Seawater Foundation

Steve Jobs giving a presentation.

We have been reading the book “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience” by Carmine Gallo. The book breaks down how Steve Jobs presents to audiences. This list of the 9 Elements of a great presentation is part of the book.

Headline: The big idea, short and to the point, 140 characters or less.
Passion Statement: “I’m excited about this project because it _____.”
Three Key Messages: Decide on three main messages you want your audience to receive. Support those messages with additional points, but any more than three or four messages cannot usually be grasped in the short term memory.
Metaphors and Analogies: Using metaphors and analogies throughout a presentation allows an audience to quickly identify with a subject and can be highly persuasive.
Demonstrations: Bring the project to life, allow the audience to see, touch, experience the process.
Partners: Whether it’s an artist or an industry partner such as CEO’s or business leaders, it’s a good idea to share the partners who contribute to the success of a project.
Customer Evidence and Third-party Endorsements: Few customers want to be pioneers. especially when budgets are tight. Just as recruiters ask for references, customers want to hear success stories.
Video Clips: Including video clips in presentations helps you stand out. You can show ads, employee testimonials, scenes of the project or of people involved in the project, and even customer endorsements.
Flip Charts, Props, and Show-and-Tell: There are three types of learners: visual (majority), auditory (listeners), and kinesthetic (people who like to touch and feel). Finding ways to appeal to all of them is very important. Including some of these other methods of presenting instead of only slides allows for a deeper more successful presentation.

A Quote to Start.

“A person can have the greatest idea in the world—completely different and novel—but if that person can’t convince enough other people, it doesn’t matter.”

—Gregory Berns

A Perfect Match.

The perfect pair.

At the 2010 Design Summit hosted by Ringling College of Art and Design a partnership was born. Dr. Carl Hodges of The Seawater Foundation paired up with the creative minds of the Ringling College Design Center to start the process of bringing a new life and style to his presentations and materials.