Presenting to Win. Harry Pierson reflects on a bad presentation. This reminds me of a book I recently read, and loved: Presenting to Win, by Jerry Weissman. Jerry used to be a Hollywood producer, and was hired by his friend Ben Rosen, founding VC of Compaq, to help Compaq's CEO on the analyst tour before Compaq went public.
The book does a great job of keeping you focused on what's important: Your audience, what they have to gain, how to keep them engaged, and how to get your message across. Jerry also talks about the story you tell, the structure and flow of your presentation, and how to use visuals to bring your story to life.
It's a great book not only for giving presentation, but for any type of story telling. For example, if you write product information for a website, all the same principles apply. Most presentation books all pretty much have the same basic information, but this book contains tons of unique and very useful insights. [Live @ Sax.net]