I’m glad focusing on storytelling has worked for you. It’s something I’m still trying to work on in my own presentations…

BTW, if you’re interested in the art of storytelling, there are some great YouTube videos created by Ira Glass on the topic. Watching these really helped me clarify what I wanted to do with my presentations. Here is a link (via presentationzen):

http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2007/03/ira_glasstips_o.html

And keep up the great work with e4!

— Patrick

I saw the Presentation Zen book online and emailed a friend if she knew if it was any good but she hadn’t seen it. Thanks for the review, I may now pick it up.

I recently gave two talks on E4. In the first one, I started with the EclipseCon08 slide deck, modifying and updating. The presentation went ok but not great. What I realized was missing was the story. People go to presentations for a story, for a complete thought that you the presenter take them on the journey towards. So I reworked the presentation and by focusing on the story made it 100% better. It also made it my own, since I was then telling *my* E4 story. It was a very enlightening experience, and felt like one of the best presentations I’ve given.

And I agree, the TED talks are fantastic examples of how to present.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
by Chip and Dan Heath

This book is really, really good!

Yes, I definitely will be submitting one or more talks in October. And I better present well after this post!

— Patrick

Thanks for putting this out there. I am the program committee chair for EclipseCon next year, and we are doing all we can to get great presentations and not people reading their bullet points.

I hope to see a submission for a talk from you when we open the submission system in October.