The Thinkers.

Some of the great thinkers are published and some are not. Ive assembled some of the more well known and some of the lesser known thinkers on this page.

Andrew Abela

Full disclosure here – I facilitate for Andrew in the Asia Pacific Region, but I’m not unduly biased. Andrew’s book Advanced Presentation by Design is possibly the most researched book on the topic of presentation strategy and design written as of today. It has been translated into a number of languages and has companion books entitled The Encyclopedia of Layouts and The Presentation. There are a number of very useful tools namely Chart Chooser and his web site which outlines the approach in detail called The Extreme Presentation Method.

You can of course do the program or be coached in the method by me. Also available is the online program the link to which is here.

Nancy Duarte

Nancey Duarte is probably one of the most famous authors and coaches in recent time. You can learn everything there is know about Nancy on her website Duarte.com.

Hans Rosling 1948 – 2017

Hans Rosling introduced us to how to bring data to life, and in doing so showed us that statistics can be dynamic. The presentation that made him famous because of the way he delivered it was this one. It was so successful that the BBC produced a much more dynamic version.

One of his famous quotes was:

Very few people will appreciate the
music if you just show them the notes,
most of us need to listen to the music to
understand how beautiful it is. But that’s
how we present, we just show them the
notes we don’t play the music.

Hans Rosling

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is famous for a number of technologies that continue to shape our world and the way we live. One of the things he is memorable for is the way he conducted his Worldwide Developers Conferences. He showed how Keynote can be used to display high resolution images and graphics to their full potential and still deliver an engaging presentation.

Rhetoricians

If you really want to understand what it takes to be a great presenter, then go back in time to about 332 BC. Here Aristotle, followed by Cicero (55 BC) then Quintilian (93 BC), wrote the books that shaped some of the great orations of history and to this day.  These speeches are inspiring, entertaining and thought provoking because they engage in the art of rhetoric.  

In fact Aristotle wrote the first book on rhetoric.  Rhetoric is the intentional use of language to influence and persuade an audience. Rhetoric is embedded in everything we say.  If you walk away from what you consider to be a great presentation, then the presenter has effectively employed the techniques and concepts of rhetoric.

Prezi prezi.com

Prezi was founded in 2009 and has earned the right to sit beside Keynote and PowerPoint. Prezi describe their software as “the presentation software that uses motion, zoom, and spatial relationships to bring your ideas to life and make you a great presenter.” I’ve used Prezi a number of times in small venues and large and found it useful to explain complex ideas that have many components that can be represented visually.