Making-Original-Products-presentationzen

Takahashi Method
Masayoshi Takahashi
Web Application Developer, Tokyo, Japan
www.rubycolor.org/takahashi/
www.slideshare.net/takahashim
Masayoshi Takahashi is a programmer who created
a new approach to presenting at tech conferences in
Japan. Takahashi uses only text in his slides. But not
just any text—really big text. Huge text. Characters of
impressive proportion which rarely number more than
a few per slide. The goal, he says, is to use short words
rather than long, complicated words and phrases. His
approach—now called the Takahashi Method—came
about several years ago when he had to give a short
presentation at a conference in Japan. He did not have
software like PowerPoint, he says, nor did he have
access to photos or drawing programs. He was stuck
with text (projected in a Web browser). So he started
thinking very hard about how to use the best word
for each slide as he took the audience through his
presentation. The words or phrases resemble Japanese
newspaper headlines rather than sentences that must
be read. His slides, though they are all text, are visual
in the sense that (if you read Japanese) they are
instantly understood and support his talk. As he says,
if you have bullets or sentences, the audience will read
those and may miss what you are saying.
While it may not be a perfect method or applicable
in all situations, it is still far better than the method
used by many conference presenters in Japan (dull,
bulleted talking points projected on a screen).
The slides Takahashi uses in his presentations are
displayed at a rapid pace and number well over a
hundred per talk. The samples here are just a few from
a live presentation where he explained the origins of
his “Takahashi Method.” Check out his Slideshare link
above to see more samples.
206 Presentation Zen