Conference Hangover
PowerPoint Live 2008 Draws to a Close
Every year the presentation content and delivery professionals of the world gather to share ideas, instruct one another, form connections and experience a world where PowerPoint is king.
No where else in the world is there assembled such an array of professional presenters, content developers and innovators. In the world of PowerPoint Live bullet points are a no-no, reading slides is forbidden, and dull presentations are banished to the nether worlds of unenlightened corporate board rooms. The conference motto is “Saving the world, one presentation at a time.”
Julie Terberg presents to 200 presentation professionals
at PowerPoint Live 2008
This year featured an array of top designers and movers and shakers in the field including Jim Endicott, Nancy Duarte, Julie Terberg as well as many of the Microsoft MVPs for the program. Rick Altman has hosted the conference for the past six years and brings a unique style of family, professionalism, and intense immersion to the conference arena. This year featured a continent-to-continent conference with Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen fame.
The group of graphic designers, presenters and vendors present is widely-varied. You can see PC and Mac living in harmony as well as Adobe and Corel side-by-side on the same machine. Speaker sits down for bread with content creator and vendors are welcome like family. It is a unique industry experience.
As I sit in the San Diego airport departing for the Fleeting Glimpse home planet, I find myself reflecting on the deep breath after the exhilarating roller coaster ride of the last four days.
Conferences are unique beasts. When I arrived on Saturday in preparation for teaching my Sunday session on Digital Photography 101, I couldn’t help but silently urge the hotel staff to sweep that ‘last conference’ out of here so we could assume control of the place. For four days, we were king of the hotel, dwarfing all other meetings, common spaces and leisure activities.
As I watched the hotel evolve as we wrapped our conference and the next group of intrepid projector fodder assumed control I couldn’t help feeling a little usurped. It is the nature of the conference venue that we outshine the galaxy for a brief instant to become yesterday’s news. But during that time do we ever shine!
Those who dimly guess a the nature of PowerPoint from their halting excursions just past the trimmed verge of the software would do well to look beyond the manicured green and take a walk on the wild side in the presentation jungle. There is beauty, danger and wonder out there for those who will explore the world of the presentation.
I hope to see you all at PowerPoint Live 2009 in Atlanta.
Rikk Flohr © 2008
PowerPoint Live Digital Photography Instructor
