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© 2006 by Rick Altman. All Rights Reserved.
Those unfamiliar with our conference usually begin with the notion that they will be journeying to a faceless convention center, placed in small and sterile rooms, and made to listen to lectures about the theory of slide-making. Based on experiences that they have had at other business events, they expect that some of these lectures might be good, some bad, and perhaps a few of them horrific.
We take no small amount of satisfaction in seeing these types of preconceived notions smashed to smithereens and we love hearing post-conference commentary like this one, from a first-time patron in 2006:
Imagine my surprise when I went to check in and found a three-piece jazz band playing in the ballroom and a row of computers in the corner set up just for me to play on and ask questions. This was so unlike anything I had attended or expected to attend, I couldn't get my head around the fact that I might actually have fun at this conference.
Having just finished our fourth year, dating back to our debut in 2003, we have come to expect comments like the one above, because we know that the atmosphere we create at PowerPoint Live is unusual and unexpected by the business traveler. But 2006 was different — we surprised our patrons and they in turn surprised us. We surprised them with the richness of the event; they surprised us with their reactions to it.
In short, it changed many of their lives.
I am not referring to the customary promise that we make in our marketing hype leading up to the event. The one that goes something like “Come to the conference and have your eyes opened, your vision expanded, your horizons broadened, your head exploded ... yadda yadda yadda.” This was different. Attendees in 2006 found themselves motivated to make life-changing decisions about their career paths and personal goals, beyond anything our marketing materials might have hinted at.
PEOPLE’S EXHIBIT ONE: Connee Sheckler from Marriottsville MD. Attending for the first time this year, Connee is just a year or two from retirement with the Social Security Administration. Nonetheless, she successfully lobbied her boss to allow her to attend, hoping to pick up a few pointers on slide development. Instead, she attended the session entitled "Making the Move from Slide Jockey to Presentation Professional," and decided that she wasn't ready to ride off into the sunset just yet.
"I am so happy I decided to take your course," she writes. "PowerPoint designers are tired of being taken for granted. After hearing just a few words in this session, I knew I was home. I left the session, returned to my hotel room, designed a logo and started a presentation design business. As suggested, I searched for freelance + PowerPoint on google.com and started a profile on ifreelance.com. I have already been receiving lots of email requests for designs as well as 207 hits in two days at my personal URL.
“Thanks for inspiring me to get off my butt and follow my dreams. I have one more year before retirement but with your great tips and guidelines, I know that my retirement will not only be comfortable, but enjoyable as I will be working from home designing presentations, which is what I love to do.”
•
If this were just a single incident, we would splash it on our website, use it in our next brochure, and crack wise about having paid off Connee to say those things, but not spend too much time analyzing its significance. But Connee's epiphany was shared by many, as the patrons in 2006 came to the conference seemingly looking for a life change.
Doug Jeffreys had a very active and visible first year at the conference, attending numerous panel discussions, spending many hours in the Help Center, and participating on the winning team of the Five Killer Slides competition. “I told everyone that I was going to submit my letter of resignation as soon as I got back. I couldn't quite do that, but I did start the journey with a new domain, website, and email address. I'm off to get a box of business cards, so here we go.”
Meanwhile, Rikk Flohr found his epiphany in our seminars devoted to digital video editing. “I had never touched a video camera before the conference," says the three-time conference patron. “After the sessions on video editing, I arrived home and grabbed a low-buck Canon DV unit and ordered the Pinnacle Studio in a box with Green Screen. I traveled to Big Woods State Park (in Minnesota), shot two hours of footage, spent eight hours editing it, and ended up with this 14-minute movie.”
This from Chantal Bosse from Montreal, attending for her second time: “It was especially beneficial for me this year because the summer months have been slow. It was to the point that I really had to sit down and figure out what I wanted to do — close down or continue. I came back home afterward and searched new opportunities differently and things are starting to move in the right directions.”
And so it goes...
“I returned home and was planning on taking two days off. Instead, I went in to work the next morning, called a meeting of the entire team, and told them that we must change all of our slide templates immediately.”
“I was in the airport security line on Thursday [the day after the conference] when I called my two admins and told them to clear their next three days. We needed to strip all of our presentations of the animation that, a week ago, I thought was impressive, and now know to be silly and embarrassing.”
“I couldn't wait until I got home. I logged on to our server Tuesday night and began creating new slide masters.”
“I had no idea that there were others out there doing what I do. I have a folder in my browser Favorites called PowerPoint Help and for the past year it has had one link -- my cousin's profile on some help board. Today is Wednesday, the last day of the conference, and there are now 23 links!”
“It was so motivating and there was so much positive energy in San Diego, I returned home to Washington D.C. and resigned from my job so I could consult full-time.”
•
Like a politician running for office, we'll find a way to take credit for all of these light bulbs that went off in people's heads. Modesty aside, our decision to increase the interactive quotient of the conference was a good move. With so many patrons bringing their work with them, agreeing to be critiqued and made over (both how they create and how they present), and engaging in active discussion and debate on numerous topics, they were pre-disposed to thinking earnestly about their work, their careers, their place in the PowerPoint universe.
But if we're being completely honest, the revelations that took place at PowerPoint Live this year say more about the evolution of the professional presentation community than they speak to anything that we did. It was just a few years ago that PowerPoint users didn't have much of an identity at all, content with a vanilla title of "admin," and the unremarkable task of "creating slides for others." Even “PowerPoint Jockey” would have been a step up for many, title-wise. But now, those in the presentation business have a sense of community, feel a sense of identity, and above all, enjoy a sense of pride about the work that they do.
The conference can take some credit for helping foster this growing community, but for the most part, these people came this year ready to connect, ready to become enabled, ready to take their rightful place in a world of professionals. The conference gave them that opportunity and they took it.
“I was disappointed with this conference. It was nothing like what I was expecting.”
Well, I guess epiphanies aren't for everyone...
Order a copy of the 2006 Conference Guide.
Browse the 2006 Photo Gallery.
Read Tom Bunzel’s conference recap.
Read Ellen Finkelstein's report.
Copyright 2006, All rights reserved. Have an opinion? Share it with the Corel community at the Graphics Unleashed Discussion 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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