Looking forward to trying out Prezie with an iPad
Amazing infomagraphicalistics from @infobeautiful - Snake Oil? The scientific evidence for health supplements
This visualization is based on the popularity of medical studies searched on in the Cochrane Library (http://www.cochrane.org/) and PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/).>
I love the way it brings a pretty dry data set to life. Fascinating looking at the other visualizations that David McCandless has put together.
See the full version, much better presented on the www.Informationisbeautiful.net site.
(Full disclosure: I am currently working on the Cochrane Library website as part of a current contract.)
The Story conference - year 2 (and I missed it again!)
The Story is the brainchild of art, TV and tech Renaissance man, Matt Locke. He curates it unashamedly as “the conference I want to attend”, and it brings together a collection of storytellers from every medium and persuasion, from scientists to sculptors, live action role players to documentary makers.
Internet Start-up song
Lance Armstrong on 'Quitting' - Best Cameo Ever
This is my favourite film cameo.
The beautifully simple expression of the classic 'pep talk' scene and the absurdity of the moment is what makes it a surprisingly effective piece of communication.
Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional and Story driven. Straight out of Made to Stick's 6 principles: http://www.madetostick.com/excerpts/
The Essence of Gary Vay-ner-chuk: He gives a sh*take
Darren Rowse: How Preparing A Sermon is Similar to Writing Blog Posts
This is an interesting video where Darren takes us through the preparation of his sermon and its similarities to writing a blog post. See the transcript in the blog post if you prefer to skim and read rather than watch the video.
Sermons are an interesting parallel to public speaking and presenting. It's a presentation style that has a lot in common with what the modern speaker or sales person is trying to do. There are lessons that can be learnt passed over to both camps. I'll be writing about these in later posts.
For now enjoy Darren's video!
Dan Pink's 'Drive' animated by RSA
Ok, this is amazing.
I have seen a talk 'animated' before on a whiteboard and wasn't very impressed. Watching this video I have to say I think that my disappointment then was due to the style of drawing and the content of the speech being animated.
However, this 'presimation' (I'm trademarking that!) is quite brilliant. It fuses the two unique talents of the speaker and artist in an electrifying presentation that hooks you at the start and carries you through to the conclusion.
Dan Pink is an amazing speaker with fascinating content. The artist has an attractive and comfortable style (to me at least).
But, what must bring them together is the content. It matters not one jot, sir, if you have the most fanciful of techniques and oodles of entertain-er-mental-tudes in your presentation if the presentee walks away with nothing of value. (Not to dismiss the value of entertainment.)
I submit this one of my favourite presentations. In fact, it has inspired me (as all good art should do). There will be a new static page on the Becourse blog, very soon, displaying the favourite top ten presentations. Or some such.
My, one criticism was encapsulated by what my wife said when I showed her the presentation: "Shame we can't see the whole drawing."
A sentiment that seems to have been shared in the comments on the post on the RSA website: http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/2010/04/08/rsa-animate-drive/
What can I say? I like take-aways. (If anyone knows how to get ahold of the entire image, let me know.)
If you prefer your talks unfettered by such visual stimuli you can see the entirety of Dan Pink's talk to the RSA here: http://www.thersa.org/events/vision/vision-videos/dan-pink-drive
or on YouTube (bigger):
The 22 Minute Meeting by Nicole Steinbok | Ignite Show Video
Nicole Steinbok gives an amusing and well plotted Ignite talk on meeting etiquette by comparing it with those hand washing signs in toilets. She has even produced a similar poster with a guide to the 22 minute meeting on which she bases most of this talk.
How brilliant!
1) Link the presentation to something pretty much everyone will immediately recognise - the hand washing poster.
2) Make a counter-intuitive proposal.
3) Walk through easily remembered steps.
4) Give takeaways that everyone can use.
This is straight out of Made to Stick - which is a good thing! http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/009950569X?ie=UTF8&tag=httpwwwbloggr-2...
This fantastic video comes via a recommendation Mark Suster - http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/05/17/learning-to-say-no-to-meetings/
Links:
Poster - http://www.22minutemeeting.info/22MinuteMeetingPoster.pdf
22 Minute Meeting Site - http://www.22minutemeeting.info/
Ignite - http://igniteshow.com/
