PRESENT TO SUCCEED LESSONS LEARNED
Set Up for Success in the Presentation Industry with Echo Swinford & Sandra Johnson
PRESENT TO SUCCEED LESSONS LEARNED
Set Up for Success in the Presentation Industry with Echo Swinford & Sandra Johnson
In our Present to Succeed Lessons Learned series, we include all the fascinating, valuable, and wow moments from the sessions of our debut 2021 conference. We aim to share with you the best takeaways and help you improve your presentation craft every day.
Since 2000, Echo Swinford has been a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP, specializing in the creation of custom templates. Sandra Johnson has been a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP since 2008, and she works with individuals across the world to ensure that they are using PowerPoint responsibly. Echo is The Presentation Guild‘s founding president, while Sandra is a co-founder. Sandra also co-hosts the podcast called The Presentation Podcast.
Sandra and Echo’s session is intended for those looking for professional development to help them succeed in their corporate jobs or their presentation design businesses. They’ve both worked in the field for a long time and have given their knowledge and resources to assist you in achieving your goals and finding opportunities in the presentation industry.
Anyone trying to develop their presentation skills professionally will find their session quite beneficial.
The Presentation Guild
Echo and Sandra presented the Presentation Guild, with our founder, Boris, as a facilitator, and discussed how much the presentation industry has progressed in the last ten years, as well as how many resources are now available for anyone to explore and consume. There is a wealth of information about storytelling, data visualization, and other topics related to the presentation industry available online; all you have to do is search for them.
Then they told the story behind the presentation event of the guild, the Presentation Summit, and how it was created way back in 2003. It was born out of the need to get the latest professional information that at the time wasn’t widely available. The Presentation Guild today strives to be a place where anyone from our industry can find the most up-to-date information on technology and trends, and most importantly, network with others in the field.
Sandra and Echo were very friendly and led an open discussion which gave a great look inside the presentation industry because of their vast experience.
Some presentation knowledge resources that Echo and Sandra love
For podcasts, Echo and Sandra mentioned The Presentation Podcast, of which Sandra is the co-host, where you can learn about anything from running a presentation studio to design tools and the best practices. Other podcasts to check include our podcast called The World of Presentations and the Presentation Boss Podcast, which is co-hosted by Kate Norris and Thomas Krafft. Another podcast that they deemed worth checking out is Storytelling with Data by Cole Nussbaumer.
Sandra and Echo also recommended a few books to help you get started with your presentation knowledge and skills, including Cliff Atkinson’s “Beyond Bullet Points,” Nancy Duarte’s “slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations,” Joan Lambert’s “Step by Step” Microsoft series, and many others.
Finally, they shared some of their best presentation tools, such as the website PPTools, which can help you be more efficient from slide to slide. And then the BrightSlide add-in created by our friends at BrightCarbon (who led a great practical design session at the conference), which can help anyone speed up their presentation creation workflow.
Let's summarize
As real veterans in the presentation industry, Sandra Johnson, and Echo Swinford provided our audience with unique insights. They got a look into how the Presentation Guild came to be and why it is still so important for anybody in the field today. The talk then moved on to guide the audience to some useful resources for learning how to create or design better presentations, such as podcasts, books, and tools that you might have missed but are in desperate need of.
Overall, the discussion with Echo and Sandra was a pleasant exchange of ideas and advice on all things relating to the presentation industry and the Presentation Guild.
Let us know in the comments what the most useful piece of knowledge for you from Echo Swinford and Sandra Johnson’s session!
Echo and Sandra’s session is part of our Tools track recordings that you can now get for only €39. And for €79, you can have all the 30+ sessions from Present to Succeed 2021.
Join Present to Succeed - the biggest presentation skills conference in the world
Whether you are part of an organization or running a business, how your slides look will always factor in your success. Learn how to become an influential speaker by joining our 30+ industry-leading speakers’ sessions.
Start engaging your audience better and influencing them to embrace your concepts, hire you, or buy your products. Now is the best moment to get your ticket!
Join Present to Succeed - the biggest presentation skills conference in the world
Whether you are part of an organization or running a business, how your slides look will always factor in your success. Learn how to become an influential speaker by joining our 30+ industry-leading speakers’ sessions.
Start engaging your audience better and influencing them to embrace your concepts, hire you, or buy your products. Now is the best moment to get your ticket!
