preparing the talk

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After the highly stressful thesis preparation with Word 2007, the next challenge is to prepare an oral presentation for the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. Annual Meeting (scheduled next week). Since I'm using the Microsoft Office suite, I am preparing my slides with Powerpoint. And once again, I am using two versions: the 2003 version installed in my computer at IRRI, and the 2007 version I have in my personal computer.

In preparing the slides, my "inspiration," as artists would call it, is Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Yes, this presentation is among the best in the world (with a Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar among its laurels), and I have so much to learn before my presentations even get a notch closer to the calibre of this presentation... which was put together by Duarte Design using Apple's Keynote.

What makes the presentation so great?

First, the presentation did not use bullet points... I couldn't even remember numbered lines or text boxes in his presentation. How then did he pull this one off?! Mr Gore's presentation maximised the power of vibrant visuals to drive home the point that he did not need to outline everything using text. The pictures and the graphs were literally his visual aids. The photography was of very high-quality that I would expect them to be gracing the pages of National Geographic.

However, the slide presentation is only a visual aid. The speaker is always more important than the visual aid; this brings me to the next point.

Second, Al Gore is such a great presenter. He knows exactly what he is talking about. He was on the field with the researchers; he mastered the content of his talk that he was walking on stage as if the next part of the presentation comes naturally. He was serious, yet relaxed; authoritative, yet entertaining; his commanding presence compels the audience to listen and not to fall asleep (which commonly happens in lecture classes, I know... I've done this in organic chemistry lots of times). 

By following just these two points: using great graphics and being prepared to talk, I will try to prepare a presentation that is better than the last one I did (which was for the 2007 International Network for Quality Rice workshop). I hope these work!

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