The Seven Strategies of Master Presenters - Lifecycle Performance ...

Use Superior Organization / 99
well- attended meeting, with more than 2,000 participants. If the speaker
does well, it will be remembered for years, if not, it will be remembered
for decades.
The picture Terry used was of a handmade quilt with different
sections of the quilt representing the topics he was going to speak
about, such as achievement, heroes, wisdom, purpose, change, and
relationships. It was an exceedingly good choice for a couple of reasons.
First, quilts remind us of the care and dedication that went into
making them. They have a warm and cozy feel, and they take on a
special meaning for us, for example, when a grandmother makes a quilt
celebrating a special occasion such as a wedding or a birth. It is also no
accident that a great deal of awareness and empathy was deservingly
created for people who died of AIDS with the National Quilt Project.
Terry used the quilt slide to organize his presentation, to make clear
transitions, and to give the audience members time to reflect on the
materials that had just been presented in the previous section.
Figure 3-8
What we liked so much about Terry’s use of that picture was that
it signaled a clear transition between one topic and the next, and at
the same time let the audience have a very short relaxation break,
and/or use the time to integrate and/or reflect on the material that he
had just presented.