The Backchannel How Audiences are Using Twitter and Social Media and Changing Presentations Forever

by Atkinson, Cliff

• ISBN13: 9780321659514
• ISBN10: 0321659511
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-11-19
• Publisher: New Riders

Summary

Audiences have taken control of presentations, and this is the only book to show how to leverage this phenomenon of backchannel conversation--Provides practical advice about how to be a more effective presenter by harnessing, not resisting social media.-Introduces readers to the idea that they now have new tools to solve a problem they very much care about: feeling trapped in boring and pointless presentations.-Offers easy-to-understand anecdotes about what other people have done well--and not so well. Armed with laptops, cell phones, smartphones, and other devices, audiences have taken control through the backchannel. The intersection of frustrated audiences with unaware presenters can often create dramatic and public breakdowns of communication and even mob mentality. In this book, master presenter Cliff Atkinson shows that if the changes are harnessed and the conversation with audiences properly handled, the outcome can be a new, more effective form of communication. At the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in 2008, audience members using Twitter confronted a presenter during her interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg when they thought she was straying off track. At SXSW 2009, Guy Kawasaki called out to the audience, 'Who is Mary Ann?' and when she raised her hand, he directly asked her why she was calling him a vulgar name Twitter! Far from being isolated incidents, these examples are signs of the future of live presentations, when audience members shift from passive recipients to active participants, and even presenters become more assertive in engaging the audience. The Backchannel describes the massive impact of social technology on the live presentation environment, and what audiences and presenters can do to take advantage of the situation. The book presumes the reader is unfamiliar with social media, Web 2.0, blogging, or Twitter, and will introduce these important concepts and tools as they relate to the book.

Author Biography

Cliff Atkinson “wrote the book” on using PowerPoint effectively with Beyond Bullet Points. The book pioneered the market for smart presentation books. Cliff’s impact on the field of presentations has been significant. He designed the presentations that helped persuade a jury to award a $253 million verdict to the plaintiff in the nation’s first Vioxx trial in 2005—presentations which Fortune magazine called “frighteningly powerful.” He has taught his approach at many of the country’s top law firms, government agencies, business schools, and corporations, including Sony, Toyota, Nestlé, Nokia, Nationwide, Deloitte, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Intel, Microsoft, and the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal.

Table of Contents

Part 1: The Death of PowerPoint and the Rebirth of Conversation
1. A PowerPoint Chip on Our Shoulder
2. Opening the Backchannel Floodgates
3. Renegotiating a Social Contract: The new Presentation Conversation
4. Integrating the Online with the Offline in a new Conversation Infrastructure
Part 2: Audience 2.0; How to listen, attend, communicate and participate
5. The Audience 2.0 Bill of Rights and Responsibilities
6. Voting with Your Feet
7. When the Audience Completely Runs the Show
8. Listening, reporting, Tweeting, blogging, commenting and the neglected art of question-asking
Part 3: Presenter 2.0; How to listen, present, communicate and facilitate
9. The Presenter 2.0 Bill of Rights and Responsibilities
10. The Art and Science of Crowdsourcing your Presentation
11. PowerPoint is Dead, Long Live PowerPoint
12. The Human Bar Chart, and Other Presentation Innovations
13. Choosing the right medium for your message: keynotes, panels, conversations and un-conferences