There seems to be no end to the series of clever, resourceful applications targeting business presenters. No doubt their developers sense that many business presentations could do with a bit of spice, some more magic perhaps.

It’s questionable whether these applications will ever meet the targeted need for better presentations. Or whether the presenters themselves will ever rise to the occasion and create the rich content that’s promised in the press releases.

But their appeal is obvious. And we can only hope that their potential is realised to the full. The most recent offering comes from Toronto-based Zinc Roe with their presentation application, Doodlecast Pro.

Doodlecast Pro has some interesting origins. Such was the success of and reaction to Zinc Roe’s Doodlecast for Kids application that the designers developed a business-oriented product with all the creativity and originality of the original children’s product. Neat.

The iPad app’ can record your voice as you draw, resulting in original video content that has immediate applications for a business presentation or a training session. It’s capable of mashing together various content sources, importing, exporting and uploading. All the sorts of clever and innovative things you’d expect of an Apple app’, priced at $3.99 in the Apple store.

If you have an iPad, then you might be tempted to give it a try. Here’s to creative presentations.

The pause has crept into the blog again this week. Last time it was Herman Cain with an extended pause. This time it’s a very short, conversation-style pause.

Many will be familiar with the rapid fire presentation style of Steve Ballmer, the CEO at Microsoft. That style has much to commend it. But this week it managed to get him in a tight spot.

The Microsoft CEO had given a presentation at the Microsoft shareholders meeting when he was asked whether we were now in the post PC era.

It was his response that got bloggers and technophiles around the blogosphere really worked up. Or rather, it wasn’t his reply to the question, but the absence of a pause.

Well one thing I know is, we’re certainly not, we are in the Windows era. We were, we are and we always will be. That’s kinda what we get paid to do. We’ve got broad Windows initiatives driving Windows down to the phone. With Windows 8, you’ll see incredible new form factors powered by Windows from tablets, small, large, pens, smaller, bigger, room-sized displays.

Yes, one small pause would have made all the difference. A pause between phone and Windows 8. But it wasn’t there.

Listening to his reply you can get a feel for the torrent of words. Initiatives and developments, linked themes and ideas. They just pour out.

But, without a pause…at a critical moment…the meaning was lost. The best bet is perhaps to keep your answers short and precise on the right track and get your main message across.

But you have to acknowledge that he’s got the presentation style that many CEOs can still only aspire to.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is well known for his state of the art product launch presentations.

Typically these presentations involve Mr Jobs outlining his Apple plans with extensive multimedia support and a selection of colleagues.

So this presentation by Steve Jobs was a departure from his usual style. His presentation was to Cupertino City Council in California’s Silicon Valley. An area formerly occupied by Apricot orchards.

The presentation was also different in its content. Mr Jobs was presenting outlines of a new building planned to house the Apple employees on a new campus, on property recently bought from Hewlett Packard.

But differences apart, the delivery was pure Steve Jobs. From the opening monologue through to the use of multimedia and the questions answered.

His nonchalant presentation style hides the amount of work and input that goes into the presentation. Whilst his multimedia wasn’t as extensive as that used in previous Apple presentations he took the opportunity to use the standard Cupertino City Council presenting facilities…the same kit used by everyone else who has to make a planning outline. That was a good move.

And the apricot plan? Mr Jobs told the story of how he’d got his first job with Hewlett Packard on a site that had once been an apricot orchard. Now he’s got his hands on the same site he plans to restore much of the apricot orchard by way of landscaping the Apple campus. A neat use of a presentation story to tie in the environmental benefits of the Apple outline plan.

His presentation was clearly a big moment for the council. Apple is one of the largest employers in the municipality and, according to Mr Jobs, the biggest tax contributor! But Mr Jobs didn’t let the adoration get in the way of his presentation objectives. Nor did he allow some of the rather odd questions to throw him off-balance.

Whatever you might think about his presenting success, he remains the CEO of the company. Asked whether Apple would provide free WiFi to Cupertino City Council, he answered, no. And asked whether he would open an Apple shop in Cupertino City, he answered, no. Just not enough traffic to justify its presence.

A fine presentation from Mr Jobs whose CEO abilities were keenly on display as he took the questions from his audience.

Behind your average PowerPoint presentation is an average PowerPoint presenter full of the nervous energy and enthusiasm that comes from using a solid presenting tool. It’s a presenting tool that’s poorly used on occasions, but it’s still solid.

So whenever someone adds to the awkward paraphernalia of the average presenter I sense despair. Wireless keypads work. And so does the wireless mouse and pointer…albeit the pointer remains a bit jerky on a big screen. But so many other devices and gizmos just fail to meet the presentation needs of your average presenter.

The very latest gizmo doesn’t fill us with confidence. It’s a presentation clock, known as PresenterClock.

PresenterClock’s designers are Twyford-based IMS communications whose software products support the event management industry. So they know the challenges of event organisers, presenters and event organisers. That much is clear

PresenterClock might, just might, meet a need expressed by an event organiser to halt a presenter in their stride. A presenter whose time is up! That’s a task normally achieved with frantic arm waving at the back of the auditorium, buzzers or a board display.

PresenterClock might help an event organise to manage the time planning of a number of different tracks at an event. It certainly looks like it can send discreet timing messages to speakers as they actually present. That’s quite neat.

But the big claim for PresenterClock is:

PresenterClock enables speakers to see exactly where they are in their presentation, how long they have left and what the next slide will be. Because the software is an Add-in for PowerPoint, any notes for slides can also be displayed alongside the countdown clock, giving extra support and peace of mind.

The claim gets to the heart of the PowerPoint problem. Some presenters use PowerPoint as a crutch. Choosing to use PowerPoint with PresenterClock suggests that a speaker would be prepared to absolve all responsibility for their own practice and rehearsal. A speaker who needs PresenterClock to remind them of their position in their presentation needs a lot more help than this software product will provide.

President Obama’s speech that announced the death of the USA’s public enemy number 1, Osama Bin Laden, was a signal for the Pentagon’s press team to roll into action.

Their colleagues in Pakistan abseiled down ropes from an assault helicopter into Osama Bin Laden’s heavily fortified compound in Abbottabad. And in the Pentagon? The press team got to work with their PowerPoint slides.

The team reacted quickly to the hungry news demands from around the world. Instead of just a briefing we got a concise and informative PowerPoint presentation. The slides identified Pakistan, North West Pakistan, Abbottabad and then the compound itself. A simple sequence, indeed.

Of course your first scanning of a PowerPoint presentation, even one composed largely of maps and pictures, is fine. But then you get to asking questions.

And that’s the case with this PowerPoint presentation. It probably works best when there’s a Pentagon press team presenter presenting the grim details of the assault. But, on their own, PowerPoint slides just don’t convey that much real value. They lack narrative, beginning, and ending. You need a presenter.

The suspicion remains that this story will eventually be fully told and no doubt a PowerPoint presentation will help the Pentagon press team to answer all the unanswered questions.

Trial presentation services business Z-Axis has hired Trial Consultant, Scott Boulware, to work with their clients.

Beyond the job title, Scott has one heck of a presenting job ahead of him. His new employer provides law firms with the presentation expertise needed to win cases in court. And Scott’s new role?

There’s a clue in his background that includes a stint as a professional actor. He has a previous record in presenting detailed cases in court and has numerous family connections to international law firms.

His role will take in researching and preparing presentation strategies for his law clients. It will embrace the graphical and production elements of numerous presentations and, of course, preparing the legal team for the presentation task itself.

That preparation will take in rehearsal and practice with the lawyers…essentially honing the arguments and perfecting their delivery. That’s some task when the stakes can be very large indeed. As indeed they are. Previous Z-Axis presentation clients include Oracle, Eolas and the Department of Justice itself.

With such large stakes it’s no surprise that Z-Axis trial presentations have a solid record, over 28 years or so, for being absorbing and interesting for everyone in court. And that’s the key objective for any presentation.

The launch of the iPad 2 was the event that marked another return to active duty for Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs. His presentation was eagerly anticipated by an appreciative audience. And it was obvious that the man himself was also looking forward to it. He noted:

We’ve been working on this product for a while and I just didn’t want to miss today. Thank you for having me.

His presentation style, we were glad to see, appeared undimmed by his ongoing health needs.

He started his presentation with some key announcements. In fact they were announcements of huge success.

These led his presentation into a review of all Apple’s “post PC” products: the iPod, thePhone and the iPad.

His presentation graphics were as effective as ever with good use of stark lettering out of dark or black backgrounds. These graphic-led slides led into a superbly produced iPad video full of glossy applications, case studies and usage examples.

Did they serve a purpose in the presentation? Too right they did. All the video examples and case studies boosted our understanding of how the iPad is used. If one doubted their effectiveness or application breadth beforehand, you would have to acknowledge their presence after watching the video.

A rhetorical question led him into the next stage of his presentation:

2011: year of the copycats?

And In answer, his presentation then turned to the all new iPad 2 where he revealed its functionality with a series of bullet-less lists. His audience was left in no doubt…2011 is more likely to be the year of the iPad 2 than the copycat.  This was a point that he referred to again later with another rhetorical question. Job done.

In his presentation style Jobs is selective in his use of words. Yes, there’s some management speak, but it’s nothing like that of other corporate titans. His technology speak is also very limited. He’s not afraid to use words such as “magical” or “beautiful.” This marks him out as a management presenter.

There’s humour in his presentation. When it comes to the colour choices available for the iPad 2, we were treated to:

It comes in two colours. Black and white.

That got more than a good laugh.

He concluded this phase of the presentation with:

And that is iPad 2.

More videos then followed as the presentation included the accessories available with the iPad 2. In fact, the video for the cover accessory practically had his audience drooling.

At the half an hour stage of the presentation Jobs handed over the presenting task to a colleague who discussed the software side of the product…which he did superbly in only 8 minutes.

More videos and another speaker, Xander Soren, then supported Jobs with the remainder of this one hour long presentation. When Jobs referred to the iPad 2′s “seamless interweaving of technology and application” you somehow felt that this could be a reference to the iPad 2 presentation.

Could the presentation have got better? Well, it came in at the one hour mark, or thereabouts, and it ended with the Beatles belting out A Hard Day’s Night. Magical.

When you need to give a company results presentation you’ll spend plenty of time working through your material, planning your speech, editing and rehearsing.

It’s the editing that’s especially vital–giving you the chance to test words and phrases for their meaning. And their second meaning.

And that’s a familiar scenario for Alan Joyce the Chief Executive Officer of Qantas. Today, 17th February, he gave a presentation on the Qantas company results and the plan to buy more aircraft for the fleet.

For anyone who isn’t Dutch or German pronouncing Fokker could be a challenge. And that meant that his announcement of the purchase of 10 Fokker 100 airplanes would be a pronunciation challenge. He’s mindful of his pronunciation when presenting. Not least because of some unfair reporting of his Rolls Royce engine presentation last year.

But on this occasion he rose to the challenge as a presenter. Throughout his presentation he referred to the “F100” instead of the “Fokker 100“. The accompanying notes to his presentation spelled out the details.

Now, can anyone still recall the notorious story about WWII fighter ace Douglas Bader recounting his Fokker anecdote at the British girls school…?

Promoting your next presentation can be especially tricky. A good place to start is with a title.

When you’ve chosen a good title for your presentation it should suggest value, benefit and significance for your audience.

That’s a point that Dan Wandel might consider for his next presentation. He’s promoting a presentation for tomorrow (17th February 2011) and it’s titled:

2010 Year-End Review of Beer Category and Craft Segment

Dan’s a beer expert working for the SymphonyIRI Group, a market measurement business. He knows the beer sector and he knows the craft beer segment. His presentation’s title is bearable. We know that he’s going to review the performance of both the sector and the craft beer segment in 2010. But that could still be a very broad approach.

His audience is drawn from the Brewers Association attending an online, teleconference presentation series, PowerHour. With such an audience you’d expect this presentation to slip down well…notwithstanding the title.

In fairness his promotional material does try to go deeper. It suggests that his presentation will address these critical questions:

• What are the latest sales trends for the beer category through the end of 2010?
• How did the craft segment perform in 2010?
• Are there particular craft styles that stood out in 2010 from a sales perspective?
• What were the hot new beer brands in 2010?

So, if you get beyond the slightly dry title, your thirst might be whetted by these questions and the prospects of answers. Good.

But let’s not overlook the value an audience will gain from the title of your presentation.

If it’s not clear what fresh insight or understanding your audience will have once you’re done presenting then you might start off with an uninterested audience. That’s something you want to avoid. It’s not just froth, it’s the bitter fought taste of presenting success.

I can’t think of the last time that we featured a presentation from Grand Island, Nebraska. Come to think of it, when was the last time we featured a presentation from Nebraska?

But, that’s what we’re featuring today. It’s a presentation from Sergeant Jim Duering of the Grand Island Police Department. And it’s notable because of his use of props.

Sergeant Duering’s presentation audience comprised school personnel, mental health professionals, drug and alcohol counsellors, and other professionals working with young people.

His presentation, part of a program put on by the Central Nebraska Council on Alcoholism and Addictions, outlined gang behaviour, its characteristics and the policing of gangs.

He began his presentation by reciting a poem written by a female gang member. That poem, in turn, allowed him to introduce all the elements that go into someone’s decision to join an American gang–loneliness, isolation and detachment. These threads became the structural points of his presentation noting how to spot someone vulnerable to a gang’s membership.

He used the Nebraska legal definition of a gang to accommodate the range and breadth of gang membership, noting how the street gang stereotype is only one component of the gang culture.

And his props? There was a baseball bat seized from a gang member. He showed off a gang affiliation handkerchief (a blue knotted item) and a baseball cap featuring a gang’s 3-digit area code. This was good effective use of presentation props that he compounded with effective use of video to drive home his points.

This was an effective presentation to a knowledgeable audience, providing both information and understanding of the challenges of gang culture.