A good reminder

Photo by kkimpel

I have been working on a very complicated presentation that I am planning to give to my AGSM MBA cohort. I already put many hours in preparing it and thinking about it and I felt I had it almost fully prepared. But, I felt something was missing. So, I posted on my blog (not this, the other one), and asked my readers for some help.

I was astounded by the amount of response I got (as comments on the post, to my e-mail and in Facebook). But one of the responses really took me off guard. A good friend of mine wrote that the most important thing I should do is tell a personal story. So simple, so true.

I thought to myself – how come I haven’t thought about it? I read blogs about presentations all the time. They talk about the importance of stories constantly. I help people with presentations.  This would probably have been my first advice to anyone. But I didn’t think about it.

Three conclusions from this story:

1. It is always a good idea to try and learn. Even if you think you know everything already. Even if you are the expert. Sometimes you just need the reminder. Sometime it something that is so clear and obvious to you, that you just forget about it.
2. The power of social networks, even one as small as mine, should not be ignored. It is so easy to ask for help today, we just don’t use it enough. Use it. Throw a cry for help out there. Let’s see what happens.
3. If you are going to prepare a presentation, no matter in what forum and on what subject, putting a personal story is a good idea. If you have no personal story, just use a story.

Elad

Surprise with your presentation, even using technology

 

Umair Haque at BRITE ‘09 conference from BRITE Conference on Vimeo.

I was watching this lecture by Umair Haque from the Brite Conference. It is a very interesting lecture where Haque claims that the creativity of the past is not good enough for the new economy and the new world. This is the second time this week I see an attack on the notion of creativity as we know it (link in Hebrew). I will not attempt to explain what Haque is saying because I am not sure I totally understand it (I really liked some of the examples and really disagree with some others). I will let you see and decide for yourselves. What I want to talk about is the way Haque gives his presentation.

Haque is not a very articulative presenter. The flow of the speech is not consistent. He does not capture the audience with good use of voice, movement or structure. But, one thing stood out -the visual aid he is using. Haque is not using regular PowerPoint presentation slides. Instead, he is using some kind of big flash or java sheet that allows him to “sail” (there is no other word I can think of to describe it) between the different points, magnifying on one point for a second and then moving to another. I never seen anything like it used in a presentation. The constant movement across this sheet, which represents linkage of different ideas, creates not only great repetition of the main ideas but a great sense of understanding of the connections between them.

This got me thinking. My training in presentations comes from the education background. I learned how to speak, present and structure according to the frameworks of education. I find myself struggling many times adapting this “bias” I have when I tried giving different kinds of presentations. When you teach, a lot of your concentration should go to structure and keeping consistency. You don’t use differences and surprises a lot, only when trying to make certain points. In other types of presentations, especially one time presentations, being different, surprising and inconsistent is a great and important tool that should be used throughout the presentation.

Haque’s presentation captivated me even though his regular public speaking skills were not remarkable. Because he used a new and different technological tool. That takes courage, but that also made him special, and made me pay attention closely. This shows that you don’t have to be a great speaker. You can use technology smartly in order to amplify your message. I hope to see more and more new tools that will allow us to create new visual aids that help improve our presentations.

Elad

Iconoclast

Photo by Ilan Sharif

I just finished reading a very interesting book called “Iconoclast” (read more about the term iconoclasm), by Gregory Berns. The book describes what is unique about people who do things that others say can’t be done. By using case studies of remarkable people from all fields of society, sports to business, science and space flight  to human rights, and combining it with new research about the way the brain works, Berns makes a compelling argument about what makes these people so unique. This basic theory is that iconoclast can be distinguished by three traits: a perceptual system that allows him to see differently from other people, the ability to conquer fear of the unknown and social intelligence to sell ideas to other people.

As usual, a few thought about this book:

1. I think tis books amplifies two messages I deal a lot with here in this blog. The first one is the importance of the comparative advantage and use of the uniqueness of strengths. As it turns out, even those people who have one of the traits of an iconoclast don’t hold all three of them. This means, that they need to corporate. They need to find someone who can complete what they lack in order to do things that can’t be done. This means that one of the most important things you can do is concentrate on your strengths and find someone else to take care of your weaknesses.

2. The second one is the importance of leadership. I already mentioned that I strongly believe that the most important role of a leader is, as Markus Buckingham describes it, to create a clear picture of the future. Because most people are afraid of the future and afraid of the unknown. The people who succussed in doing things that other thought were impossible, were not deterred by the uncertainty the future holds. They managed to overcome their fear. As a leader, your role is to help people do just that. To complete the picture, check out item number one. Maybe your ability to as a leader to make the future less frightening will be just what others need in order to bring their iconoclast ability of perception to reality.

3. One of the biggest problems iconoclast face is the ability to persuade others of their ideas. We all know this. Great inventions and discoveries take a long time to come about, many times because the guy who thought about them just has to wait for the entire current community to die or leave. In the book, Berns says that an iconoclast has two options. Either try to persuade the early adopters, which means you have to find the right way to reach them, or make your idea more compatible with present ideas. This is a known trick in presentations – if you are having a hard time explaining something new, use something old. If any of you ever saw the TV show “Numbers” you recognize the great use of everyday concepts to explain complicated mathematical ideas. This is just the same. It is what the authors of “Made to stick” call: the curse of knowledge. Your own knowledge does not allow you to see how other people who don’t know what you know think. When you are presenting something, think what your audience already knows and use that concept to explain yours.

4. Finally, reading about so many people who took the current reality and just smashed it, is inspiring. These people disregarded what everybody said and changed most of our lives. Each and every one of you can do that every day. It is simple. Just like Tim Berners Lee says in his TED talk: it is time for you to become the sort of person who just does things which will be good if everybody else did them.

5. Even if you don’t do anything ground breaking, the ride a good enough reason.

Elad

You don’t have to be theatrical to make a point

Every time I download a talk from www.ted.com I say to myself: “I bet this one will not inspire me or just blow me away”. And almost every time, I am wrong. My expectations keep becoming higher and higher, and still, I am not disappointed. This talk by Juan Enriquez is one of the best I have seen in TED, and that, as you know very well, is a very hard title to claim.

I will let you enjoy the talk as it is, because I am afraid that discussing it, might belittle it. I do, however, want to take the less obvious path and try to learn something about presentation skills from this talk.

A few weeks ago I wrote here that there is no “one right way” to give a presentation. Enriquez, in this talk, violates many of the most important rules of presentations. He is monotonic, he does not use his voice to confer his message and generally he transmits a feeling of boredom. His closing is lacking, both in rigour and in connection to the beginning of the speech. And still, I think his point is well taken. Which means, that you don’t have to magnificently control all the skills of “public speaking” in order to give a great presentation.

So what makes his talk so great? You would not believe it. The PowerPoint presentation. I know. We are used to the concept of “Death by PowerPoint” and when we imagine PowerPoint presentations we think of boring bullet lists and presenters who insist on reading to us what is written on the slide.

And then you look at talks like this and you understand the intensity and vigour that the right use of PowerPoint can instil into our presentations.

A few pointers:

• 1. Notice that Enriquez uses words scarcely in his slides. Slides are not there to be an outline of the lecture. They are supposed to amplify the speaker’s message. Especially note the fact that many times, he shows words in the slide, but does not read them at all. The audience can read. Don’t insult them by reading to them.
• 2. Use of pictures. Enriquez uses pictures that carry a message. Pictures that surprise. Picture that magnify the message. Many times they are funny (which is always a good thing), but they are always relevant.
• 3. Number of slides. I know that there are some experts who talk about the number of slides you need to put in a presentation or limit it in time. I personally don’t believe there is a right or wrong number or time (although I like the ted 20 minutes limit). In Enriquez talk we see a lot of slides that accompany the entire presentation and make each point more understandable. I think this keeps the crowd alert and uses both side of their brains. On the other hand, because there a lot of slides, we get one message per slide, thus, it is not to overwhelming or includes too much information to be absorbed.

A lot to learn!

 Elad

Practical implications of the “Paradox of Choice”

Photo by Harry Brignull

A few weeks ago I wrote about Barry Schwartz’s inspiring talk about practical wisdom. After I relaxed from that amazing talk, I searched for more of his talks on TED and yesterday I saw his talk at TED from 2005. I actually saw it twice, because the first time I saw it I was enthralled to the screen. In his talk, he describes his book “The Paradox of Choice“.

This lecture is so interesting that I decided to recap it here in this post, and add my comments to the summary (in italics).

Schwartz’s theory attacks the official dogma of western industrial societies. In a nut shell, this is the dogma: Citizens welfare is maximized by maximizing individual freedom. Why? Because freedom in itself is valuable and worthwhile and because this gives people the chance to act of their own and maximize their welfare in the best way they can. They know better than some central government how to maximize their welfare. How do we do maximize personal freedom? By creating more choices. The assumption is that more choices lead to more freedom.

So basically the dogma is more choices create more freedom and more freedom maximizes welfare.

Schwartz’s actually tries to attack the casualty of the assumption. He says that there is no argument that more choice leads to more welfare, but what we usually ignore is that fact that too much choices can lead to less welfare.

And the problem of western societies today is that people have too much choice. If you go to the supermarket you can buy thousands of brands or types of salad dressing. If you buy a phone you can chose from thousands of cellphones. When you go to the doctor he gives you a choice on what medical procedure to take and explains to you the advantages and disadvantages of every choice. Theoretically, it is patient autonomy. But practically, it shifts the burden of choice to the citizen, who is usually less equipped to make that choice. We can work from everywhere with the latest technology. This means that we must decide each and every moment (must make a choice) whether we want to work or not.

Schwartz’s claims that the abundance of choices has two negative effects on people:

1. It produces paralysis rather than libration. When there are too many choices, people find it difficult to choose at all.
 This is a revelation that has implication in the marketing setting. I suggest you read chapter five of the book “Yes!“. The chapter is called “When does offering people more makes them want less”. Two examples from that episode:

1.  
   1. A research showed that the more mutual funds employers offered their employees, the rate of participation decreased (for every additional 10 mutual offered, participation went down 2%).
   2. When “Head & Shoulders” reduced the number of shampoo choices from 26 to 10 they had an increase of 10% in total sales

People usually think that giving more options is a better marketing strategy. It actually isn’t. Too many choices create paralyses. People look for simple choices.

2. Decrease of satisfaction. Even if we overcome the paralysis and make the choice, we end up less satisfied than if we had fewer options to choose from. Why?:

1. Regret and anticipated regret – If you have a lot of choices and you buy one, it is easy to imagine that there is another choice that will make you better. This subtracts from your satisfaction. The more options you have, the easier it is to imagine that you made the wrong choice.
2. Opportunity costs – you lose more features from more choices. Opportunity costs subtracts from the satisfaction we derive from our choice even if our choice was great. The more choices there are the more features we are losing. When you are choosing to do one thing you are choosing not do other things. The more other options you have the more, psychologically, you lose.
3. Escalation of expectations – we have so much choice and a lot of times we end up with the best choice, but we feel worst. Why? With all the choices we have, our expectations about how good our final choice should be goes up. When there is only one kind or one choice – you don’t have a lot of expectations. But if there are a hundred choices, one of them should be perfect! This produces less satisfaction with results even when they are good results. What this point means is that we cannot be truly pleasantly surprised anymore. Today, the best you can hope for is that stuff will be the best as you expect it to be. The secret to happiness is low expectations.
   This reminds me of Seth Godin’s book - “Purple Cow“. If you want a product or service to succeed you have to make it remarkable. You have to surprise people. You have to beat their expectations. Good enough is just not good enough. You have to be great or special (at least at something). Going for the average is the worst thing you can do.
   Surprise is also one of the key characteristics of sticky presentations (and thus, sticky brands) according to the book: “Made to stick“. Today, marketing and good presentations are all about exceeding expectations and surprising.
4. Self-blame - When you have limited choice and something goes wrong. You are not responsible – the world is responsible. What could you do? But, it there is an abundance of choice -when you are disappointed – you are to blame – you made the wrong choice. When people make decisions, the results are good, but they are dissatisfied, so they blame themselves.
   I think this is one reason you have to try not to regret your choices. You cannot affect what happened in the past. This is what is called the sunk-cost bias. People put too much emphasis on the past in their choices when they should be looking to the future.

The conclusion from all of this is that the dogma is wrong. Some increase in the amount of choice does create more welfare, but adding to much choice, actually decreases welfare.

In the last week I have been studying in economics (again) the law of diminishing marginal returns. I am surprised to see in many facets of life it pertains.  Just this last week I wrote about it twice (1, 2). This is the third time. Because Schwartz’s conclusion is basically an implementation of that rule the world of choice.

And just to recap, watch this video – everything is amazing and nobody is happy for a more, let’s say, informal way to introduce the same idea!

Elad

Is there one effective way to give a presentation?

photo by AliceNWondrlnd

Are we presenting or acting?

Most of last week I attended a presentation skill workshop led by Australian actor Gerry Sont. As it was led by an actor, it consternated on the theatrical aspects of presentation skills, although it was a business presentation skill workshop. In addition, a few days before that I attended a class that touched the subject of PowerPoint presentations and their effectiveness from a neurological point of view. Generally, the point of the lecture was, don’t use PowerPoint – it is boring and does not work well with the human brain.

Is there (one) effective way?

Dealing and thinking about presentations and the best way to give them reminded of a truth I forget easily. There is no right way to give a presentation. There is no single formula that can make a presentation more effective. As a former trainer and coach of presentation skills, I used to teach what is the “right” or “effective” way to present. What I discovered after a few years and what I was reminded off in the last week it that there is no such thing. There are only tools that should to be used in order to make specific presentations more effective.

Presentations are not an exact science. If you take a ball and drop it to the ground it will fall at the same speed every time and if you change the setting, you can explain and predict how the fall will change. In presentations, as in a lot of subjects in the social sciences, there are no complete bullet proof answers.

Remember the differences

Now, I am not saying that there aren’t good tips a presentation coach or trainer can give. There certainly are. And you can see people becoming more effective just by applying a few skills properly. What I am saying, Is that it is wrong to try to create one formula that will always create an effective presentation. The reason for that is something that we are used to disregarding in our professional life. People are different and unique.

The people who are listening to you are different

This general truth about people being different affects both side of the equation. Both the presenter and the audience are affected. First, the more common difference that people usually are aware off – the audience. We have to remember that people are wired differently. Some have dominant right brains some have dominant left.  Some are reflectors, some are theorists and some are pragmatists. Some get bored easily; some are able to concentrate for a long time. Some are more affected by reason (because of their profession or natural tendency) some are more affected by emotion. And as a presenter you have to take all of that into account. And taking that into account means using different methods for different people. It also means that a given presentation style could be very effective in one instance and totally wrong in another.

This should also true for the kind of presentation you are giving. If you are doing a sale pitch, you should not be using the same style is if you are teaching. Boardroom talks are not the same as a university class. It is a matter of people expectations. If you walk into a boardroom meeting and use a theatrical style of presentations, which might work very well in a classroom, people would look at you in a weird way. Not that surprises or breaking people expectations is bad. Vice versa. it is an important presentation tool, it is just that it could be as ineffective as it could be effective if not used correctly and in the right setting.

You are different than other presenters

In addition, you have to take into account the difference in presenters. Some can articulate ideas more naturally. Some have a talent to improvise while others need to prepare for a long time before each presentation. There are people who feel comfortable with an acting style of presentations while others just feel fake doing that. What this means is that a presentation style should also fit the presenter style and preference.

Your toolbox should contain more than a hammer

So I don’t believe there is one effective way to give presentations. There is no right or wrong use of power point. It depends on so many factors that we are just not able to give a straight answer. But, that does not mean we can’t do anything or can’t learn (or teach) anything. Because there are so many variables it is important to develop a lot of different tools. After all, as Abraham Maslow said:

“When your only tool is a hammer every problem looks like a nail“.

 The more tools, skills and styles will have, the more we will be able to communicate and present effectively. This is true for acting styles and of different ways to use PowerPoint. The hard part is, of course, to try to match a style to both the audience and the presenter.

Elad

can you learn how to presude?

Photo by Neuibe

A few days ago I finished reading “The 7 triggers to yes – the new science behind influencing people’s decisions” by Russell H. Granger  (you can check out the book’s site here). In the last few weeks, I hit the jackpot with all the books I read and recommended them here on this blog. Unfortunately, with this book, I can’t do that. Well, it is not that it is a bad book. I just think it will be helpful to specific people.  I guess this needs a little pit of explaining…

I bought this book because its title and description led me to believe that I will learn a lot about the science behind people’s decisions. Lately, I have been reading some fascinating books about this subject (like the amazing “YES!” and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman’s book (with co-authors) “Rationality, Fairness, Happiness”) and I wanted to know more about it. What I discovered, is that the book doesn’t actually describe the science behind people’s decisions. It only explains that there is science. If you compare this book to “YES!” which actually describes many of the experiments behind the rules for persuasion, than you discover that this book only promises explanations, but does not supply them.

Like previous books I wrote about here, this book tries to break the conventional wisdom that great arguments persuade.  To put it in general terms the book main thesis is that most of time, most of the people, don’t make decisions which are based on their intellect but make decisions based on their emotions, and then, justify them with their intellect. So, if you want to persuade, you need to use people’s emotions and not apply to their logic. The main idea in the books id derived from a statement by Dr. Richard Restak, Neuropsychologist and author of “The Secret Life of the Brain“, saying: “We are not thinking machines – we are feeling machines that think“.  The book claims, that by understanding this concept (which is based on brain research which is described shortly) and by using 7 triggers (Friendship, Authority, Consistency, Reciprocity, Contrast, Reason Why and Hope), you can become a master persuader.

The reason I cannot recommended this book to everybody is that it tries to convince the reader that anybody can be a master persuader by following the process described in the book using the 7 triggers. I was not persuaded. I just don’t believe that everybody can learn to excel at anything. I believe, like Marcus Buckingham claims in his book, “First, breaking all the rules” that people are different and there is a limit to what they can learn. I expected that a book based on brain research will take into account the fact that each of us develop mental pathways (that can actually be seen of on our brains) that create recurring behaviours. These behaviours are our talents or our strengths.  This means, that even if I used all the process described in the book, I will never be a master persuader.  This is due to the fact that I just don’t have the inherent ability to use these processes, because this ability requires a talent to communicate with people, to learn about them and then use this knowledge a talent I don’t have and that no matter how hard I try, I will never excel at.

The books tries to tell us that persuasion is a key component of many leaders describing people like Donald Trump, Bill Gates and Lee Iacocca who used their persuasion skills to accomplish great things. I think this just proves the opposite. These people had the basic talent to do it naturally without learning about the 7 triggers. If they had learned the the 7 triggers, they would have been able to enhance their abilities. People like me, who are not conversationalist, who find it hard to chit-chat with other people, who don’t naturally learn about other people, will never be able to use the concepts of the book.

So, it is not that you can’t learn anything from this book or that you can’t improve some of your persuasions skills and techniques after reading it. But, if you (or somebody you know) have great communication skills, which enable you to learn a lot of information about other people in short periods and are able to use it, this book can really make the difference. It will give you (or whoever you buy it for) the ideas, skills and triggers to transform from a natural good persuader, to a master persuader.

Elad

The story of elderly ladies on the bus

 

Photo by ellecteric

“I want our soldiers to stand up in order to make lace for elderly woman on the bus“.

When you think about it, standing up for elderly woman on a bus is a very polite behaviour. But the quoted sentence above, for me, holds much more than just good manners. When I was a junior commander of the operators of communication course in the Israeli Air-Force, our officer repeated it again and again.

What he tried to explain to our team was that he rather have us spend time on education and discipline than on teaching the soldiers the professional parts of the course. This was counter intuitive. Our task was to train Operators of communication course. But for him, making them better soldiers and persons was more important.

Today, I was reminded of this statement, while I was reading the book “Made to stick“.  Like with other management books I wrote about, this book does not need my promotion. So, in addition to recommending it, I will share a number of my thoughts:

1. I think the most important message of the book deals with trying to find the core value of your message and a memorable way to present it. The story about my commander is a great one. I often talk about it in workshops I give about leadership. One of the challenges mangers face is how to create a message that will allow his team to make decisions when he is not around. When my officer was not around, we could have easily known what his opinion would be. Do you know what your manager wants? Does your team know what you want? Most people are not sure what the goal of their department or company is. As Lewis Carroll Said: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there”. Don’t be surprised if you or your team decide to go onto the wrong road. There is a great need for more coherence regarding the core values.  If you don’t believe me, believe the CEO of the Coca-Cola company, Muhtar Kent. A Knowledge@Wharton article says: “He explained that his first priority upon assuming the helm at Coca-Cola — based upon what he had witnessed in other leaders in business and in government over the previous 35 years — has been to develop a new broad strategic vision for the Coca-Cola brand. Kent said the leaders he is striving to emulate ‘had the ability to create a clear and compelling vision and they had the ability to articulate and communicate it in a simple way’. 
2. When you chose your core values, it is important to stick to them, especially when it comes to intuition. Not only acting against your core values hurts you and your message. The trick is, sometimes, sticking to the core values means you need not to act in ways that seem to be right. In my example, it was passing on more study time for more discipline routine, even if it meant lesser grades for our soldiers. In the book, the writers give an example of southwest airlines, which decided to be “the cheapest airline company in America”. Surveys showed that passengers want the company to serve chicken salad in their flights instead of the usual peanuts. The manager of the company, stuck to his core values, and asked: “will this make us the cheapest airline company in America?”. The answer was off course negative. You read a lot about adjusting your service to the needs of the customers. The costumer is, after all, always right. Well, sometimes, the costumer is wrong. Many times, the right thing to do is to act according to your core values.
3. Two great concepts for those of us that deal with education and presentations. The power of a good story and the importance of being concrete and tangible. Once I did not believe in the power of stories in classes or presentations. I changed my mind. It happened after I realized that the stories are what I always remember best when I attend a presentation. Think about the last presentation you attended. Try to remember what it was about? Do you remember a story told there? You probably did. A story makes what you talk about to be tangible. So many times you see a lecturer talking about something without explaining what has does that have to do with listeners. Remember, if the lecture is about them, like everybody says, you need to explain to them why what you are talking about is important to them. The best way to do it is to talk about real life consequences of what you talk about. There always are.

Elad

Never start with the slides

Today I started building a new presentation. It is an idea that has been running in my head for a pretty long time. This one is different from other presentations I built till today, because I am not quite sure I will even give it. I am trying to see if I can create something of value. I have a few ideas who to give it to, but it is still vague. Currently I am just creating it for me, to help me think about the subject, hoping it will lead to something great.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of a presentation the first thing that pops into my mind is the slides. I can see many of the slides and what will be on them – the pictures, what I will say with the slide, how it will be revealed. This makes it very tempting for me to just start of by building the slides. This something I try not do. Granted, conveying ideas using pictures is sometimes very powerful. But you can jot down the idea of the slide without building the slide itself (perhaps on a back of a napkin, also see here). Instead, I write down the ideas for the slides and start writing the actual words I will use when i give the presentation. The actual speech itself. Only when I am sure about the main theme, the story, the idea I want to convey, I move to the slides. Sometimes, when I start building the slides I will go back and improve the words, but I always start with words first.

This process helps me remember something very important about using slides. The slides are not the presentation. I am. The idea is. The story is. The words I will say will be. The slides are just a tool. You can compare it to using humor. Humor is great tool for giving great presentations. When used in the correct way, it can turn a bad speech into a great one. But it is not a must. You give a wonderful and engaging presentation without using any humor at all. The same goes to slides usage. Slides can help you convey your idea visually. But first you need an idea. The slides can’t talk for you (and no, reading them out loud does not count). You don’t go writing your presentation around a joke. You don’t go writing your presentation around the slides.

Elad

Remarkable? Depressing. Stay positive!

Today, I saw this lecture by Seth Godin. Now doubt, it is worth you’re 20 minutes.

 A few after thoughts:

1. I don’t argue with what Seth is saying, but even he has to admit that it is, after all, a little depressing. If very good is very bad, because the only way to create something valuable is to be remarkable, it sets a very high standard. Now I understand better, why when I got 98 in a test my father always asked me two questions: (a) Why did you lose 2 points? (b) How much did the other people in the class got? Seth talks about business but he says that this is true to many other areas in life. Again, that is a depressing thought. Honestly, how many things have you done in your life you can say are remarkable? I know that I haven’t than many. But the important thing is how do you feel about the remarkable things you did do… still there is optimism hidden somewhere.

2. A few days ago I wrote here about a post by Seth regarding PowerPoint presentations and how to make them remarkable. One of his points was that a presentation should not be more than 10 minutes long. I did not agree with it, Lisa Braithwaite of speak schmeak even wrote a post about it explaining why in her eyes, you should not put a time limit on presentations. In this lecture, Seth shows why this rule can not even be considered a guide line. His lecture is more than twice his recommended time. It is still quite remarkable.

3. This lecture shows us once again, that preparation, passion, originality and humor are more important to a presentation than good design or other exaggerated pyrotechnics.

 Elad