{"id":29,"date":"2007-03-16T14:41:56","date_gmt":"2007-03-16T19:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alighaemi.com\/wp\/?p=29"},"modified":"2009-05-18T18:47:33","modified_gmt":"2009-05-18T23:47:33","slug":"presentations-an-interview-with-dave-paradi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alighaemi.com\/wp\/?p=29","title":{"rendered":"Presentations – An Interview With Dave Paradi"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

-Please speak about your background and qualifications. What makes you credible on the topic of presentations, sales and marketing?<\/p>\n

I have been speaking professionally for almost eight years and did training and presentations as part of my corporate job before that. I became an expert in the strategic use of presentation visuals by studying what works, figuring out why it works with audiences, and then explaining how presenters can use these techniques to develop their own slides. Because of this depth of knowledge, Prentice Hall asked me to co-author an MBA text on the topic, which was published in 2006.
\nNaturally, a lot of presentations are done in the sales and marketing area, so a fair amount of my consulting and training is for organizations that are responsible for sales in a larger company.<\/p>\n

-What is the background of your website and what do you feel it adds to its visitors?<\/p>\n

I was fortunate to learn early on from some experts what makes an effective web site, so my goal on the web has always been to offer value to those who visit the web site. I have many free articles posted and every issue of my newsletter (over 130 issues so far) is also available on my web site. Whenever anyone signs up for my newsletter (which is also free), they start with a 7-day e-course on proper PowerPoint usage so that they can see if my ideas are right for them. My web site and newsletter have been effective because I can trace most of my clients back to something I wrote for the web site or in a newsletter.<\/p>\n

\"Spotlight<\/a>

Spotlight On The Presenter<\/p><\/div>\n

-At a high level when is a presentation is necessary and when it is forced into the process?<\/p>\n

In my opinion, a presentation should be chosen as the method of communication when the message needs to get to a number of people at the same time and you will want discussion during or after the presentation. Too many times a presentation is used when an e-mailed report would be better. If there is no discussion necessary, you should use a report instead of taking people\u2019s time to attend a presentation. In any business situation, professionals need to think of not only what their message is, but what method should be used to deliver it.<\/p>\n

-What is the single biggest mistake people make when presenting?<\/p>\n

In my survey of audience members on what annoys them the most about bad presentations, the overwhelming number one issue is when the presenter stands there and reads the slides to the audience. This is annoying because audience members can read four times faster than the presenter can speak and the presenter is not adding anything new. It is really a waste of time, and people today won\u2019t stand for it. I always suggest a proper presentations structure, including audience analysis, goes a long way to developing an engaging presentation.<\/p>\n

-To the best of your knowledge which is the best presentation in history?<\/p>\n

There are many great presentations that have been delivered, and since I have not seen them all, it would be impossible for me to pick just one. What I suggest is that after you see a presentation that engaged you the entire time and motivated you to action, ask yourself what did the presenter do that was so effective? Was it a logical argument, was it effective visuals, was it the way they spoke or something else. By collecting your own observations and those of others, you will start to create your own list of what makes the \u2018best\u2019 presentation.<\/p>\n

-Is PowerPoint the best tool for a presentation?<\/p>\n

PowerPoint is one tool, and it may be effective in some presentations and not in others. It depends on what the audience expects, how they prefer to receive the presentation and whether visuals will add to the message or not. If PowerPoint will not add to your presentation, don\u2019t use it. As to whether PowerPoint is better than its competitors, I really can\u2019t say because I am not familiar with the other products. PowerPoint owns around 95% of the market, so that is where my clients want me to focus.<\/p>\n

-There are no presentations on your website. Why are documents a better medium?<\/p>\n

It is interesting that you make this observation. My web site is really a demonstration of my expertise, and I have found that people still use the written word to evaluate your level of expertise. I recently had some video recorded of me doing some live sessions and I hope to put selected clips on the web site in the near future so people can see some of what I do in a live session. I have also recorded some of my web training sessions, so people can always purchase one of those videos and learn a specific topic at their own pace.<\/p>\n

-Dave Paradi can be found<\/a> on the web. www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

-Please speak about your background and qualifications. What makes you credible on the topic of presentations, sales and marketing? I have been speaking professionally for almost eight years and did training and presentations as part of my corporate job before that. I became an expert in the strategic use of presentation visuals by studying what […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":""},"categories":[3,11],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"modified_by":"Ali Ghaemi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alighaemi.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alighaemi.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alighaemi.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alighaemi.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alighaemi.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alighaemi.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alighaemi.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alighaemi.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alighaemi.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}