Three good presentations And why they're good

23 March 2023 #work

Open sourcing government, by Anna Shipman

It’s good because:

The presentation starts with story; Anna’s personal introduction comes later, like a TV “cold open”; this is a great way to grab the audience’s attention
There are other stories, all of them told with illustrations
The illustrations are simple - mostly just screenshots, but that’s enough
Anna has optimised the presentation for showing to a live audience in a large room

It’s good because:

Benedict absolutely knows his stuff; he knows precisely what to say with every slide, he knows what meaning to draw from all the data he’s showing.
The slides are simple and clear, and he never repeats verbally anything that’s visible on the screen
Almost all of the slides are designed in a way that makes it easy for Benedict to say “This is…”

It’s good because:

Paul is showing the thing throughout
He’s optimised the presentation for sharing via video call
His presentation tool is a browser; he’s flicking from one tab to the next. That makes it easy for him to show things that live on the internet
There are one or two points where Paul has had to create something and put it on the internet, just so that he can show it in a browser - see the drawing at 15:45 - that’s one of Paul’s own drawings
Which means putting things on the internet is actually a very useful skill for making a fantastic presentation
The bits where Paul shows websites in the browser, and digs into what they can do and how they work, are very compelling