For most people, powerpoint presentations suck. They're boring. Most of the time they consist of someone droning on and on in front of a screen full of text that says exactly what they're saying.
There are of course exceptions (hopefully!), and I was wondering if any of you have seen a fantastic powerpoint presentation being given, or if there's a video of such a phenomenon on youtube. If so, I'd love to hear about it and see a link if possible.
Admittedly, my own powerpoint presentations stink. They are not creative. They are not exciting. They are boring, straightforward, legalese. Try as I might, it is hard to make patent law interesting.
That said, I did have the distinct pleasure of seeing Bert Jacobs (co-founder of the "Life is Good" company) give a presentation at a Massachusett's Lawyers Weekly conference about 16 months ago. His presentation was nothing short of phenomenal. On the one hand, his talk had all the meaty goodness of a marketing presentation worthy of any business school. On the other hand, it had a distinct, "sitting in mom's living room, looking at a slide show of her world travels" quality.
Bert lept on stage in front of an audience of suits, wearing ripped jeans and one of his company's classic polo shirts. Despite his laid back attire, he instanly captivated this (admittedly) tightwad audience with a candid and genuine telling of how he and his brother somehow managed to turn a t-shirt business that they ran out of the back of their van into a 100 million dollar enterprise in a matter of 10 years. From running informal marketing studies in their apartment (feedback on new designs was collected by asking party goers to write their thoughts next to a new design on the walls of their apartment), to their embarassing first meeting with an investment banker ("what is a business plan?), the brothers pushed their company forward based on a singular (and radical) idea that a for profit company could be focused on giving back to the community and still make money. His last slide was a picture of a child, age 5, standing with her arms wide open to the world. Bert explained that in his view, that child personified everything that he was trying to do with Life is Good.
Man, what a presentation. Gives me chills just thinking about it. It goes without saying that Bert was one of the best presenters, if not the best public speaker, I have ever seen. Not bad for a guy who didn't know jack squat about business and started out selling shirts out of an old van for beer/travel money.
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