TEDx Event in Hyderabad: Lessons & Experience

I was among those fortunate people who were invited for TED x Hi-Tech City, an independently organised TED event at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. TED is a great platform for amazing people to come and share their ideas which make a difference to the world around us. TEDx is a program run by TED which allows local, self-organized groups to organize TED-like talks.

The Experience
I went to TEDx with a lot of expectations. After having seen so many TED talks online, I was expecting some good stuff here as well. And I was not at all disappointed. None of the speakers except Nagesh Kukunoor, the famous film director, was a known celebrity. Yet each speaker was doing something in life which was so very different from normal people like us. They all had a great story to tell. How well they told their story, is where their presentation skills come to play.

Lessons I Learnt as a Presenter
I am not going to talk about the life lessons I learnt from each speaker. Let me talk about the lessons I learnt as a presenter. I critically evaluated every speaker on stage and here is what I make out of it.

1. Getting audience attention: Karuna Gopal used a simple trick which I really liked. Suddenly in the middle of the presentation she said, "this is the most important slide of my presentation." This really got my (and everyone's attention) to whatever she showed and said next. You should use this trick once in a while. Use it just once in your presentation though.

2. Simplifying technical presentations: Syed Maqbool, one of the talented men behind the Indian Moon mission, talked about how the Indian scientists actually went to the Moon. His topic was interesting but his presentation became too technical. He also tried to cover more than what the time permitted and hence could not explain all the complex terms and the technology which took the probe to the Moon.

I have a simple suggestion for people who present technical stuff to laymen. "Show your presentation to a group of people who know nothing about the topic, who are like your audience and then take their feedback. Then tweak the presentation to make it easy to understand."

3. Transitions do look good: Deepak Menon from Microsoft showed to the large audience at ISB and to me that transitions can be made to look great. After seeing his presentation, I have had a change of heart (and opinion). I have always recommended people to stay away from transitions. Rather than wasting time thinking about it, use the time to rehearse. But seeing Deepak present, I also felt like playing with transitions in my next presentation.

He used simple transitions after every slide. Once the slide is complete, the entire slide moves up and gives way to the new one. Something like a 'Push Up' transition effect in MS PowerPoint 2007. He used it less and used it very well to add drama to his content. Another speaker Sharath used a simple 'Fade In' and it looked great.

4. Credibility booster: Dr. Neeraj Raj is working towards digitalising content for MBBS courses in India. So that students get access to best in class medical teachers sitting anywhere in India.

While he was making his point, he showed us some news clippings; scanned articles from newspapers. I don't remember what topic it was, but it did help him add credibility to his point. If you are stating some facts which might not be so obvious to your audience, rely on external sources of credibility like newspapers to drive the point home. The audience surely trusts the national newspaper more that it trusts you.

5. Humor works: Everytime a speaker used humor effectively, there were smiles all over. Film director Nagesh Kukunoor used it, Jyotirmaya Sharma used it, Animator Prosenjit Ganguly used it and so did Kanthi. But all these people used humor differently.

While Nagesh talked about some unknown facts about the industry which made people laugh, Kanthi played with words. Jyotirmaya's humor was at times self-deprecatory. Prosenjit created humor by his behaviour and his funny videos. One thing that I learnt from all of this was, humor works. Use it the way you are comfortable. Everyone has a sense of humor. Use humor the way you do it with your friends and colleagues; the natural way.


The next time there is TED or TEDx in your town/city, make sure you visit it. Even if you have to pay for it.

Guest Post: Introduction to Creative Presentations

This is a guest post by Edmond Mahony. Edmond is an independent digital strategist and brand planner based in London, UK. One of his current projects is The Ideas Forum – Spotlight Ideas.

Introduction
I worked in a large IT company for many years. My experience of working in that company was that most presentations were left-side-thinking in approach. I imagine most other people in business in general have a similar experience of presentations (?) This article is about presentations that are about being right-side-thinking in approach.

Difference between “normal” presentations and creative presentations What’s the difference between left-side and right-side thinking? Left-side is about linear, logical thinking. Right-side is about creative, lateral-minded thinking. Left-side in presentations, involves, most typically, imparting information with a certain degree of analysis (what many might consider the typical or “normal” presentation). Right-side in presentations, might involve, for example, facts and figures, insights, and analysis, but, most typically, is about getting others to think laterally.

Creative, lateral thinking is crucial in business. Without it you can’t have a business that in some way offers a better product or service than the competition to customers. Without creative, lateral thinking you can’t start a successful business nor can you develop a business and keep it going in a competitive marketplace. Without creative, lateral thinking you can’t have a successful brand, brand story, social media strategy, customer-service approach, and so on.

Creative, lateral thinking involves being creative in:

1 the imaginative sense (most typically in, for example, in advertising, graphic design, industrial design, architecture)

2 the problem solving sense (most typically in, for example, in environmental projects, engineering projects)

3 the entrepreneurial sense (i.e. in setting up an exciting, vibrant business)

4 the leadership sense (i.e. in developing a business, in creating a positive and pro-active work environment)

Creative, lateral-thinking is crucial in business. But how often do we focus on linear, logical-thinking than creative, lateral-minded thinking (?)

The creative presentation is an effective way of injecting creative, lateral-thinking into your business. The “creative presentation” is a broad term. It’s a broad term for many reasons.

1 Business environments differ and require different creative, lateral-minded approaches.

2 A particular business environment might require different creative, lateral-minded approaches. For example, an advertising agency requires a problem-solving approach when coming up with the marketing idea behind a campaign (i.e. is there a particular audience you could focus on and what type of marketing message would work best for this particular group?). And it requires an imaginative approach when coming up with the creative concept (i.e. you have discovered who best to target in your campaign, and what your particular marketing message is – now you have to come up with an idea that captures the imagination of this particular audience i.e. colourful balls bouncing down streets in San Francisco as in the Sony Bravia ad ).

3 Everyone is different. If you copy someone else’s approach, it’s not going to be original. People will see thought it. You must be original. You must surprise your audience. You must do things that makes them sit up. If you don’t get them to sit up, then there is no way you’re going to get them to think creatively. Your focus in to get people to think creatively. Your main focus in the creative presentation is to get people to think creatively

We’re all accustomed to thinking in a linear, logical fashion. Our schools and universities are modelled, largely, on linear, logical thinking. The same with the environment we live in. The same with much of our work in work. The same, probably, with most of the presentations we experience at work. Not easy!

Difference between brainstorming and creative presentations
Brainstorming is getting a select group of people to focus on coming up with as many creative ideas as possible within a certain timeframe. The creative presentation is more relaxed. It’s about getting people to think creatively but not within a certain timeframe. You could get people to give you some feedback at the end of the presentation. But your real goal is to get them to go away and think creatively in their own time and space about some issues or a particular issue . Brainstorming is about quantity of ideas (an idea could be expressed in just one word or a few words). The creative presentation is more about getting people to develop and draw out their own particular ideas (so that they could write pages, if required, on a particular idea). Brainstorming is about intense creative-thinking. The creative presentation is more about getting others to think creatively, in an expansive fashion.

Creative Presentation Rules
Don’t follow rules when preparing for, and giving, creative presentations! Rather, follow general guidelines and then inject the rest with your own, personal, unique approach.

Importance of images in creative presentations
There are various techniques you can use in creative thinking. You can use words, music, props, and so on in a particular, creative ways. This article is only an introduction to creative thinking, and doesn’t go into the details of the various techniques. But if there is one technique to focus on, it is images. The image is a powerful tool in the creative presentation.

• Communication tool. An image is often able to communicate a complicated idea more easily than words can. An image can be used on its own or in combination with words. Scientists often use images to describe complicated ideas in their subjects.

• Emotional response. An image can be effective in drawing out an emotional response in audiences. This is particularly important in creative-thinking where imagination is important (i.e. in advertising, design, architecture, and so on).

• Lateral-thinking. Related to the last point, although different, an image is able to get audiences to think laterally in general.

• Provocative. Related to the last point, again, although a bit stronger in emphasis, images can be provocative in a creative sense. For example, you could use an image in conjunction with a word or phrase where there is some disparity or tension. A sort of tension that leads to productive ideas. Or, for example, instead of word/phrase and an image, use a pair of images where there is, again, some sort of disparity / tension.

Conclusion
The creative presentation is challenging. It’s risky. People might think your presentation is silly or whacky. You might give a good presentations but your audience just happens to be barren of creative ideas for whatever reason.

Social scientists have observed a strong correlation between enjoyment and creativity. So whatever, you do, don’t be boring. If you can’t, initially, engage with people, then you’ll never get to the stage where they will (or want to) think creatively. A good tip here is to adopt an ad lib approach. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare for your creative presentation. You should prepare for it like any other type of presentation. But you want a certain amount of spontaneous, human engagement.

And, lastly, if using slides, never allow them to become the main focus of attention. You might get away with this, to a degree, with the “normal” presentation. But not with the creative presentation where the slides are props that you refer to, casually – only.

Presentation: A Trainer's Perspective

This is a guest post from Joel Xavier, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad. He is based out of Pune, India and trains students for various entrance exams including MBA.

This is a slightly long post but is very insightful. It is based on Joel's presentation experience during his recently concluded 5 day training session.


I shot out an SOS email to Vivek one day asking him to provide me with ‘whatever’ content he had on ‘making presentations’ [He is a senior from my MBA days who even back then, was known for his slick presentations]. Why? I was to teach a bunch of engineers-to-be the nuances of making good presentations in about 3 day’s time and I had no clue how I was going to approach it. Who better to ask for guidance than your own senior? I got more than I bargained for.

Within no time I had a long list of twenty odd links pointing back to this blog which was his pick of the best of the basics. I got to work. I was carefully copy pasting the content to a word document for offline reference when it hit me. At the end of almost every article I was reading was an introspective question. Which of these habits are you already following? Which are the ones you would like to try out in your next presentation? Each question was making me think about how exactly I relate to what has just been discussed.

What is my learning out of the whole experience? The whole concept of relating something you have just come to know to some experience you have had in your life, or some particular aspect of the presentation that appealed to you personally was a revelation. It made me sit up and reorganize my entire 5 day training schedule. At the end of each session I would ask the participants in my workshop about what were the one or two specific things that they would remember from the session that just concluded. I was surprised to find that though my topics were very generic, like how to build your CV, and how to participate in discussions, the things the students mentioned as their learning were very personal. Sharing them with the entire group was an amazingly effective way to personalize and retain learning. Participants actually began to look forward to the last 10-15 minutes of each session which were dedicated to this activity.

Among the various articles, there were a few on how to represent data in a presentation. My audience for this workshop comprised third year and final year students of Electrical, IT and Agricultural Engineering. Students who were academically very sound, but had completed most of their education in the regional language. I realized that they would not need much of the charting tips right now, important as they are. And then it dawned on me. I needed to tell them what I was doing myself, understanding the audience. File formats for images and charting tips would come a long way down the line. They would first have to understand their audience.

This entire process was turning into a big learning exercise for me as well. So I decided to reassess the situation. What is my purpose? And as you would have it, I dramatically went into flashback mode. Circa 2005, my first day in Prof. Abhinandan Jain’s class on market research [Jain baba as we referred to him, respectfully]. We had designed a survey and Prof. Jain was making it clear in no uncertain terms that we had failed miserably in our effort. “What is your purpose?” He would bombard us with the same question for every point we made as a class. The words still ring out in my ears. 73 bright managers-to-be racked their brains that day to understand why simplicity and a clear sense of purpose are so absolutely necessary. I now had the opening note to my own presentation. Before you start working on any presentation you need to have a clear objective as to what you aim to achieve through that presentation.
Just remembering about Jain baba brought back another gem of an insight to calm the turbulence that was surrounding my preparations. We used to pride ourselves in making the most dramatic presentations with the best of embellishments, presented with great flourish in those much loved classrooms. Then one day Jain baba punctured our egos in a way which we were to get used to over time.

The presenter was facing a technical problem and the projector decided to play truant. So Jain baba asked him to go ahead and make his point without using the projector. The presenter was petrified and tried to wriggle his way out of the situation claiming he could not do it as there was a lot of important data that the audience had to be shown. What Jain baba said next put the class in a stunned silence. “The power needs to be in your point.”

Over a period of time presentation skills have come to mean Power point skills for a lot of people. I knew I would be laying the right foundations for the participants if I made it clear that MS Power point and projectors are only some of the tools available to you as a presenter. It is necessary to use them as tools and not as crutches.

That said, I had some very strong points to begin with. While preparing a presentation:

• Be clear about your objective
• Understand your audience.
• Focus on the content and not the embellishments.
• Get the audience to relate to the content and make their learning personal

Through my interaction with the audience I realized that the majority of them, like so many of us had come to the workshop thinking of presentations as the thing you do standing in front of a PowerPoint show. I decided to try and break this myth. I had to make it clear that there are innumerable occasions in real life when you are actually required to do a presentation. I gave them the traffic cop presentation.

I asked my audience how many of them had tried making a presentation to a traffic cop to avoid being fined? I got these incredulous looks which made it amply clear that the audience was having a tough time connecting traffic cops and presentations. Then I proceeded to explain how once you are caught violating traffic rules, the entire purpose of your interaction with the cop is to get away with a minimal punishment [your objective]. How the traffic cop actually intends to only censure you and has the power to waive the fine for a warning if he is convinced that you are a responsible driver otherwise [understand your audience]. Convince him about your being a responsible driver by showing him more than just your license willingly. Since two wheelers were relevant to my audience this meant things like the helmet, the pollution control certificate, the tax papers etc. Before I knew it, I was getting that look from my audience. The look that says they have done it, but never thought about it this way. Point well made.

I encouraged my audience to make presentations by using the best tool available to presenters: the mind of the audience. If you can make them visualize the point you want to make, I believe you achieve much more than just getting your point across.

A few other notable tricks from the blog that I used in the training were good humor and chocolates. They are surefire winners if you want to engage your audience much more productively.


About Joel:
Joel ‘Cyclo’ Xavier, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, has worked with Marico and HUL in branding and sales before he got into teaching and training. He is currently based in Pune and trains students for various MBA entrance and other competitive exams. 15 of his students made it to the various IIMs in 2009. He is also a visiting faculty at the University of Pune, department of Management Sciences for marketing. You can find out more about his work on: www.mentorgrid.com


If you also want to share your presentation experience with all of use here, send an email to vivek [at] allaboutpresentations [dot] com.

Best of the Month: Jan '10

Yet another month passed by. In January the blog completed one year of existence. 164 posts, 13.7 posts a month and 1 post every 3 days. A huge amount of time and effort has gone in the last one year and will continue to go in every month.

I would like to list down the most read posts of the blog in the last one year. Here is the list:

#1 How to make sponsorship proposal presentations?
#2 How many slides should your presentations have?
#3 How to make a business review presentation?
#4 7 lessons from Dr. Steven Covey's presentation
#5 An introduction to SmartArt graphics
#6 How to create your own template in PowerPoint?
#7 How to add hyperlink to SmartArt?
#8 Checklist for making any presentation
#9 Free E-Book on 14 Tips to make awesome charts
#10 How to present one bullet at a time?

Coming to January 2010, I shared a couple of tricks on PowerPoint and talked about the amazing talk by Devdutt Pattanaik. No wonder the most read posts of the last month are:

#1 How to create a lunar eclipse using PowerPoint?
#2 TED India Talk: Devdutt Pattanaik
#3 Why we should avoid the edges of the slide?

In the coming month, I will be sharing with you some interesting developments that have taken place in January. There is a lot in store. Keep reading and keep writing to me. If you have something to share or discuss email it to vivek [at] allaboutpresentations [dot] com.

Are you up for this challenge?

Here is a small challenge I want to throw at you. If you do take it up, share with me the results. If you find any problems with taking it up, do table your concerns.

The Challenge: Deliver a Presentation without any text on your slides. You may use pictures, shapes, whatever but no text.

The only situation you might not be able to try this is when you are in a formal setting. But explore the various informal talks/presentations you give. Try it out.




Why this dare?
To improve ourselves as a presenter.

- So that we stop using excess text.
- So that we stop using text as an anchor to remind us of what to speak.
- So that we get complete attention of our audience. So they stop reading the text on the slides and start looking at us and listening to us.
- So that we develop confidence by taking complete charge of our presentation.

What do you think friend? Are you game?



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Image credit: djcodrin

Keep the lights on while presenting

Every presentation I attend I try to learn something. Some things that have been done right and some things not quite so. The presentation I last attended was a sales pitch from the business development manager of a large enterprise. The presenter was pitching for some business.

When I entered the room I saw the presenter standing at one end of the mid-sized rectangular conference room. All lights off. I could only see the bright slides and nothing else. The presenter was at standing near his laptop (he did not have a wireless presenter and so had to stand at one place). He was just not visible.

This brings me to the topic of the day:
"How should you manage the room lighting while presenting?"


Well, the focus of this sales pitch or for that matter any presentation is on the presenter. We have come to listen to him. He is the one who is pitching and asking me to shell out my time and money. So should he hide himself while talking? (unless ofcourse I have come to see a video or a movie)

No. The presenter should never be invisible. The lights near the screen should be switched off but lights falling on the presenter and the audience should be on. If I can't see you, how am I going to understand you? It's a recipe for disaster. All the basics of good presentation, eye contact, connecting with the audience thrown right out of the window. There it fell on the road, thud!

It was very difficult for me as an audience to not be able to see the presenter. I was really troubled and so will any member of the audience. So what I did do about it? I asked asked the presenter (after about 15 minutes) to switch on the lights above him and above us. And I advice anybody who is in my position to do the same. Let there be light!


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Image credit: Pixomar

TED India Talk: Devdutt Pattanaik - Why is India different from the West?

Devdutt Pattanaik is the Chief Belief Officer with the Future Group (Big Bazaar), India. His talk at TED India which took place in Mysore last year is fascinating and exciting. It also answers what the words 'Chief Belief Officer' mean. You must watch his talk (18 mins) here:

Devdutt's presentation is on an uncommon topic; linking mythology to business. How is India different from the West? How is Indian business style connected to its mythology? Why the clash of civilisations is imminent and what we can do about it?

There is a lot to learn about presentation making from Devdutt's presentation. Here are a few of my observations:

1. Start with a story: Devdutt is well aware that his topic is kind of esoteric. If not made interesting, he will loose his audience half-way. To make the content interesting and understandable he chose to tell us the story of Lord Ganesh and his brother Kartikeya.

You need to appreciate that this story helps Devdutt firmly establish his model of 'The World and My World'. If Devdutt was an average presenter, he would have started with a table like this:

This is the very first point which Devdutt talks about and the entire presentation is based upon the understanding of 'My World and The World'. Using a story to establish this framework has worked well for Devdutt.

Stories also make the message easy to remember. Days after you would have forgotten about what Devdutt exactly said, you'll remember Ganesh & Kartikeya and Alexander & the Gymnosophist. And once you remember them, you'll remember the core message as well. That's the power of stories in action.

2. Passion: You can see his passion for the subject. It is infectious and it is charming. We listen to people who are passionate about their stuff. Devdutt surely is.

3. Minimal Use of Slides: This is perhaps the biggest lesson that we should take from Devdutt. People have come to listen to what Devdutt has to 'say'. He has used slides as an aid, as a support to help him explain his point better. That's it. When he talks about Alexander, he shows you an image. When he talks of Ganesha, he shows you an image.

He does let his slides overtake his presentation. The focus of the talk is Devdutt and he ensures that people look at him and listen to him and ignore the slides. And that's exactly what we do. If there are too many slides and too much text on it or too much happening on the slides then our focus will move from the presenter to the slides. Remember, you are the focal point of the presentation and not your slides. The less they interfere, the better.

Overall, I consider Devdutt as an actor who has given a passionate performance of what he believes in.

4 Challenges of Talking to an Audience for the First Time

Few days back I was asked by a popular MBA entrance institute to give a talk to a group of students. This institute prepares students for MBA entrance exams. I was asked to guide them on how to crack Group Discussions (called GDs) which is an essential part of almost every MBA institute's entrance process in India. I had worked with the institute last year on the same thing and so was invited again.

So here I was. Talking to a group of 25 students, all of them working with leading software companies. This was my first interaction with them and my task was clear. I had to connect with them right from the start and to share with them all the tips and tricks I had.

Talking to an audience for the first time is a challenge. There are 4 challenges you need to overcome as a speaker.

1. How to connect with the audience from the very start?

2. How to make a good first impression?

3. How to understand and know more about the audience?

4. How to establish credibility so that the audience listens to you and does what you say?

1. How to connect with the audience from the very start?

Connecting with the audience is a tough task. That too with an audience you have never met. To some it comes naturally while others have to practice it.

Think of the last time you met a stranger for a meeting. What happened? Did you get along well? Did you start talking about things and never felt uncomfortable? If you have this knack then think of the presentation as meeting with people individually. This will give you the confidence and you will be able to connect.

If you do not have a knack of connecting with people immediately, I suggest you become consciously aware that you are meeting a group of strangers. Smile a lot, establish good eye contact, have open gestures and stand close to the audience. Do not park yourself in one corner of the room. Staying close, looking into the eye and smiling helps connect with the audience better.

2. How to make a good first impression?

While you are trying to connect with the audience, your audience is also evaluating you. People judge others by first impressions. So, as a speaker, you have to get the first 5 to 10 minutes right in order to impress your audience. And here is what you should do.


Introduction - At the very start, introduce yourself properly. Share details about yourself which are relevant and places you in the right light. Talk about your relevant experience and achievements without boasting too much.

Dress appropriate - The choice of dress (formal / casual / etc.) should suit the occasion. Do not over dress.

Dress well - Wear your favourite dress. The dress which you like more than others. It helps.

Talk sense - Do not talk things which are irrelevant. You need not start a talk with a joke unless there is some merit in doing so. Be natural, stay calm and start getting into the groove.

3. How to understand and know more about the audience?

To connect with the audience you have to talk about things which the audience can relate to. You have to be relevant. But how can you, without knowing your audience well?

In my case, though I was talking to this group for the first time, I had met similar people the last time around. So I assumed that these people will not be too different. It was a safe assumption to make.

What if it was the first talk I was giving? How did I manage last year when I was actually meeting them (or people like them) for the very first time?

Well there are always ways and means to know a bit about your audience. I could have asked the organisers to share with me the profile of the group. I could have called the organisers and asked them to brief me about the audience, their needs, their expectations and their problems. Worse case, I can ask the group to share their background and expectations right at the start of the talk (after introducing myself).

Whatever it may be, you have to know your audience before you start speaking.

4. How to establish credibility so that the audience listens to you?

As a speaker (and more so as a teacher/trainer), the most important thing for you to do is to establish credibility. Why should the audience listen to you? The audience has never met you and might have never heard about you (unless you are Obama or Steve Jobs or Narayan Murthy). You may be famous in your own circle but you need to prove that to a group of strangers.

So establish your credibility at the start and reinforce it (if need be later on). Credibility can be established in many ways.

- Talk about your experience
- Talk about your educational qualification
- Tell them that you conducted this training last year and how successful it was

All of it need not be at the start. Some of it can be subtly mentioned when the need arises. Remember to be specific when you talk. Generic statements hold no water.

The next time you have a talk in front a completely new audience, don't panic. Understand the audience and their expectations before hand. Make a solid first impression and connect with the audience right from the word go. And make sure you establish your credentials to ensure people listen to you.

All the very best!


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Image credits: Nicholas Tarling, FreeDigitalPhotos.net, vegadsl, Simon Houden.

Download free PowerPoint Templates

On Friday my old friend Sid called. He was going to make a presentation to a bunch of sales guys about Mutual funds and he was looking for a suitable template.

If you type 'free powerpoint templates' you will get 5.92 million results on Google and 6.09 million on Bing. But searching on Google might take some time. That's because you are looking for a specific template. In such cases, all you need to do is prioritise.

What you should do is find out 2 or 3 good websites which provide free templates. Then go and search these sites instead of wandering around on Google.

On of my favourite sites to download PowerPoint templates has been 'MS Office Online'. I used to use this site back in college days. In the last few years I have never downloaded a template.

There are two ways to visit the site. You can bookmark the URL and access from your browser. If you forget the URL you need not worry. The link is part of MS PowerPoint.

In Office 2007

Open a presentation -> Go to Design tab -> Click on down arrow to open the Themes -> Click on More Themes on Microsoft Office Online -> Click on Template categories (in the website) -> Choose PowerPoint. The process is almost similar in Office 2003.



You can go the templates page directly by clicking here.

MS Office Online Templates

There are 9 categories under which templates have been classified. There are 62 templates under Academic and 80 under Business. Though by no means exhaustive I still feel the site has a good collection of templates.


If you have never been on the site, you must definitely check it out. If you have your own favourite websites where you download templates from, share the link and help all of us here :)

1st Anniversary of the Blog

Image: Salvatore Vuono

I am very happy to share with you that our blog 'All About Presentations' has completed one year of existence. It was on January 14th last year that I started off the blog. I started the blog with two objectives:

1. Learn more about making presentations, and

2. Share all my learnings with you.

I have been trying my best to write useful content in simple language. I hope you have enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed writing.

I would take this opportunity to thank my better half (it was her idea to start this blog) and to all the friends/relatives, readers and fellow bloggers who have commented, shared feedback and encouraged me.

As the blog enters its 2nd year, all I would say is: 'Expect more exciting stuff.'

Regards,

Vivek (aka Poza)