... where ideas smile!

Infographics of Your Own Network

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Those who follow me on twitter or on this blog, you may have noticed by now how much I love infographics.  According to wikipedia, Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. In the past, I wrote about Analog and Digital data presentation and Beauty of Data visualization highlighting usefulness of infographics. More infographics examples. 

Today, in social media era, we all are connected to several people in many ways. Friends, professionals, family, experts, etc... Sometimes, just looking at the number (of connections), we feel proud or get bog down. But either way, how cool it would be to see all these connections visually, right?  Keep reading...

Whats the secret behind world's best presentations

 

What is common in SHIFT Happens, THIRST, Healthcare Napkin All, and SMOKE?

All these are winning presentations of "World's Best Presentation contest".

Millions of presentations* given everyday around the world and thousands are uploaded/floated on various websites. But a very few catch your attention and handful of them you remember forever. Why so? What makes presentation to stand out from crowd? What makes a presentation to resonate with you? 

Every year Slideshare, world's largest presentation community website hosts a "World's Best Presentation contest". Last month it announced winner for 2010. You can view the latest winners here and previous winners here, here, and here. Winners are chosen from the highest voted presentations and judged by the world renowned presenters and designers. What is so unique about the winning presentation? What is the secrete behind world's best presentation?

Since I create business and casual presentations quite often, and was curious to find answers to my questions, I studied all the previous winners. They all have a few things in common. Something that every presentation maker should know and can implement.

 

New year resolution - Move from Dusty Do list to Done list

Call it a  "New Year's resolution", "to-do-list", or whatever you wanna call it, its that time of the year when most of us start thinking.. "Oh my God! Another year elapsed.. I did nothing.. I better get serious now".. and you start putting together a list of things you want to do in next year. Other time of the year too, we keep making lists and the list of un-done things keeps growing. But especially, at this time of the year, the list is pretty exhaustive. Job change, travel and trips, financial betterment, education, shopping list, hobbies, connect with old friends, health improvement, self improvement, ... the list just goes on. Here is a list of top 10 new year resolution. 

Problem with such list is, many a times by looking at long To-Do list, you don't feel working on it. It makes you feel stressed, burned-out and get depressed day by day. Eventually, these long lists either goes into trash or sit there eating dust. As 37Signals founders have said in their book Rework, long lists don’t get done. I was victim of this. But in 2007, my wife and I figured out a better way of working on our to-do list and I would like to share what has largely worked for us in past 3 years. Make sure you read it to the end as I am going to give a bonus tip that works absolutely fantastic.

Know these 8 "studs" for building successful ideas - "brick-by-brick"

Did you know, with just six two-by-four LEGO bricks you can create more than 915 million combinations? or there are enough LEGO mini figures to wrap around the Earth at least 4 times, or that Lego bricks have been used in engineering and other technical fields to do real design and science. I came across these cool LEGO fun facts last week when my nearby Barns and Nobel (BN) store has re-arranged their Toys & Games section. For Sunday evenings, my favorite place is BN shop. While my son is enjoying in kids section, I get to browse newly published books or to revisit some of my favorite books.  BN store has created more open layout and has displayed several LEGO items. Creating, Imagining, learning, building and playing is more fun now. Who doesn't enjoy playing with LEGO? I ended up building one myself ;-) See picture. “Building your idea - brick-by-brick”. 

I know you are not reading this post to know my LEGO building adventures. So, whats common in building LEGO structures and building your idea or any idea? What can we learn from building LEGOs? As with any LEGO brick, its 'Studs and tubes' structure is the key, same is with any idea. If you get that right, you can build any idea - stronger, flexible, plug-able. To know 8 key "studs" of building successful ideas brick-by-brick, 

Creative beast asks the best question in the world

Oh, sure you have heard, for a great presentation you need great visuals, or 10-20-30 presentation rule, or top 10 slide tips. While these all are valuable tips, to get your message across, all you need a good message conveyed in simple yet convincing manner. If your message is not good enough, then rest all jwellary and beautyfication wont make any difference.  

I am an admirer and a great fan of Betsy Streeter, an artist who conveys her good messages in a simple yet convincing manner. There is no fancy stuff in her presentations but you just love it the way she conveys it. Few months back, I came across her presentation "Let out the creative Beast". With use of simple skicky notes, paper, and pen/pencil, Betsy asks you to awaken your sleeping creativity. I just fell in love with her work. 

 Check the "Let out the creative Beast" presentation below.

 

Let Out the Creative Beast

View more presentations from Betsy Streeter.

 

Now tell me, don't you agree with what I was saying? If you have a good message presented in a convincing manner, you just don't need any other fancy stuff.

Are you thinking you are not creative anymore? Are you saying your creativity has vanished? Are you feeling stuck up to bring out your ideas? Well, it happens with lot of us out there. So, you are not alone. Betsy shades some light on why it happens in her yet another wonderful presentation "The Best Question in the World". (PS: This is her entry for World's best presentation contest 2010 organized by SlideShare)

Just ask right question. Instead of saying "this is what will happen if...", simply ask "what would happen if...". Let your creative beast out by giving it a permission and encouragement. You will see miracles happening. Give it a try and share with us the story of your creative beast.

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