Presenting 101++

Darren Strange is an Office Product Manager here in the UK and has posted a great blog entry about delivering top presentations using that little known tool called PowerPoint. It suits my presentation style really well and has given me some techniques which I had long since forgotten (the old B for blacking out the screen).

The UK team for the Imagine Cup have been working really hard on their solution over the past few months in preparation for India in less than 2 weeks, and during this time we've been throwing work on other stuff on top of them to give them the skills to do their solution proud at the WW competition. One great example of where they have improved significantly is in their presentation delivery. At the UK Finals in March they were the most passionate group of students by far and were clear winners on stage at the end. Behind the scenes however was a different matter - they were nervous, unsure of themselves and generally lacking the confidence which they somehow demonstrated. Fast forward a couple of months and this picture in front of Bill Gates shows how far they have come - the big boss man seems happy! :-)

I'll be trying to encourage the guys to integrate some of this great advice and hopefully that will give them something extra for India!!