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We had an inkling back in September, about two weeks before the conference began. Before then, we wondered what type of user we would be attracting to the October debut of the PowerPoint Live User Conference:
But come September, we already had three dozen people signed up for our optional crash courses, several people on the waiting list to compete in our PowerPoint Trivia Contest, and over 100 people signed up to go to a western-style steak dinner one night. We had attracted a group of PowerPoint users so spirited and enthusiastic as to make it completely obvious that someone should have staged an event like this many years ago.
From seven countries they came to the southwest town of Tucson AZ for PowerPoint Live, to meet, greet, eat, and learn—almost 200 in all. And the energy from this group was a special form of intoxication that defies description.
Our charter for the conference was four-fold:
1. To provide an environment 100% conducive to learning PowerPoint’s commands and features, including all of the delicious tips and tricks that few know about beyond the experts that devise them in the first place.
2. Inspire patrons by showcasing some of the finest presentation talent in the world and the latest technology in the presentation business.
3. Create an atmosphere that practically forces them to meet other users and compare notes on how they approach their PowerPoint projects.
4. Invite them to make lasting friendships and business relationships.
Undoubtedly, the success of the event rests with Item No. 1, and we took a two-pronged approach to it. With three concurrent tracks of seminars, we stood a good chance of covering off basic fundamentals, advanced techniques, aesthetic concerns, and the finer points of presentation delivery.
Those with specific issues to address or those in need of more depth could visit the Help Center, a free drop-in technical support center open from before breakfast until after the last seminar. As the hands-on component of the conference, the Help Center was seen by some as the most valuable aspect of the event. “I came here with two questions that nobody else could answer,” one patron told us, “and I got them both answered one hour after checking in on Sunday (the day before we officially started). The rest of the conference was gravy.”
Music to our ears, no doubt, but through most of the summer, we weren’t sure if the harmonies were going to be so sweet. “PowerPoint? That’s easy,” was a common refrain during our marketing efforts. “I don’t need to go to a conference to learn that. Everything I need to know about making slides I learned in the first 10 minutes of using it.”
We heard this so many times, it began to show up in my dreams. (Literally—I once dreamed that I was at a user group meeting, fielding questions about the conference, and I told the group that PowerPoint was easy and they didn’t need to go...) The agonizing part is that these are the people who would benefit the most, but it’s not exactly good P.R. to inform them that they are the ones largely responsible for the program’s negative reputation in the business community.
Thankfully, enough users did take a chance on us and here is where the curse of PowerPoint’s ease of use became a blessing. We discovered that many users stayed fairly isolated in their own little bubble of knowledge—they had learned just enough to create their slides, and little more. Many didn’t make use of master slides or templates, did not know that an object can have many animations applied to it, not just one, and they never explored the incredible opportunities of integrating imagery, sound, and video into a presentation.
Many in attendance had not given themselves the opportunity to venture beyond the classic title slide | bullets | next slide approach to presentation building. PowerPoint Live opened their eyes to an entirely new way of thinking about the product and the discipline. “I just don’t know how many times my head can explode in one three-day period,” one patron said after leaving Glen Millar’s Awesome Animations workshop. And Helene Rider was moved to tears by Derek McDavid’s scintillating hour entitled Turning Words into Pictures. “I'm such a mush,” she jokes, “but the presentation was given with such passion, I really was moved. They were good tears, happytears.”
To be fair, not everyone in attendance wanted an epiphany. Some didn’t want to move beyond their comfortable world of PowerPoint creation, and we do not see it as our job to try to convert them. To that group, we simply plied them with so many tips and tricks that they left the conference feeling that they could do their existing jobs in half the time. Sonia Coleman’s PowerPoint Boot Camp set a good tone for our tips and tricks track, Steve Rindsberg opened the eyes of many to the world of hyperlinks and Action Settings, and the session on customizing and personalizing the interface was well received.
We also gave thought to how to cover the aesthetics of good presentation, knowing that many in attendance came to PowerPoint with no background in the arts. Sure, we offered them Showcase sessions and our Marvelous Makeovers. But no conference of ours is complete without the session entitled Achieving Absence of Ugliness, which should be the mantra for many PowerPoint users who are not capable of achieving brilliance. Those users should begin by making sure their slides are not ugly, and progress from there.
Tuesday afternoon’s Expo featured 14 exhibitors with PowerPoint-specific products or technology and the group positively flocked to them. We already know that next year, we will have to offer the Expo for an entire day and create double the space for vendors.
But whatever success the conference enjoyed is due largely to the patrons, and this takes us full-circle to our premonition about them. They signed up in droves for all of our optional and recreational activities; so many checked in on Sunday we had traffic jams that day like we’ve never seen before; they formed lines out the door each morning to get in; they flocked to the Expo; they swarmed the trivia contest; their enthusiasm drives spilled over to the lounge each evening, where many discussed, over multiple rounds of the local ale, the finer points of video distribution and whether to use Fly or Wipe...
Heads are spinning over here with the possibilities for next year. We intend to showcase the work of patrons much more, including critiques and makeovers. We discovered with utter clarity this year how insatiable our patrons’ appetites were for anything to do with animation and we will give and give and give in that department. Above all, we will continue to build community and to help provide the sense that PowerPoint users are connected by something that is not just ephemeral and fleeting. Now they share a bond that is much more tangible.
They are almost like family.
Copyright 2003, All rights reserved. Have an opinion? Share it with the Corel community at the CorelWORLD Forum. There is already quite a bit of discussion about this story. Join in.
May 2007: As simple as possible, but not simpler... · April 2007: Killer Keystrokes · March 2007: Resolution Confusion · January 2007: Fearless Forecasts for 2007 · November 2006: Epiphanies at PowerPoint Live 2006 · August 2006: Escaping Death by PowerPoint · July 2006: Notes from the Floor of InfoComm · June 2006: Beyond PowerPoint--Making Movies for Business and Pleasure, Part II · May 2006: Beyond PowerPoint--From Photos to DVDs · April 2006: It’s Your Music!--Overcoming the oppressive restrictions of iTunes · March 2006: CorelDraw X3—A few must-haves and a few missed opportunities, all in all, a credible upgrade · February 2006: Making Windows Inhabitable · January 2006: Fearless Forecasts for 2006 · September 2005: Just What is a Background Anyway? · August 2005: Meet David Dobson, Corel's New CEO · July 2005: Community, Blind Dates. and Albert Einstein: An Interview with the PowerPoint Live Conference Host · June 2005: CorelWorld 2005: Image Editors, Executive Appearances, and Krispy Kremes · May 2005: As Adobe's Shadow Grows, Is Corel Better off or Worse? · March 2005: Delivering Your Presentation: How Close to the Source Can You Get? · February 2005: Digital Photography: The Killer App of this Generation Part II · January 2005: Digital Photography: The Killer App of this Generation · November 2004: A Killer Deal for Corel Or Another Distraction? · September 2004: The Scourge that is Kazaa and AOL Instant Messenger · August 2004: The Golden Triangle: Presenter, Audience, and Slides · July 2004: A Blast from the Past: How Fast is Fast Enough? · June 2004: Guilty Pleasures · May 2004: A Personal Wish List for PowerPoint 12 · April 2004: Eyedropping: Version 12 makes a good tool even better... · March 2004: Deadly Sins Of Modern PowerPoint Usage · February 2004: Is the even-numbered curse finally over? · January 2004: Another take on Achieving Absence of Ugliness · November 2003: What can we do it again??--Debut of PowerPoint Live Leaves Unquenchable Thirst with the Host · September 2003: Corel Corp. Has a New Custodian · July 2003: Candor and Contrition at CorelWORLD · June 2003: What a Long, Great Trip It’s Been! · May 2003: The Boat that Corel is Missing · April 2003: No Fooling...Is Corel Breaking Up? · March 2003: The Annual Design-a-Brochure Contest · February 2003: Symbolism is Everything · January 2003: Mania, Our Semi-Annual Pilgrimage to Holland · October 2002: On Creativity, Problem-Solving, and Paper Bags · July 2002: CorelDRAW 11: Surprise, Surprise... · May 2002: The Sound of Silence: What does it mean when a company plays its cards so close to its chest? · April 2002: The Art and Science of Presentation Graphics--Creating for the Screen Has its own Challenges · March 2002: CorelDRAW 11: What kind of personality and attitude should a software program have today? · February 2002: Oy, my aching fingers... · December 2001: Digital Photography · November 2001: Can we say goodbye to the Rolls Royce Mentality? · October 2001: An Unforgettable Week: The drama that unfolded around CorelWORLD · August-September 2001: The Art of Paragraphics: New-age ingredients for success with Corel VENTURA · July 2001: Your Very Own Interface: How to make Corel applications read your mind · June 2001: Fighting the Font Wars: How to stay sane with your sans · May 2001--Turning the Key at Nicholas-Applegate · April 2001--A Modest Proposal for Reviving VENTURA Publisher
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