I have often heard presentation “experts” say something like, “studies have shown that presenters rate themselves as much more effective than their audiences do.”  Have you heard something like this before?  I have never seen the research that supports this, (which doesn’t mean it isn’t out there), but I recently ran into an interesting study that relates to this subject. Read the rest of this entry »

For many years I have heard about 7.  Perhaps you have too.  Mostly I have heard (and became interested) in 7 as it related to memory. Most of what I had heard however came through “training” resources that I have grown to be increasingly suspicious of.  Some time ago I set out to find out what was behind 7. Read the rest of this entry »

Reports of the death of Presentation Facts are only slightly exagerated. While not flat lined, we have certainly been in a coma for many months. 2008 was quite a year. The company I lead (Interactive Holdings, LLC) was in the middle of an acquisition in March when Bear Stearns went belly up and the banking world (and in many ways my life) was turned upside down. Thankfully, we were able to secure financing and complete the acquisition at the end of the year. We added a great presentation solutions company called Creative Visions to our portfolio on November 15, 2008.

Finding, and even conducting, solid research that adds to our understanding of what makes for effective presentations continues to be a great interest of mine. So what better day than January 1, 2009 to resolve to continue this work in the new year. My folder of research to review is full of interesting articles.  I also plan to contract with a North Carolina university to conduct some original research this year that follows up on Doug Vogel’s 1986 and 1996 work and is focused on understanding the effectiveness of the much maligned bullet slide compared with more grpahic or pictorial data presentations.

If any readers have suggestions for interesting research topics or run across well done research that would be of interest to others, please pass them along to me.

Happy New Year!