Tonight I gave a presentation titled, “Design is Sex, with Michael”. It was created to illuminate the types of things that non-designers should look for when contracting design work. The thing that came to mind during preparation was how significant presentations are in learning how to tell stories. Also, lecturing to a room full of adults is fun.

When you have five, ten, twenty minutes to entertain an audience you need to choose your points wisely. You are an entertainer on stage. I find that as I’m assembling a presentation I consider the story as it progresses over time. Do you begin with an interesting anecdote, a funny joke, or a stoic quote? I always begin with an observational remark about the surroundings or the people in the room. This is my litmus test to see if they are ready to laugh with me or if they will remain stone faced throughout my talk. It’s the ice breaker if you will. More importantly it loosens me up and lets everyone know that I’ll be frequently off the cuff and light hearted.

My next task is to set up the issue. I don’t believe that you need to have a slide that says, “Mission” or “The Problem”. Good stories don’t lay out points matter of factly they ease the listener into them. Instead, over a number of slides I illustrate why the audience should give a shit about what I have to say. Once that is established I can move into the solutions.

The story being told is king. I constantly prune the information in an attempt to get to the point. If I structure my presentation properly I have room on each slide for off topic and often entertaining candor.

In college there was a heavy emphasis on presentation skills. I never realized until recently how essential this was to developing my abilities to tell stories.

Thank you Professor Jon Kolko.