The Mobile Presenter

The United Nations (UN) is probably not the first place you would think of going to for presentation advice. So I'm glad that Christina O'Shaughnessy, who I met again at the Presentation Zen Studio in Paris recently, pointed me to a useful series of documents that the UN has published, called Making Data Meaningful.

What do you do when Garr Reynolds, author of Presentation Zen, is paying Europe one of his rare visits - and you don't really have the time to organise a seminar (like in previous years)? You get a small crowd of presentation enthusiasts and Garr Reynolds fans together, assemble them in one of the nicest locations in Paris and see what happens.

Among the many updates for its hardware and software products that Apple released this week was an all-new version of Keynote for iOS, now sporting a 2.0 version number.

I haven't looked into the actual feature set yet, but the most obvious change is that it now comes with a UI in the style of iOS 7. It also features better support for the iOS accessibility features, something that the previous version had implemented only partially.

What's good news for those who have to rely on better accesssibility turns out to be bad news for users of the Satechi Smart Pointer Bluetooth Remote, though. In short, the 2.0 update renders the remote pretty much useless for controlling a presentation.

The best way to learn something is to teach it. This paraphrased quote, attributed to Seneca, also applies to presenting, as you've probably experienced yourself.

When trying to explain something to someone who's not familiar with the topic, you often stumble upon gaps in your own knowledge. Things you took for granted are suddenly questioned; "Why, exactly, do we do this thing in this way anyway?"

I attended TEDxZurich recently; a very well-organised event, quite a bit bigger than our own TEDxStuttgart. Having Swiss television as your sponsor does help, I guess. Especially if they provide you with a TV studio and real cameras.

There was one small thing that irked me, though.