Presentation Skills

You have likely witnessed your share of mediocre presentations, where the slides were full of text and bad graphs. You probably tuned out periodically, checked your email, and eventually stopped paying attention altogether. (You may have also seen members of…

We’ve all sat through boring presentations where the presenter reads the slides, shows barely-legible tables and graphs, and goes over time—many of us have probably given bad, boring presentations. In research and academic circles, we tend to excuse bad presentations…

I’m often asked about my favorite all-time speeches or presentations. There are the obvious speakers who make the top lists: Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Steve Jobs, for example. There are others whose TED talks have been…

Researchers and analysts have some unique challenges when it comes to presenting their data and analysis. We are often more focused on the data, statistics, and estimation results than soaring rhetoric or specific calls to action. That means we’re prone…

The Jewish High Holidays have come and gone. At this year’s service for the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah), the senior rabbi at my temple, Rabbi Amy Schwartzman, gave a thoughtful sermon about the words we use and how they…

Far too many presenters pack their slides with far too much information: text, bullet points, graphs, data markers, data labels, and collections of images. This information-dump encourages the audience to read the slides and spend less time listening to you…

Today I’m pleased to announce that my book on creating and delivering better presentation design is available for pre-order! Better Presentations: A Guide for Scholars, Researchers, and Wonks (published by Columbia University Press) ships this fall. I wrote this book because…

I’m a big fan of free stuff. Big fan. It’s basically why I take my kids to the Auto Show ever year. It’s why the exhibit area of every conference is so awesome—free pens, USB keys, phone wipes, even candy….