everything that I want my presentations to be when I'm up on stage... Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds. This will make you rethink everything you've known (and likely done) about how a presentation should be designed.
Contents:
Introduction: Presenting in Today's World
Preparation: Creativity, Limitations, and Constraints; Planning Analog; Crafting the Story
Design: Simplicity - Why It Matters; Presentation Design - Principles and Techniques; Sample Slides
Delivery: The Art of Being Completely Present; Connecting With an Audience
The Next Step: The Journey Begins
Photo Credits; Index
There's so much good stuff here that it's hard to figure out where to begin. Reynolds advocates for a departure from the ordinary style of presentation involving PowerPoint. You've all sat through those (or given them)... Pages of slides, chock full of text, gratuitous use of special effects, etc. Presentation Zen is more about simplicity and storytelling. Your slides should support *you*, the speaker. If someone can get all the information from your slides, why do they need you? Your slides should not overwhelm the audience, but should draw their attention to the point that you are making in your talk. Couple this approach with the ability to tell stories rather than recite facts, and you can put together presentations that will be appreciated, remembered, and best of all, acted upon.
He also gets into how best to design appealing and arresting slides. Reynolds uses sites like iStockPhoto to avoid the overused and cheesy clipart that comes part and parcel with PowerPoint. And rather than just pasting a graphic on the screen under some text, the graphic *becomes* the slide, and the minimal text is positioned on the graphic in such a way that the slide becomes a work of art. Since I do technical presentations, my first objection was that this doesn't give the listener anything to take away in terms of content. But rather than make your slides the take-away, Reynolds suggests that you put together a separate "handout" document that can be given out after the talk (or downloaded). That document can contain the details and facts that you present, without overwhelming the listener during the actual talk. It's a simple concept, but not one that I've seen done often.
The bad thing about a book like this is it points out just how bad I actually am at presenting. The good thing is that it challenges me (as well as shows me) to get a whole lot better. This should be required reading for anyone before they start to put together anything in PowerPoint...
mastery of style and substance January 10, 2008
TJ Walker (New York, NY)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
Garr Reynolds new book Presentation Zen is a mastery of style and substance. Reynolds cuts through a lot of the silly noise about PowerPoint and gets right to how it can be used effectively, memorably and beautifully. Plus, Reynolds puts his own ego aside and puts a strong spotlight on other speaking masters like Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki. If you've been putting off creating your next PowerPoint presentation, then put if off one more day and run to your nearest bookstore and buy Presentation Zen.
Don't buy this book (Unless you want to know all the inside secrets of presentations!) February 9, 2008
David S. Rose (New York, NY United States)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
There's a reason that none of the country's best presentation coaches and presenters want you to purchase this book: that's because it will put the former out of business, and make you as good as the latter. Seriously!
Garr Reynolds has done what everyone else (at least among the presentation cognoscente) has been talking about for years. He has created what is truly THE book that is an absolute, positive must-read for everyone who is even thinking about presenting. I coach hundreds of entrepreneurs and CEOs each year for their fundraising road shows, and Garr has written and illustrated with stunning clarity the essence of what I and others have been preaching for years: visual clarity, simplicity, presence, planning and more.
If you are even *thinking* about buying a book on presentation skills, this is it. After you devour it cover to cover, you can then go on to the two other books I recommend: "Presenting to Win" by Jerry Weissman, and "The Articulate Executive" by Granville Toogood (the top presentation coaches on their respective sides of the country.) But start here, heed the lessons in this instant classic, and your audiences will be guaranteed to be putty in your hands.
David S. Rose (Described by BusinessWeek as "The Pitch Coach")
I Never Realized How Much Help I Needed May 26, 2008
Joe Wikert (Fishers, IN)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
When it comes to PowerPoint presentations I've always been guilty of simply grabbing a standard template and pouring in my bullets. I never gave much thought to aesthetics, which is why most of my slides look awful compared to the ones in Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds.
I can see why this book sells so extremely well. It's a beautiful work and features all sorts of great, visual examples to help drive home the author's points. Here are just a few of the great lessons I learned from reading this book:
Don't jump right into the slideware tool...lay out your thoughts using pencil and paper first. Better yet, do it with pencil and PostIt Notes. This seemed so backwards to me at first. After all, I've got the computer so why not use it from the start? After reading what the author had to say about this though I can see I'd greatly benefit from this initial step.
How many times have you been asked, "how many slides will you have in your deck?" I get hit with that every time I make a presentation. I love this excerpt from the book: The number of slides is not the point. If your presentation is successful, the audience will have no idea how many slides you used, nor will they care. Obviously you can take this to both extremes, but the point is we should be less focused on the number of slides.
How about these two questions that probably don't get enough serious consideration early on: What's your point? Why does it matter? Again, I frequently get too hung up on what I want to say and not so much on what I think the audience wants to hear about. I'm scheduled to make a presentation to a group of grad students in a few weeks and I'm starting to realize I don't know enough about their interests, goals from the session, etc., to properly frame my talk.
Don't force your logo onto every slide. Wow, that one won't go over well with our corporate communication team, but, it makes a ton of sense. As I think back about all the presentations I've sat through, there seemed to be a direct correlation between the degree of boredom and the number of times the speaker's corporate logo appeared. Seriously, if you look through this book you'll see templates are for losers. The most effective slides have few words/numbers and use an attractive graphic to help reinforce the point.
Look at each slide as a 3x3 grid and focus graphical elements more in the outer portions of the grid or on the intersection points of the vertical/horizontal lines. This one really becomes clear when you see it in action. The book features several wonderful examples that show how this sort of off-center balance is highly effective (and similar to the effect used in photography).
Speaking of images, the book features a list of some of the better stock photo sites. The author's favorite is iStockphoto but I prefer a free alternative called Stock.xchng (also included in the author's list).
Presentation Jedi Master February 3, 2008
Jasjin (Reno, NV United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I've been following the Presentation Zen website for a while, and it's nice to see the book after so much time incubating.
This is an excellent book for presenters tired of "death by power point." I have checked out lots of other presentation books, and by far, this is the best. The graphics and layout are beautiful, and it has had a profound influence on my presentations. You will need to have a solid grasp of power point and some of its lesser used tools to achieve maximum impact (PP is a hugely powerful program, rarely used to its full potential).
Want to get a feel for the basic theme of this book and what it preaches? See any of Steve Jobs' latest keynotes to get an idea. Clean. Straightforward. Classy. And smooth baby.
Following Garr's advice, my presentations now get mouth-open attention from the audience and kudos from peers. Garr and this book will make you a Presentation Jedi Master.
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