Listen in as Nancy chats with Alex Osterwalder about his latest book, Business Model Generation. Alex offers insight on how to create and manage successful business models, and explains how his visual approach allows him to illustrate complex concepts clearly and beautifully.

I’m connecting some pretty broad dots here but even though he’s a billionaire, Reuters reported that Steve Ballmer made $100,000 dollars less last year than the previous one.

Interestingly, each of the next few Fridays, Distinction Services will be posting the results of their annual executive survey of the impact of presentations on an executive’s career. Their first post from last Friday stated 86.1% of executives said “communicating with a solid level of clarity and confidence directly impacts my career and income.” See? It impacts their income. Ballmer could have made more last year if he’d invested more in his presentation.

Thank you for the tremendous participation in our survey [ http://blog.duarte.com/2010/02/product-launches-should-be-a-big-deal/] about Ballmer’s Window’s 7 launch presentation. Results were as expected. It was lousy.

Here’s the results:

Did he have a researcher or writer to help with his speech?

How many hours did he spend on content for their biggest launch in 10 years?

How many hours did he spend rehearsing his delivery?

Did he say any headline-worthy or tweet-worthy soundbites?

Last year was our first year for making predictions: http://blog.duarte.com/2009/01/five-predictions-for-presentations-in-2009/. I’m late to the party again this year, but I feel pretty excited about what 2010 will bring.

In the year 2010…

1. Presentations and social media will blur.

Audience and presenters will have 2-way communication. It won’t just be about the audience twittering to the backchannel.

2. There’ll be another movie about a slide show.

Or, if there isn’t a movie about a slide show… there might be a movie about slides. Or a celebrity will use slides to create a tipping point for their cause. You know, like Oprah or someone. Just sayin’.

3. Face-to-face engagement will trump mouse-to-mouse engagement.

People are human, and desire human connections. The ones who make people feel are the ones who will be heard. Logical arguments and web traffic aren’t enough anymore.

4. Remote presentation vendors will solve their technical limitations.

Gads, could it get any worse? It’s only up from here. Meaningful best practices for presenting in this medium will to emerge, too. ‘Cause it’s bad. Real bad.

And last but not least:

5. There’ll be a more broad understanding of how design thinking shapes business.

The picture below speaks for itself (that’s a real Facebook exchange with an old classmate from Hattiesburg, MS–the home of Tiger Wood’s recovery program).

Enjoy 2010, everybody!

Last year around this time, Seth Godin told everyone not to go to business school. He encouraged everyone to forgo the two-year commitment (and exorbitant fees) and apply to spend six months as an intern in his Alternative MBA Program, learning from him and gaining real-life experience instead.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t accept everyone. That’s how the Alt-MBA was born.

What is the Alt-MBA?

The Alt-MBA program is a group of motivated and connected learners, leapers and agents of change who want to build better brains with other like-minded people from around the world. The group was originally inspired by the Alternative MBA program created by Seth Godin in December 2008.

A handful of applicants that were not selected to work with him in New York decided to launch their own version of the program. Two of the founding members put the idea out to the pool of unaccepted applicants on December 15th and since that time the group has grown to 100+ members (including Seth Godin).

Paul Pettengill is the founder of the Alt-MBA. He’s also a really nice guy. And aside from being a really nice guy, Paul is an excellent interviewer. We were lucky enough to have him come visit our office and talk to Nancy Duarte. (We were even lucky enough to have him come twice, but you’ll hear about that in the interview.)

Paul and Nancy talked about presentation design, business, family, and family business.
Listen in on their conversation here.

Let’s arrange a meet up.  How about inside PowerPoint?

Yep, it’s true.  Microsoft wanted those who use PowerPoint to have on-hand access to world-class presentation training within their software (yay!) and asked us if we would mind sharing some of our tips in the next release of their presentation software, Microsoft PowerPoint 2010.

We have had to keep our excitement under wraps during the development of the project, but now that Microsoft has released the public beta of its Office 2010 suite, we can let you know about it!

Embedded within PowerPoint 2010 you will find Duarte’s Five Rules for Creating World-Changing Presentations, a fun, informative guide to help you create effective presentations.   And that’s not all.  They even let us take the software for a spin around the block while we were developing the piece so we got to use the new features of PowerPoint 2010 to make it.  Very fun.  Needless to say, we are eager to share the Five Rules with you.

So, how can you get it?  First, you need to download the Microsoft Office 2010 Public Beta.

Next, open PowerPoint 2010 and navigate to the File button in the upper left-hand corner.  Click on that button and select New.  In the Available Templates and Themes window, click on Sample Templates.  You should see a choice called Five Rules.  That’s us!  Either select it and click the Create button on the right or simply double click on the image.  It will open up a PowerPoint template that contains our story.  Launch it in slide show mode, sit back, and enjoy the show.  Then, when you are done, feel free to use the template for your next presentation, or deconstruct our graphics and animations to see how we used the tools to achieve the results you see.

We will be deconstructing various segments from the animation and sharing that with you here on our blog, so check back here for some inside looks into the next version of PowerPoint.  Until then, see you in PowerPoint!

Nancy recently hosted a free webcast for Safari Books Online.
In case you missed it, or you want to watch it again, the recording is up, and available for viewing!

Featuring: Nancy Duarte
Recording Date: Thursday, Octber 8, 2009
Recording Time: 10:00am PDT/1:00pm EDT
Duration: 60 min

Description: Presentation software requires professionals to think visually on an almost daily basis. But unlike verbal skills, effective visual expression is not easy, natural, or actively taught in schools or business training programs. slide:ology offers practical approaches that combine conceptual thinking and inspirational design, with insightful case studies from the world’s leading brands.

Attend this 60-minute webcast with Nancy Duarte, principle of Duarte Design, the firm that created the presentation for Al Gore’s Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth.

Peggy Noonan was the speechwriter for President Reagan and in her book On Speaking Well she recounted a story of when she wrote a speech for a renown CEO of a F500 company. She was excited to try her skills in the business world. She met with him a few times, collected stories, views of public policy and she thought he was impressed with the sophistication of his views and thought he’d be great to work with. One of the tricks about being a great speech writer is that your final script embody the presenter and it represents their viewpoints and voice well. She worked for two weeks finessing the stories and script and when she was done, she liked it a lot.

She sent him the script and heard nothing. Then, she heard through the grapevine that he wasn’t happy because the speech didn’t seem original or have enough flash. That it was like something he’d heard before. Then she realized that he had heard it all before, they were his stories. She realized that he didn’t want to sound like himself, but wanted to be reinvented. She assumed he wanted to be him and if she’d known he wanted to be reinvented, she wouldn’t have agreed to work with him. She realized that business people want to break through and make an impression when they speak, but they don’t want too be too colorful and draw unwanted attention. Business is not inherently dramatic or fascinating but he wanted to be someone he wasn’t.

Noonan says that politicians want to look good so they can get things done whereas a business person wants to get things done so they look good. Politicians have to look good so they get reelected. A senator that appears incompetent or dim will not want to associate with a known dunce. CEOs, on the other hand, are results oriented. They have to keep the stock up, create great product and if they succeed, they will look good which brings in more money and jobs.

So, for political speechwriters it means that you have to devote time to keeping an eye on the press and corporate speech writers need an undeviating eye on the boss’s agenda and make sure the speech advances it.

What she learned is that if CEOs want to be themselves you can work with them, if they want to be someone else, you can try to talk them out of it. But you both should know going in.

The world is full of visionary minds, whose ideas are lost simply because they lack the resources to foster their growth. Each year, PopTech selects a group of these individuals, and supplies them with not only access to a supportive network of peers with whom they can collaborate, but the technology and training they need to amplify their message.

“Like PopTech itself, each Social Innovation Fellow is committed to turning great ideas into action. The program will give them the skills, network and exposure to accelerate their impact.”

–Andrew Zolli, futurist, curator and executive director of PopTech

PopTech recently announced the Social Innovation Fellows of 2009. This year, just as in years past, the group is made up of an extremely bright, forward-thinking group who are seeking to change the world from the ground up–literally.

For example, Jason Aramburu, of re:char, is working to to fight climate change, while improving the quality of our degraded soil. And Nigel Waller of movirtu, has discovered a way to offer low cost access to cell phone service to residents of impoverished countries, which enables them to establish micro-enterprises, access healthcare, and better support their families and themselves.

Aside from the prestigious title, this lucky group participates in an intensive training program, taught by experts in skills that are critical to success, including branding, media relations, finance, and design.

This year, the program will be led by iconoclastic social innovators and world-class category leaders, including James L. Koch (founding director of the Center for Science, Technology and Society, director of the Global Social Benefit incubator), Robert Fabricant (executive creative director of Frog Design), and Nancy Duarte (principal of Duarte Design), among others.

During the multi-day program, Nancy Duarte will help the Fellows transform their ideas into stories that resonate with audiences and inspire action. Also, Nancy will teach them to adapt content for utilization across valuable social media platforms, such as slideshare.

Armed with their new skills, Fellows are given the opportunity to present their ideas at PopTech’s famous annual conference. The theme of this year’s conference is America Reimagined, and the ideas the Fellows are presenting fit in perfectly with this solution-oriented theme. In addition to the two I highlighted above, the topics include wildlife conservation, agriculture, global healthcare, and economic development, among others.

In addition to the Fellows,  the conference will feature many revolutionary speakers, including Michael Pollan, Alec Ross, and George Church.

It is extremely exciting to have the chance to offer training to some of the world’s newest visionaries, and help them increase the impact of their innovative ideas. We’ll keep you posted on our involvement the conference, and hopefully have lots of great news to share come October.

Have you seen this week’s Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal? If so, you may have seen the Business Profile on Duarte Design! Exciting.

You can find a sneak preview of the article online, but to see the rest, you’ll need to subscribe, or go pick up an old fashioned paper copy.

If you do happen to get one of those paper copies, you can find the article in the Small Business Strategies section, on Page 15.

(And in case you’re wondering, Nancy is posing in front of our Weekly Whiteboard, where we pose questions and have (often very silly) discussions. Last week’s whiteboard was dedicated to our President, Dan Post. If you’ve met him, it’s easy to understand the Chuck Norris comparison. He’s a great guy, but watch out, ’cause he’s got a mean roundhouse kick!)

Have you ever done a presentation for a product you didn’t believe in? How ’bout for a product that doesn’t even exist? In the most recent episode of Better Off Ted, the characters give an AWESOME presentation for a product that promises to “redefine business at the speed of information!” Too bad it doesn’t actually exist. Yet. The lighting scheme is great, though. And the dance moves can’t be beat.

Here are a few insights for Ted and Veronica, that you may find helpful, too:

1. You need a product AND a presentation.
   Although the dot commers got away with this back in the day… you really do need to have something to offer. Your product, or your call to action, or your key message is the crux of the whole operation–it’s why you’re presenting in the first place! Take a step back and make sure you’ve got something to say.
2. Don’t be cheetah… slooow dooown and take time to create your presentation.
   Cheetahs may be fast (and powerful,) but have you ever seen one give an effective presentation? My guess is no. Creating a presentation isn’t a race! You need time to organize your thoughts, plan your message, and select your visuals. Which brings me to my next point…
3. Don’t be another cheetah… pay for your images.
   Cheetahs never win. At least not when it comes to swiping images from the web. Take the time to search for images, and spend a little money on them. There are great stock photography sites, where you can find photos for just a few bucks. And if that’s too much, check out flickr’s Creative Commons–the photos are beautiful and FREE*. Photography will (almost) always make your presentation more interesting, but the right photography will make it more impactful.
4. Spend as much time practicing your presentation as you do your dance moves.
   Just like dance moves, presentations need rehearsal. Think of a high-stakes presentation as a recital. You’re on stage, everyone’s watching, and you need to show ‘em what you’ve got. Practice, practice, practice.
5. Content is key.
   Buzz words are like cotton candy. Tastes great, but it disappears before you know it… leaving nothing but sticky fingers and a sugar buzz. Give your audience content, not cotton candy.
6. Don’t be afraid to be a little vainglorious!
   Don’t just give ‘em the facts, give ‘em a show! Entertain your audience while you inform them. It’ll make your message as powerful as a cheetah. (This one, they got right.)
7. Use pyrotechnics whenever you can.
   I mean, c’mon… they’re awesome.

Oh yes, and one more…

Bonus: A whale is a mammal, not a fish.
That’s just a good thing to know.

*Attribution is required, and permission depends on where said photo will be used. But still, FREE!