

Ask HN: What makes a presentation great ? - vorador

Recently, I've been watching presentations on youtube in the hope of becoming better at it. The problem is that I don't really know, for instance, what makes Steve Jobs a great presenter.<p>Could someone more experienced show me the details which make a great presentation ?
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milkshakes
<http://www.presentationzen.com/> might just be your new best friend.

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patio11
I gave a presentation for those guys last week!

The big takeaway for me was use less text and focus more on the narrative than
the nitty-gritty details.

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PerryStallings
What defines a good presentation really depends on the type of presentation.
Steve Jobs is excellent at emotional presentations. If you pay attention, you
will realize that he doesn't communicate a lot of information. However, the
product announcements are about hype rather than data. This presentation style
is more appropriate for external rather than internal settings.

Regardless of the setting, one of the most important elements that I've
noticed is the Story. Successful presentations have a unifying thread
throughout.

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jacquesm
I don't think Steve Jobs is that great a presenter, Ballmer is (much) worse
though.

A good presentation and a good presenter are two different things. A good
presenter can give a presentation about essentially boring material and make
it live, be memorable. A bad presenter can turn a great presentation in to an
ordeal.

I've linked here once to a youtube video of Joe Ades, have a look at it:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCUct4NlxE0&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCUct4NlxE0&feature=related)

The subject is 'potato peelers', from a street vendor no less.

That man has more feeling for presentation in his little finger than any
amount of high flying consultants that lecture on the subject.

Watch the crowd he draws and how well he interacts with the people.

Of course he's had years to hone his 'patter', but still, I can't imagine
watching someone trying to sell a car, much less a potato peeler, and
presenting is essentially a sales job.

He manages to turn the mundane in to something interesting and engaging.

