SlideShare has reached 10 million uploads and to celebrate this incredible number of presenations, the SlideShare team has shared their favorite decks. I was just flipping the slides when I stopped at page 18 – because Generation Y was featured there! I was like WOW. I feel so honored!
Marisa Wrong, Managing Editor of SlideShare wrote the following of Generation Y.
This is a fun, visually engaging presentation that shows that anyone can take just about any topic and turn it into a page-turner.
Thank you so much Marisa for your kind words and for the feature! And thanks SlideShare for creating an online platform where people can share their ideas and keep inspiring each other by engaging, gorgeous visuals!
The good thing about having some time for yourself is having time for what you like. As I always play rock paper scissors when we can’t get to an agreement with someone, I decided to share this upgraded version with the world in a presentation format. And now I’ll just go and watch some Big Bang Theory Enjoy!
I’ve been working on this deck for a long time, but somehow I just didn’t like what I’ve done so far. Today I realized that it was because of the colors and the fonts. So after paying a short visit to http://www.fontsquirrel.com/ I picked my fonts and made my way to a color picker. After that the whole design process just worked like magic. Enjoy the slideswag!
Have you read the book? Or anything else by the Heath brothers?
Már régóta pepecseltem ezzel a prezivel, de valahogy sehogy sem tetszett amit eddig csináltam. Ma rádöbbentem, hogy a színek meg a font miatt nincsen ínyemre a dolog. Úgyhogy miután benéztem a ‘fontos’ oldalamra (http://www.fontsquirrel.com/), kiválasztottam a betűtípusaimat és átnyergeltem a color picker-re. Ezután már ment a dizájnolás, mint a karikacsapás. Jó szórakozást hozzá!
Olvastad a könyvet? Vagy valami mást a Heath testvérektől?
As I was traveling on the bus today, I got an idea for my next deck. I got so excited that I’ve started to work on my idea right away. I’ve decided to show you the whole process this time. I’ll share with you step by step, post by post, how I create a deck basically from scratch. So stay tuned!
Normally, if Miss Muse gets met at home / the office, I grab some post-its and put my ideas on the wall. But she isn’t always picking the right time to appear. Well, it’s kinda hard to do when you’re on the bus – although I’m sure fellow travellers would enjoy watching me sticking post-its on the window with a weird glow in my eyes. It is extremely important for me to write all the ideas down immediately, otherwise a day later – or 10 minutes later when I get off the bus or whatever – it will not be the same and I’m happy to remember the half of it. So it’s crucial to write, write, write, as long as the ideas keep coming.
Normally I’d prefer the paper-pencil approach, because I’m a visual thinker and it’s easier (and less structured) for me if I can put my thoughts on the wall physically. I usually instantly group the similar ones, this way I can preserve some kind of structure as well. I also like to draw figures and symbols. They inspire me even more – and sometimes these are even stronger than words. Or it’s just easier to draw a concept than descrbing it. After the first wave of ideas is gone, these post-it notes get digital to save it for the future – and to be able to work on them anytime, anywhere.
If I’m on the move when it strikes me, I pull out my smart phone from my pocket and start putting down my ideas. First, I just brainstorm and save all the sparks. Don’t let anything go down the drain! Save it. Later it might become a slide, or just something that will lead you to another thought. Later on, I would read them through and start selecting the good ones. Somethimes I think in slides, but sometimes I just random thoughs come out of nowhere – and they have to stay too. For this purpose, I use Evernote. Evernote is great app, because if you have it istalled on your notebook, the exact files and data will appear on both devices. This way you’re not bound to either of them. What’s more, you can put in there not only text, but photos and audio files as well. I guess tomorrow I’l lhave time to sort them and move on. I’ll be back soon.
What’s your first step of creating a presentation?
Finally, my new deck is DONE! I can’t wait to share it with you. As I mentioned earlier in a recent post, I have noticed some tensions during my work, which I think root mostly from the generation gap. Where here’s my way of explaining the world how I feel about my generation, our needs and way of inspiration. Enjoy!
Do you think I have left something out / feel differently about the charachteristics I described? Press it / tweet it!
Végre elkészült az új prezim! Alig várom, hogy megoszthassam veletek. Mint már korábban is említettem egy posztomban, észrevettem némi feszültséget munkám során, ami azt gondolom, hogy sokszor csupán generációs különbségekből fakad. Ezzel a prezivel szeretném elmondani a világnak, hogy mit gondolok a generációmról, az igényeinkről és arról, hogy miként lehet bennünket inspirálni. Jó böngészgetést!
Kihagytam valamit vagy mást gondolsz a legjellemzőbb vonásokról? Írd meg!
Yesterday I spent my night out with my friends watching Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. I’ve been looking forward to this movie, since I loved the world of The Lord of The Rings. Actuallly, I think that it is one of the few book adaptations, which is as good and magical as the book itself. After the movie, one of my friends asked me why was this so complicated? If there is a simpler way to complete the misson (in every story, there is almost always an easy way out, a help or something, which comes only in the end), why don’t they take the easy way out? Well, I had no other choice but to tell her that’s it’s because of the Hero’s Journey - and course the experience itself.
In 1940, Joseph Campbell came out with his book entitled The Hero with a Thousand Faces. In his book, he presented a theory arguing that important myths from all around the world, which have survived for thousands of years, share a fundamental structure. This puts this structure in the following way in The Hero:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
If you take a closer look, all stories build up of these three elements: we have a likeable hero, who gets a call to action, he encounters roadblocks and emerges transformed from the challenge, the hero finds resolution. But the structure isn’t valid only for old myths and heroic poems like the Odyssey or . We could take any novel or Hollywood movie, like Avatar, Star Wars or Harry Potter, for instance. The stages of the hero’s journey is explained here, on TED-Ed by Matthew Winkler.
But why is it important for us as presenters? Beacuse stories make a good presentation. Just think about it: when do you feel that, sitting among the audience, that your presence did worth the time? It’s when emotions flood you, when you hear an ispiring story, or when you fell you’ve learned something about the world – or yourself. Everybody struggles. At work, at home, wherever. The feeling is well-known for everyone. But overcoming your boundaries and proving the circumstances (or even yourself) wrong is also familiar to everybody. That’s what makes your story, or the experience you offer as a presenter recallable.
As a presenter, you can use this structure when you prepare what you say, or if you think about how you want to move your audience. Nancy Duarte argues that when you are presenting, you are not the hero standing in the stage and fighting your battle. The audience is the hero you have to take on the journey. You are Yoda, the mentor, helping your audence, to grasp your idea. In her must-read book, Resonate, Nancy Duarte says that if the audience is the hero, your job as a presenter is to help them though this journey. Let’s just follow Campbell’s pattern.
Step One: The hero gets a call in his ordinary world.
Your heroes (the members of your audience) are in their ordinary world, sitting at your presentation, where you call them to an adventure: show them your idea, which moves them out of their comfort zone. Usually, the reaction is a refusal of the call, they become sceptic: is this guy right? It’s one person against the usual convention (if you’re not a TEDster, this stage is usually unavoidable). It is always hard to change. Especially if someone wants to change your usual way of thinking.
Step Two: Complication
Then comes the meeting with the mentor: you, the presenter, support your idea with credible and valuable information, results, resources, insights, which will help them to take your hand and join your quest. Nancy says that this is the threshold. This is where you either loose or take them home. If you win this stage by guiding them towards your idea, you’ve ost them. Your goal is to get them to the next stage, to make them decide to commit to your idea instead of facebooking on their phones. But your battle is still not over: the hero encounters tests, allies and enemeies. Your audience begins to experiment with this change you have started in them: they are still challenging your idea in their chairs, so you have to go on convincing them about it being right. Based on your arguments, they decide to take a step towards your idea, but it doesn’t necessarily work out as they thought: their commitment is tested, where they have to renew their loyalty.
Step Three: Resolution
They start their journey back to the ordinary world, they decide to continue with renewed excitement. They are transformed by the experience, and by utilizing the tools you gave them, they feel reborn and ready to act. They ‘return with an elixir’ and make the world a better place with it – they go out there and spread the word.
So what’s the moral of the story? Nex time you give a presentation,take your audiience on a journey. Show them an idea that brings imbalance, that moves them out of their comfort zone. Be aware that they’ll be skeptical, but keep in mind that by showing them valuable insights and tools, you can make them follow you and return to the ordinray world and spread your idea.
What are your experiences as Yoda? How does this work for you?
Enjoy!
