Hans Rosling is the Zen Master of presenting statistics. Hans proves what we all know, even if our teachers from yesteryear did not: Statistics are not boring. Statistics tell a story. Better yet, share it with others. Gapminder World Gapminder World is a web service that displays time series of development statistics for all countries (Google He's brilliant. Hans gave this talk at TEDIndia a couple of weeks ago. (I

Often presentations need to include statistics. When those statistics are about people, consider showing pictures of people instead of just quoting the text and numbers. It helps the audience connect with what the statistic means to them. Just a quick note to let you know that a new Slide Makeover Video Podcast based on the ideas in "The Visual Slide Revolution" is available for your viewing through the iTunes Store, online or through my YouTube channel. This slide was submitted by one of my consulting clients - someone just like you who is looking for a way to make their presentations

Give a "shocking statistic" I find the shocking statistic to be the most difficult to pull off effectively, because it's hard to come up with statistics that can really move your audience. People are jaded, and a statistic like, "One in six 10th graders smokes pot" will just make their eyes glaze over. Other statistics used in the TV and print campaign include, When we talk about strong openings for a presentation, we are usually referring to the following methods to get the audience emotionally or physically involved with your presentation right from the beginning: 1.

Climate change, health statistics, and energy use are pretty abstract concepts. Michael set out to do the research, and we started thinking about the best way to make a statistic “stick” with the audience. If you were watching the Twitter feed during the presentation, you would have seen the oil statistic repeated over and over again. Duarte had the distinct pleasure of working with bestselling author Michael Pollan to turn his ideas about sustainability and food systems into a visual presentation for the PopTech conference last month. Plan to eat your lunch

Deadpan expression, or keeping a straight face, is a good technique to couple with fake facts and statistics. Stating falsehoods as if they are absolutely true is another fun way to play with the audience during a public speaking engagement. However, you must make the statements obviously false by your words and your facial expressions. When you use this technique

When put to the test, most statistics about public speaking are a Before using a statistic in your speech, research the statistic yourself. There are a lot of myths disguised as statistics. Always put statistics in context. Every year, I challenge myself on my birthday by doing consecutive push-ups push-ups to match the birthday I’m celebrating.

statistical fact more graphically explicit The opening line in my new MOST favorite book is, “The response to a visual presentation will determine its value.” No, this is not a newfangled book on presentations written this year, it’s the book “Practical Charting Techniques” written in 1969 by Mary Eleanor Spear, the statistician of governments and Presidents. My good friend Glenn Hughes at Hues Works turned me on to this

Refer to a shocking statistic Tags: Content Attention-getting presentation Presentation opening quotes statistics storie I get frustrated at presentation advice which says you have to do something clever or dramatic at the beginning of a presentation to grab your audience’s attention. That’s for three reasons:

There’s no discussion of sample size or statistical significance. Wow. Some academics have written a paper about tweeting at conferences (thank you @tonyramos for tweeting about it). I’m more impressed that somebody would write such a paper, than by the paper itself. The paper reports

think most statistical research can be faulted in some way - and as Mark Twain said, " There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. " But what is the essence of the findings? There's been a lot of unfortunate controversy among communication professionals about Professor Albert Mehrabian's oft quoted research (below.) It's good to have discussion - his research has altered the communicating landscape to get people out of the 'curse of knowledge. '