dispatches from the new world of work

The Store Just Added Another Shelf!

Yes, the day before yesterday's "short" 823-slide MASTER just grew to ... 902 slides! Some of your comments have been barbs about brevity. I guess it's obvious, or should be. A "MASTER" is my personally constructed encyclopedia; from it are drawn various presentations—and as I prep for those presentations new material is added. For example, today's First Data presentation started with the whole 902-slide shebang. The sculptor Henry Moore, I believe, said that sculpture is, uh, easy. If you are sculpting A. Lincoln, for example, you simply take a big stone and get rid of everything that's not Lincoln. Hence Round #1 of the First Data presentation reduced the slide count from 902 to 322. (By removing the 580 slides that "were not First Data.") Round #2 got me to 211. Round #3 came in at 172 and round #4 at 154. (It gets harder!) Eventually I'll get to about 100 slides; all in all it usually takes about 10-15 drafts.

Tom Peters posted this on 09/20/06.

Comments

LIKE STARBUCKS - it MUST grow @ 5 per day! :>].

Posted by sean at September 20, 2006 10:06 AM

phew I read "322 slides" and thought "okay, that's for a week long presentation, right, Tom?" Glad to see you eventually cull it down to 100 or so!

For the record, when I give talks I usually expect to use about 15-20 slides/hour, and that they're almost always no more than four words per slide, with nice bold colors (I've told you that I model these after your slide decks, right? :-)

My ref article on this subject:
http://www.intuitive.com/blog/use_powerpoint_to_enhance_your_presentation_not_cripple_it.html

Seems like a lot of people appreciate our perspective on effective presentations.

Posted by Dave Taylor at September 20, 2006 10:09 AM

Dave, Tom could use all 902 slides in a 45 hour presentation if he really hurried at 20 slides per hour. Let's find out who the TP devotees really are...

A Tom Peters Lockin - come experience 45 hours of Tom Peters. FREE NoDoze, caffeinated drinks including coffe and Jolt Cola plus lots of physical interactivity! Cots will be supplied for nap time, scheduled every 5 hours (for 40 minutes - these minutes do not count against Tom's 45 hours of presentation). Bring your own brown bag(s). Coolers permitted. Eating will be permitted throughout the presentation so we can maintain our otherwise tight schedule. Registration promptly at 7:30am. The doors will be locked at 7:58am and the presentation starts promptly at 8am. Exiting is only permitted for medical or family emergencies!

Posted by Randy Cantrell at September 20, 2006 12:24 PM

Nice idea, Randy, but you're assuming none of us would want to ask questions, discuss, disagree, debate or generally sit quietly and just listen. It looks to me like the full set is a 7 day residential booking!

Posted by Mark JF at September 21, 2006 4:55 AM

Dear Tom:

First of all: Bravo for using simplicity.

Hopefully this will help you in your everyday work.

Second: Thank you for all the information you share with us. There is no obligation for you to do it, nevertheless you share.

Thank you and thank you for your time.

I really wish you great success every day.

With best regards

Juan Miguel Robles Vargas
General Manager
DEISA
Guadalajara, Mexico

Posted by Juan Miguel Robles at September 21, 2006 9:57 AM

Less is More

Posted by K.Sriram at September 21, 2006 9:09 PM

I haven't yet been able to attend a TP event, so I'm curious, Tom: Do you use all of the slide in one presentation? How long is your average event? And does the audience get any accompanying printed materials that coordinate with the powerpoint?

I admit, when I look at the file, I get overwhelmed, but then one doesn't read the OED in one sitting either.

Posted by GraceAnn at September 22, 2006 12:45 PM