Presentation Process and Workflow

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Note that this process is built using aspects of design, engineering and scientific methods to appeal to different learning and presentation styles. Following the process creates a logical workflow, reducing time from idea to realization and ensuring the audience walks away with a clear understanding of the intent of your expression and its value to the audience with whom you are communicating.

See suggested W3C Slide tools.

Presentation Workflow Outline

• Define the primary goal of the presentation
• Define the expected audience
  • Language and imagery should reflect audience language
  • Understand the pain points and challenges of the audience
• Research & Specify supporting evidence (quotes, data, stats, charts, tables, etc.)
  • Research
  • Collect assets
  • Collect associated imagery
• Outline the narrative
• Write the Story
  • Develop narrative
  • Break narrative into 3 main sections:
    • Intro
      • Always welcome and thank your audience
      • Tell a personal anecdote that bridges you, the topic and the audience –
      • State your mission purpose
    • Body
    • Conclusion
• Build the slide deck out based on outline ← process reinforces the core statement
• Test the story (offer up for feedback)
• Revise the story as needed

Gathering Assets (in depth)

• How to research and find legal use art

Building the Deck (in depth)

The deck emerges naturally out of the outline. Use that outline to guide your build. Many media instructors and presentation professionals suggest the use of specific patterns for best memory retention. In standard digital numbering, odd numbers 1-3-5-7 are best for memory. This is evidenced in the U.S. by original patterns set for area (3), postal (5) and phone (7) codes. Any number higher than 7 in a series or set can result in attendees not comprehending complete meaning. This is also true for the numbers of words in a title, bullets on a content page, bullet content, imagery, tables and so forth.

(NOTE: This is at least for English speakers, R12a and other linguistics and math folks perhaps have some detailed info to share regarding how this works in other language and number systems?)

Slide Deck Pattern Example:

• Intro
  • Slide Set
• Body
  • Slide Set
• Conclusion
  • Slide Set
• Q&A
• Wrap slide (typically: brand, sponsor, contact info)
• Blank slide (Suggest: fade to black screen with W3C logo)

Slide Pattern Section Example:

• Topic Slide
• Narrative Slide (Bulleted Lists)
• Narrative Slide
• Narrative Slide ← optional
• Impact Slide (imagery, quotes, data, stats, charts, tables etc.
• Summary Slide
• Close Topic Slide (can be quote or other to bring

Slide-Specific Guidelines

Consider moving this to a second tech talk and separate file

Impact Slides

• Quotations
• Images
• Illustrations
• Charts
• Tables

The test of a good slide deck is that it should be useless without YOU (and your notes)! If you want to give folks something more valuable as a takeaway, you can make the slides available in a package containing key points covered and a reference page that includes the event name and date, author name and contact information and brief summary.