Open Space Cartoons

For those of you using the Open Space approach to run self-organizing conferences, I created a set of fun cartoons to illustrate its four guiding principles and “law of two feet”. The drawings are vector-based, so you can print them as big as you want. At the formidable Agile Coach Camp Italy 2011, we printed [...]

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The making-of the Rise of the Lean Machine

It’s a matter of time. Time I don’t have. I once learned that Alfred Hitchcock used to sketch on storyboards to pre-visualize the shots of his movies. What if I could apply cartooning and storyboarding techniques for my Zen-style presentations? With acceptable results, I thought, I could use those sketches as first-class citizens and incorporate [...]

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Video Clip: Why Story?

This is brief post to share with you a short video clip I just published, based on my latest talk: “Crafting Outstanding Presentations”. Other clips will follow. I’m developing decent video editing skills, so I hope you’ll like my “cinematic” intro. Why story? Well, if you read my previous posts, the answer is pretty obvious. [...]

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Crafting Outstanding Presentations

A new dream is taking shape. It all started three weeks ago, while presenting in front of a group of entrepreneurs. On the surface, the slides below illustrate pretty pictures and practical storytelling techniques. Look beyond the means, however, and you’ll discover how a single presentation can powerfully influence people and, maybe, even change someone’s [...]

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Great Presentations: A good story idea

In my previous post I revealed that, to craft a great (technical) presentation, I deliberately use storytelling techniques borrowed from contemporary screenwriting. I leverage the power of story to stimulate an emotional response, even a new behavior, in the audience. This approach comes from the realization that, although important, rational thinking has its limits. Even [...]

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Duoblog: What is the secret of a great presentation?

A few days ago, Chris Hedgate asked me to join him in a little experiment that he called duoblog. A duoblog is about writing on a shared subject in “parallel” with another blogger. Since the agreed subject is broad and we don’t see each other’s work until we both publish it (@16:00 UTC), we should [...]

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Agile Tales video from Øredev 2008!

The organizers of my beloved Swedish conference have released the full video of my Agile Tales presentation. The audience appears to be really quiet, but it is purely because the audio comes from my “Britney Spears”-style microphone only. In other words, people laughed at my silly jokes, honest! Last week, I also presented at the [...]

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Øredev? The best conference ever.

Øredev, the largest technical conference in Sweden, has left a profound impression on me. I’ve never felt such a sense of community and purpose in an event of these proportions before. The constant exchange of ideas and points of view was incredible. I loved seeing attendees and exhibitors taking as much of an active role [...]

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Check my Øredev presentation teaser!

As I have started doing some serious work on refining the structure of my Agile tales of creative customer collaboration presentation, I thought it would be a good idea to create a 1-minute movie trailer to break the ice and remind you of the Øredev 2008 conference in Sweden in November. So here it is! [...]

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Crafting memorable technical presentations

I have an embarrassing confession to make. I can easily shed a tear while watching a well-crafted movie. I really do. Someone in my family once teased me, saying that I’m so oversensitive that I would probably cry watching Daffy Duck. There, I said it. Join my close friends and make fun of me. I’m [...]

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