The Cocktail Napkin Presentation

YOU KNOW WHAT KILLS most presentations? Stuff. Filler. Irrelevant information. You’ve seen it: excessive details; lists of features or product lines; company history; obtuse graphics; jumbles of client logos; etc. Too much STUFF, crammed into an endless procession of slides (and even 10 dense slides can seem like tooooo many).
        All that stuff distracts our audiences from the key message (if there even is one), making it harder for them to follow our story, and harder for them to respond the way we’d like them to.
        I'm not saying things like company history have no place in a presentation. But these bits rarely need a separate slide, and never in the early part of a persuasive presentation (which is where one usually finds them).
        What should be in slides are those few concepts that can’t easily be expressed just in words — or the one or two key ideas that you really want to burn in your audience’s brains. (I guarantee they WON’T remember 87 bullet points, or even 12.)

How (and when) visuals should be used

Suppose you strike up a conversation with someone in a bar. And they get really interested in what you have to say about <fill in the blank>. Then you get more animated, ’cause they’re getting what you’re saying.
        Suddenly, there’s something special you want to explain, but words alone aren’t enough. So you grab the nearest cocktail napkin, pull out a pen, and sketch the idea.
        Then the proverbial lightbulb goes on in your new friend’s brain. “Oh, I get it!” they say. Suddenly, your pitch takes on new life, and that image you sketched will stick with the other person long after they've left the bar.

Isn’t that the way presentations should be? Of course! Presentations should be conversations, with a few visual aids thrown in to explain or amplify some key concepts.

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone took that approach? Business would be so much simpler, more effective, and more profitable.

Cocktail Napkin Presentations

So what would a cocktail napkin presentation look like? (short of using actual cocktail napkins)(which would be cool!)

• as few slides as possible (3-4 would be ideal)
• very simple graphics
• very little text
• LOTS of interaction between speaker and audience
• a joint commitment toward next steps

Consider the impact. Consider the possibilities. Consider DOING IT.

Here’s how: The next time you’re ready to work on a presentation, turn off your computer and go to the bar. Grab a handful of cocktail napkins and start sketching out your story. Don’t worry about trying to get just the final three or four napkins, er, slides you need. Napkins are cheap, so just do a brain dump.
        The beauty of using cocktail napkins is that it forces you to be concise. Those suckers can be hard to write on (Sharpies work best), so it requires you to be simple in what you draw or write. They force you to get to the point — which is what every audience longs for.
        Once you’ve done the brain dump, you’ll probably need to order another round; you’re only half-way there. Now, take all those great ideas you have and put them into three stacks:

1. Things your audience WANTS to know.
2. Things your audience NEEDS to know.
3. Everything else.

Most of the STUFF in your presentation is lurking in that third stack. Don’t throw those away just yet. They could be important references, but they don’t deserve a place in the final three or four napkins.
        Next, pull out of stack #2 the top three items, then put the rest with stack #3. Do the same with stack #1. [If you don’t have at least three things in each of stacks #1 and #2, your presentation is in trouble. Put the drink aside and start over.] You should be left with no more than six napkins in front of you. 
        Now, can you combine any of them? Can you simplify any of them? Can you just TALK about what’s on any of them? If you give yourself the restriction of having only three or four slides, I mean, napkins at the end, you’ll find a way to mix, merge, or just describe the final set.

ONCE YOU’VE DONE THAT, you’re ready to head back to your computer (provided you can still walk, drive, or hail a cab). Start with the final three or four napkins you developed, and then build your presentation around those. You may end up with more than four slides, but ANYTHING you add should be directly relevant to one of the final napkin sketches.
        Armed with your three or four killer ideas (plus whatever number of associated bits that MUST BE INCLUDED to help round out the story of the big three or four), you can go and have a conversation with your prospect(s). I assure you, it will be one of the best presentations you’ve ever given.

But does it really work?

Absolutely. Being forced to be concise is a great exercise for all of us. You may find, in a particular situation, that you have a dozen slides for each of your three or four key ideas, but — handled well — these extra visuals won’t be obvious to your audience, since they’ll be riffs on each of the three or four keys.
        But I've also seen people make memorable, compelling presentations with only a handful of slides. What made these work was a) they had a very strong message that connected with the audience, b) the visuals provided great springboards from which the presenter could talk at length, and c) the presenters knew their material and their audience’s issues extremely well.
        I also saw information guru, Edward Tufte, apply this in a FULL DAY seminar. You would’ve thought he was going to show lots of visuals, since there were huge screens on either side of the make-shift stage. But he didn’t use them until the last 20 minutes of the seminar, to show video examples of work he was engaged in. For most of the day, he either just talked to us (even jumped up on a table!), or had us refer to specific sections in one of his books. (Each participant got copies of his books when we arrived.)
       It was a day-long conversation, and a transformative experience.

 

<side point>
You might be wondering if you could just use envelopes instead. But look what can happen when you’ve got all that real estate and an easy surface on which to write:

 

Stick with cocktail napkins . . .

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Comments

[Leah]

Found you through a comment you left on Presentation Zen. I think you have some WONDERFUL advice here and have subscribed. I'm always looking for resources to help people create better presentations.

Kudos!

Leah

[Brad Cork]

What a great concept... I totally agree.. presentations need to be simple and interactive.

I just completed a week long conference where I presented a 30 minute session, a 60 minute round table and a full day training session. At no point did I use powerpoint AT ALL ... and guess what... no-one complained about the missing powerpoint slides!

Not using powerpoint allows me to be completely flexible. I have a conversation with the audience and if they spark a new idea I will just draw up the diagram that I need on a flip chart.

That way I truly can have a conversation with the audience... I know my open and my close really well ... but what happens in the middle is like any other conversation up to where both parties (the speaker AND the audience) want it to go....

Just like scribbling on a cocktail napkin.

Onya for helping improve presenations for all of us.

Thanks,
Have a great day,
Brad.

[John Windsor]

Great story, Brad! I'm sure your sessions were a smash. It's experiences like yours that give me hope.

Regards,
John

[Rita]

This is AWESOME information! What a way to break down your thoughts into concise bits of info. The envelope is SO me it's scary (and it made me laugh at myself). Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge.

[John Windsor]

Thanks for your comments, Rita. That envelope applies to a lot of people . . . ;-)