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Starting our virtual morning on Tuesday at the Presentation Summit was Nancy Duarte who was present with a cool videotaped message that introduced the keynote speaker of the day, Garr Reynolds. Nancy spoke highly of Garr as an “amazing, honest person who has inspired her.”
Garr, who spoke virtually from Osaka, Japan was awake late at night to coincide with the time difference with Austin, USA. He began his talk with pictures that showed views from his bedroom window during his childhood spent in west coast USA. He joked that he could probably see across the ocean to Japan, his future home country–even then!
Garr mentioned that PowerPoint and Keynote are just presentation tools, and presenting as an art is a much older form. He then talked about Kamishibai, a storytelling art form from Japan that uses changing pictures, a technique akin to today’s slides.
Garr spoke about a red Mt. Fuji, tsunamis, and earthquakes, mainly about the recent natural calamity in Japan where 25,000 people lost their lives. He mentioned how displaced people in Japan were rehabilitated. He spoke how there was almost no panic, and no looting during this disaster, and how everything was so civilized, a reflection of Japanese culture.
No wonder, Japan has touched Garr’s life in so many ways. He is inspired by Japan every day, and this, in turn, has ushered change.
He then asked everyone in the audience to talk to the person seated next to them about what inspires them. He said lessons are all around us, and what inspires him about Japan is nature. Nothing in Japan is far from nature including art forms like Ikebana. I do not remember Garr’s exact words but he quoted the great Japanese teacher, Morihei Yeshiva who said one must study how water flows in a valley stream, and study the teachings that nature brings forth. Nature thus is a sensei, a teacher. We must also learn lessons from the pine tree, the bamboo, and the plum blossom.
Garr, who used to live in downtown Osaka moved to an area outside the city that is full of bamboo plantations. This led him to the main topic of his session, 10 lessons we should learn from the bamboo. Here are my recollections, and may not be Garr’s exact words:
Complete houses are made from bamboo in some parts of the world. Thus, the bamboo teaches us that you do not have to be necessarily big to be strong. Strength in being light, in kindness, and through compassion.
Even during natural calamities, when larger trees cannot cope with storms, the bamboo may bend but it does not break.
Bamboo shoots can grow a meter a day.
We are all so busy, so much so that Garr asked how many of us in the audience were too busy to raise our hands. We need to still our lives. It is only in still water that we can see.
The warrior, like bamboo is always ready for action.
Empty your cup so that it may be filled.
You must unlearn what you have learned.
Know the difference between a real smile and a fake one; a real smile is in the eyes. Play is important, even for adults. Garr showed a tongue-in-cheek video of Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft on stage who was not afraid to play.
Even a 100-foot stalk of bamboo can progress one more step This is a Chinese saying.
Garr mentioned how bamboo can be used for everything from manufacturing clothing to creating homes.
Many trees get uprooted during a heavy snowfall in Japan. But even though the bamboo may bend down and touch the ground, it revives again and stands up.
Fall seven times, get up eight.
Garr continued with his analogy of the bamboo. He said that flexibility and adaptability are lessons that we all can learn from the bamboo. The bamboo also shows resilience, and we should all strive to be like bamboo.
Garr Reynolds is the author of Presentation Zen, Presentation Zen Design, and The Naked Presenter. A respected spokesperson for the presentation community, Garr is a former Apple evangelist and he works as a marketing professor for a small college in Japan. Garr runs a thought-provoking blog on slide design called Presentation Zen.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company.
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Events
Tagged as: Events, Garr Reynolds, PowerPoint, Presentation Summit
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While changing the colors of a SmartArt graphic does change the fill colors of all shapes in your SmartArt graphic, it does not add other niceties such as coordinated outlines or effects. Yes, you can change the fill, line, and effects for individual shapes within a SmartArt graphic — or you can use the all-inclusive time-saving SmartArt Styles option. In this tutorial, you will learn how to apply SmartArt Styles to a SmartArt graphics in PowerPoint 2011.
Learn how to apply different Styles to SmartArt Graphics in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
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PowerPoint 2011
Tagged as: Graphics, PowerPoint 2011, SmartArt, Tutorials
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Once you insert a chart on your slide, you can tweak it as much as you want so that the resulting chart follows your specifications. You have now created a standard that you may want to replicate often. PowerPoint 2010 makes it easy to save any chart you create as a template. Saving a chart as a template saves all the tweaks you made — and you can use the template as a starting point to create another chart.
Learn how to save chart templates in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows.
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PowerPoint 2010
Tagged as: Charting, PowerPoint 2010, Templates, Tutorials
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Once a SmartArt graphic is inserted within PowerPoint 2011, you can recolor the entire SmartArt graphic any time — this applies new colors to the entire SmartArt graphic including the various shapes in it. However, there may be times when you want one of the shapes to look differently — in this tutorial we’ll explore how you can change the fill, line, and effect attributes for individual shapes within a SmartArt graphic in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
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PowerPoint 2011
Tagged as: Graphics, PowerPoint 2011, SmartArt, Tutorials
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Jonathan Boutelle is the CTO of SlideShare, and is a principal at Uzanto Consulting. A software engineer by training, his interests lie at the intersection of technology, business, and user experience. Jonathan is particularly focused on technology that brings the web experience closer to the capabilities of the desktop.
In this conversation, Jonathan discusses SlideShare‘s move from Flash to HTML5 for its presentations and how this move makes SlideShare content more accessible.
Geetesh: Moving your SlideShare content from Flash to HTML5 must have been a huge investment. What are the benefits that this move will provide to SlideShare users?
Jonathan: Yes, this was a huge effort. Most of engineering has been working on this for the last six months! We feel like it was well worth it though. There’s three main benefits to our users:
Geetesh: Will the HTML5 format allow more faithful reproduction of PowerPoint abilities like transitions and graphic elements? Also, what does this mean for iPad (and other iOS) users?
Jonathan: Compatibility with the iPad and iPhone was one of the main reasons we did this move. Those devices don’t support Flash, and they are growing increasingly popular with both business and consumers. In particular, the iPad is a fantastic device for presentations … for personal browsing or for presenting to one or two other people, the iPad feels more natural than a laptop computer. Our mobile web app supports navigating by swiping the screen, so it feels very much like a native app, even though it’s a web app.
No changes on animations and transitions as a result of this move. Here’s our thinking behind that. Some authors love animations and transitions. But we’ve found that viewers generally prefer to be able to quickly navigate through the content.
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.
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Interviews
Tagged as: Interviews, Jonathan Boutelle, Online Presentations, PowerPoint, SlideShare
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