Beyond Bullet Points Makes for a Good Show

I have been using Cliff Atkinson’s book, Beyond Bullet Points, to create a PowerPoint presentation for a training session for a client. I want the presentation to POP!

I was already thinking in the general direction of Beyond Bullet Points, but I must admit that the book has been helpful in the following ways:

Creating a compelling story.
Getting away from mearly covering information (the more slides the better mentality).
Organizing my thoughts to build drama and persuade.
Create a more evocative and provocative presentation.

And I am just getting into the book. I am sure that there will be more insights as I create this presentation using his process.

I also like that the templates are available from his website for free. Speeds things up.

Cliff is also doing webinars that you can check out here. (This links to his blog.)

If you do presentations or training sessions, get the book!

Comments

[Dwayne Melancon]

Great recommendation - I got the book about a month ago, and found it really helpful, as well. Particularly the "script writing" approach and some of the story-building templates provided in the book. Really helps hammer out some strong content very quickly.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Dwayne - Yes, I sued the template as a starting point but did not stick to it completely. Doing it Cliff's way to start helped me focus and distill the most important messages/stories.

[martinperlin]

Lisa

Great review!
Its good to hear your experience with BBP. I just finished the book and I am very excited to start working on my company's presentations. Have you seen other finished presentations that were based on the BBP method? I would like to see how others made it work.

Thanks,

Martin

[Mike DeWitt]

Hi Lisa,

I got BBP when it first came out, and it really changed the way I think about presentations. I have found that a certain class of executive hates his format, but once you use it, going back to the old way is painful.

Mike

[Mike DeWitt]

Martin,

Cliff's site has a set of presentation makeovers using his techniques if you're interested. Also check out the webinars, as Lisa mentioned.

Mike