Presentation Hell: Conversation with James Ontra and AlexAnndra Ontra

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    James Ontra is the CEO of Shufflrr and a trailblazer in the emerging field of Presentation Management, helping companies save millions by transforming presentations into profitable assets. An early entrepreneur in college, James combined business with academics and was recognized with Houston’s Small Business Administration’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

His vision and strategy have been driving Presentation Management to become a recognized communication discipline. James combined this passion with technical development to build Shufflrr.

    AlexAnndra Ontra is the Lead Presentation Strategist at Shufflrr, advising clients on presentation strategy and building their structured stories. Prior to partnering with her brother, James, AlexAnndra distinguished herself in advertising, working on creative strategy, production, sales, and media relations. Her experience with messaging discipline and production processes on Madison Avenue has been instrumental in developing Presentation Management and executing presentation strategies for large enterprises.

In this conversation, James and AlexAnndra talk about their new book, Presentation Hell: From Painful Presentations to Better Stories.

Geetesh: James and AlexAnndra, can you tell us about your new book, Presentation Hell: From Painful Presentations to Better Stories Also, how does this complement your existing book, Presentation Management: The New Strategy for Enterprise Content?

James and AlexAnndra: Presentation Hell: From Painful Presentations to Better Stories chronicles the pitfalls and struggles with today’s linear presentations. They are one-sided and leading, which limits the conversation, which is usually a business meeting. It’s ironic because presentations are the highest level of business communication. If it’s important, it’s in a presentation. Presentations are stories for business. Presentation Hell provides guidance, strategy, and methodology that individuals and enterprises can use to publish their enterprise story, so everyone in the company can create a consistent, compliant, and custom presentation in minutes.

Our first book, Presentation Management: The New Strategy for Enterprise Content, is more academic. It diagnoses the problems and risks faced by companies that lack a presentation management strategy and provides step-by-step instructions on how to execute presentation management in an organization.

Presentation Hell is more personal, with real-life anecdotes about how presentation management is used across individuals and industries.

Geetesh: Your book starts with a story about how people have started using PowerPoint in ways that result in failure rather than success. Why is it so important to learn about knowing where you can fail, and how do you relate that to all the success stories you share in the book?

James and AlexAnndra: There are two pitfalls with PowerPoint that lead to failure. One is functional, and the other is emotional. Functionally, PowerPoint is linear. It leads to a pre-defined conclusion, which undercuts spontaneous conversation. And there’s no flexibility. Even the best-prepared presenters can’t predict what someone will say or ask during the meeting. A linear slide show does not allow for a meeting to pivot. When someone brings up an outfield question, the presenter is left unsupported, they have no slides or props to help them along. They’re left out in the open.

The second is emotional. There is a tendency to hide behind our slides. Slide shows have become so ubiquitous in business, and now combined with remote meetings, we are all in hiding. We are missing the personal connection.

The anecdotes in the book point this out. We take technology for granted and don’t consider that we are trading our humanity for convenience and efficiency.
At the end of the day, human beings are social and emotional people. We don’t think or talk in linear mode, rather we have this random stream of consciousness that flows. And when it flows and grows from the open conversation and sharing ideas, well, that’s when great ideas are conceived. That’s when the magic happens.

Let the presentation follow the conversation.

Geetesh: Where are presentations headed tomorrow?

James and AlexAnndra: AI will do more presentation creation. Shufflrr has released the ChatGPT plugin for PowerPoint. Ask it a question, and it will answer with a PowerPoint presentation. It’s available free at Shufflrr for Windows PowerPoint ChatGPT Plugin.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.