February 2011 - Chris Dorsey Presentation

Christchurch TCANZ Meeting Report

Chris Dorsey's "The Art of Presentation" - February 2, 2011

What a treat awaited the 25 members who came to hear Chris Dorsey's meta-presentation on a warm Canterbury evening. After 30 minutes of busy networking in the salubrious Streamliners garage, Chris presented his 10 well-researched tips for creating engaging, meaningful, and successful presentations using Microsoft Powerpoint.

Even as a technical communicator with 20-odd years' experience, I learnt a lot - and was rather ashamed to realise that I do have a tendency to start entering bullet points onto slides with minimal planning. Chris reminded us all that the actual slides are only one element in a triumvirate: the narration; the slides; the hand-out. Save your detail, he said, for the hand-out "that will set you free" - free to be interesting and to the point, without clouding your message with excess material that your audience can review later.

This is just an example of the kind of practical, applicable advice that Chris shared. It was a great event and well supported - so thank you to all who attended. Plans are underway for the next event at lunchtime on April 6th, so keep the date free and stand by for details.