Presentation Summit 2023: Conversation with Ric Bretschneider

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    Ric Bretschneider spent 17 years working on the Microsoft PowerPoint team, building features you both love and fear. Along with his passion for software design, he has spent many years teaching users’ good presentation practices and fighting “Death by PowerPoint” through hard and soft skill building. He created the Microsoft PowerPoint Team blog, writing more entries there than any other individual blogger, and still writes on the subject today. A featured speaker at every Presentation Summit, Ric notoriously and accidentally created its popular “Late Night Guru Session,” where patrons learn PowerPoint secrets and talk presenting into the wee hours of the night.

In this conversation, Ric talks about his participation at the upcoming Presentation Summit 2023, being held on location in Monterey, CA this year from October 15 to 18, 2023, and virtually from November 5 to 8, 2023.

Indezine.com is the official media partner for the Presentation Summit.

Geetesh: Ric, you are delivering two sessions at the Presentation Summit: PowerPoint Karaoke and The Miracle of Pecha Kucha. Now these sessions are closely associated with you, so it must be a challenging task to keep reinventing them each year and ensuring they remain fresh and engaging. How do you do so?

Ric: Thanks for recognizing that. I started doing PowerPoint Karaoke as a group warm-up for my local Pecha Kucha events. It was perfect, exceeded expectations as many folks starting coming specifically for the Karaoke. They still stayed for the Pecha Kucha, but there was enough interest that I started getting called on to do it for conventions, particularly Science Fiction and Fantasy conventions that needed an easy and inexpensive way to entertain the audience during costume contests while the judges deliberated. While Pecha Kucha is very specific on timing, PowerPoint Karaoke is very forgiving of time frame and can stretch or be compressed very easily.

Keeping them fresh is easier for PowerPoint Karaoke, because it is a improvisational performance there are lots of examples of new things to try from established improv groups. This year I’m considering “borrowing” some format changes that come from a group called Comedy Sportz. Not going to spoil the surprise, but anyone interested in improv can search for a CSZ group near them for entertainment, and even training, in improvisational arts.

Geetesh: How can audience members participate in these two sessions, PowerPoint Karaoke and The Miracle of Pecha Kucha?

Ric: Rick Altman usually sends out an invitation for Pecha Kucha candidates, because I work with them in advance of the conference. You can watch for that, or write to me directly through my web site.

PowerPoint Karaoke typically takes volunteers right out of the audience, but if you already know you want to participate, contact me directly ahead of time or during the conference.

Geetesh: In your Guru Session, what are the typical issues that attendees usually discuss? Could you provide some guidelines on how individuals can prepare to maximize their experience and benefit from this session?

Ric: People should show up ready to discuss their love of PowerPoint and presenting. Yes, I’m serious about that. But we do appreciate the therapeutic value of discussing the things that drive you crazy in the same areas. Sometimes there are solutions, sometimes it’s just getting it all out there and knowing you’re not alone. But mostly it’s about love.

Geetesh: Ric, can you share a memorable or challenging presentation experience you’ve had and what you learned from it?

Ric: It was probably the first time I spoke in front of over ten thousand people. I was the master of ceremony for a Worldcon Costume Masquerade, held in London, with contestants from all over Europe. I’d literally spent all day practicing how to pronounce names from all over the continent and learning what I’d be saying to introduce each person. I was totally ready. Confident. Looking forward to it.

Just minutes before I was to go on stage I had three pages handed to me. They contained instructions from the people who were running the convention.”. Very specific instructions to read verbatim to the audience about behavior during the show. Cold-read! Cold reads are death. I no longer felt prepared. I was a professional, and after practicing all day I shouldn’t be standing in front of so many people reading from a couple of sheets of paper! I was angry and afraid. But I went back to some advice I read once about anger and fear; that you often can’t change the situation, but you can change your reaction to the situation.

I decided to have fun with it. I quicky scanned the papers and went to my mark.

On cue I approached the podium, led there in somewhat mock symbolic seriousness by two lovely ushers, and with exaggerated flourish opened my large practice binder onto the podium. Bending over it I looked out at the audience, adjusted my glasses with my index finger, and announced “I will now read to you from the book of Masquerade!” Laughs. Lots of laughs.

So, three things come out of that. First, roll with the curve balls. Ironically that’s essential in improv. You don’t complain, don’t ask for sympathy, you just accept the situation and go! Second, what they tell you to do doesn’t limit what you can do. Make it your own, whatever you do be comfortable with it. And finally, starting your presentation by getting ten thousand people to laugh sincerely, without telling a dumb joke, is the best way to rid yourself of tension and worry.

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