Let me set the scene…
You are the keynote speaker at the latest and greatest conference in your field on a topic near and dear to your heart – you even wrote a book on it! You plan to cover some basic concepts before describing your new idea and sharing how it has changed the world. You even have an awesome presentation cued and ready to go with some great images and examples. When you walk in the room, you see that everyone has a copy of your book – although flattered – you begin to worry. You purposefully crafted a presentation with a heavy focus on explaining the basic concepts included in your book as you did not expect so many enthusiastic fans.
Click here if you walk in with confidence because you know you have a nonlinear presentation and can quickly navigate to where you describe your new idea.
Click here if you walk in trying to think of a joke, a story, anything to tell the audience while you quickly click through all the slides that cover the basic concepts.
Shout out to Sarah for her latest blog Choose Your Own Adventure! for this creative intro.
Linear Presentations
This is where the traditional presentation (e.g., slide 1 –> slide 2 –> slide 3) begins to breakdown. I mean, if you know which slide number your new idea begins on, you could begin your presentation, type in the slide number, and then hit enter – but what if it is the wrong slide? Let’s face it, we have all seen, or have been, the presenter who clicked next, next, next, to get to a desired slide, to only click back, back, back to show how it relates back to the main idea. What if instead, we designed presentations that were more like webpages that we could jump from one section to the next? That is why I like to build, and to encourage the instructors I work with, to build nonlinear presentations. The dynamic functionality allows you to cherry pick the topics you cover. In future blog posts I will discuss how you can link slides even within your familiar presentation tools like PowerPoint and Keynote that will provide you more freedom to be the driver of your own presentation.
Nonlinear Presentations
Congratulations! You are already a nonlinear presentation pro! If you have any examples posted on the web and would like to share, please include a link to them in the comments section below!
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