Innovation CHEF

Here it is – a sneak peak into the Innovation Labs at InnovationChef.

There has been a lot of work behind the scenes with a crack group of co-conspirators with the aim of bringing a lot of new ideas and features your way.

There will be webinars, live training and some really special content.

This is really great stuff and I’ve enjoyed putting it together.

I would say watch this space…

…and you can…

…but if you have some cool ideas or want to get on board NOW is the time to act.

In the Lab:

• There is going to be a monthly Webinar on Innovation and Creativity. I’ve got some excellent folks lined up to share their knowledge on core (and tangential) topics.
• I’ve been helping out a Irish Startup company who have some amazing ideas around innovation put their training packages together.
• Exclusive content from one of the latest and hottest Irish authors on Innovation.

Never been a better time to subscribe.

I’m always keen to hear what is really needed.

email me or catch me on twitter.

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This is a simple, effective and yet revolutionary approach to a bane of the modern world: slide making! I got tired of endlessly changing font sizes, fighting with formating and  trying to draw simple shapes. All this was for company internal memos to limited audiences for a limited time. I skipped out on Powerpoint, and have saving myself a lot of time and frustration!

One of the most commonly used applications in the modern world is Powerpoint. Tastes vary but it is pretty much the standard tool for visual presentation making. An excellent deconstruction of the dangers of slide only communication is in Edward Tufte’s book Beautiful Evidence
. I love the guys work and recommend all his books very, very highly. They are expensive but are a combination of Art, Design and Elegance in a way rarely seen in text books.

How do I save time with my slide making? I use felt tip pens. I draw out the slides. It takes much less time and is every bit as effective for your internal presentations. I then scan them in for email distribution and archive. Easy as that.

There are a few drawbacks – editing can’t be done easily, collaboration is more difficult & I don’t recommend it for external customer presentations or for looking for funding.

80% of the time I can get my message across with markers. I have really nice Stabilo Pen 68 Tin of felt tip pens that have lasted a couple of years and are always open on my desk.

I think this presentation took me 15 mins. including making the silly graph!

Try it for your work group!

I had only been slightly aware that there was a book called Getting Things Done by an Author called David Allen. After listening to the free podcast from LearnoutLoud today. I am Hooked! It is not often you listen to someone speak and think “I want to be like him” Amazing Stuff. Check out the podcast or the book on Amazon.

If you are pitching to a Venture Capitalist, the Bank Manager(!)  the Dragons Den, your boss or anyone who could help you build a business you want to get the basics right.  This is a slide pack to help you cover some of the key questions in a succinct an effective manner.

Intentionally the slides are plain so you can add a bit of branding and sizzle  for yourself.  The content on these slides are pointers; filling in the blanks will get you started nothing more so think about the material and make it work for your business.

Guidelines

• 10/20/30 10 slides, 20 minutes talking, 30 point font size minimum.
• Talking points – don’t read them while looking at them, look at the audience
• Black & white hardcopy- No fancy graphics or animations or anything that depends on subtle colour variation.
• Intelligible - It should make sense when they read it again tomorrow.
• Positive and honest – your business is good so don’t trash the competition or oversell.

Best of Luck!

I love to listen to audio books and podcasts. I find it a great way to learn and to discover. One of my favourite sites is called Learnoutloud.  It has books, videos, speeches on a huge range of topics. you can browse through  over 20,000 educational audio books, MP3 downloads, podcasts, and videos. Thats a lot. There is free stuff and other material that you can purchase and download or get the CDs.

Check it out. I’m listening to Extraordinary Leadership by Robin Sharma. There is a lot more there that I am looking forward to getting into.