Abandon All Hope?

EVER FELT THAT WAY WHEN YOU’VE GONE TO A CONFERENCE? Sure, there are great things you can learn, and there’s usually at least one speaker or presentation that knocks your socks off. But too often, conferences start to feel like the 21st century version of Dante’s Inferno.

Session after session that could be great, but ends up something less, leaving us disappointed, rather than energized. What a horrible waste of opportunity for both the speaker and us.

It doesn’t have to be that way, of course, but it frequently is. In fact, in looking at the presentation archives for several Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) events, I came up with some sobering statistics:

– 8% of the presentations were GREAT

– 15% were likely GOOD

– 77% were likely PASSABLE–to–POOR

Now, I didn’t sit through the 123 presentations in question. In fact, I didn’t attend any of the three events I studied. So it’s entirely possible that some of the “GOOD” ones were actually great. And perhaps, based on some presenters’ insights, passion, and/or delivery, a certain number of the PASSABLE–to–POOR ones were actually good.

But you wouldn’t know it from 92% of the decks in the collection. 92% of the presentations left something — or a lot — that could have made the experience better for the attendees.

I say this not because the GREAT ones were flashier than the rest, though the design factors were generally superior in this group. And it could be argued that a static deck is no indication of how a presentation actually comes across. But when you see a LOT of text or data on slides, chances are great that it’s all going to be read — out loud.

What made the GREAT ones great?

They expressed a clear, simple, powerful story and relied on the slides to provide springboards for discussion.

Here are some of the best ones:

Dave Balter, Founder/CEO, BzzAgent
Word of Mouth Media

George Silverman, author, The Secrets of Word of Mouth Marketing
How to Create Word-of-Mouth Campaigns

John Moore, author, Tribal Knowledge
Tribal Knowledge — Lessons Learned from Working Inside Starbucks

Marc Schiller, CEO, ElectricArtists
Building World Class Corporate Weblogs

Troy Young, VP of Interactive Strategy, Organic
We, the Media
[NB: This is a wonderful example of how to adapt a dynamite presentation into a great leave-behind. Troy saved the PDF in “Notes” form, so you get both the strong visuals and the ideas underlying them.]

It takes more work, of course, to create and deliver something as compelling as these examples. But the payoff can be tremendous — for the audience and the presenter. Think about it: How many presentations or presenters do you remember from past conferences you’ve attended? A handful, maybe? One or two per conference? Sad statistic, isn’t it?

Wouldn’t it be nice if all of them were fantastic?!

What can you do?

If you’re a conference speaker:

1) Answer this question before you start working on your presentation: “What’s going to change my audience’s lives?” Use that as the spark for everything you’re going to say.

2) Use as few slides as possible, and make them as simple as the ones in the examples above.

If you’re a conference organizer:

1) Give every speaker 5–7 questions that they need to answer for their audience. Use the question above as the first one.

2) Give them a restriction of no more than 3 bullet-point slides for their whole presentation. (Ideally, only one — or none.)

3) If you’re going to give them a template to use, make sure it helps, not hampers the visual display of information. Use the samples above as potential guides; do not use WOMMA’s template as your guide.

If you’re a conference attendee:

1) Work on your blog?
2) Buy the book instead?
3) Demand better presentations?

For your presentations, anywhere/anytime:

1) Follow the prescriptions above.

2) Invest the time to make them GREAT, not just okay.

<note>
I’m not picking on WOMMA. In fact, I appreciate the great resource they’ve given us. If you’d like to explore this broad spectrum of presentations, click on this link and then choose one or more of the conference titles. Each will take you to a page where there will be links that say either “Agenda” or “Download Presentations” (or both). The three events I perused were Summit 2006, WOMBAT 2, and WOM v. Advertising (2005).

If you’d like to discuss any of these in greater detail, use the Comments box for this post and be sure to include a link to the one or ones that intrigue, inspire, or confuse you. I’ll be happy to share my ideas on why these work, don’t work, or fall somewhere in between.