Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of presenting the VANCOUVER+acumen/Acumen Fund model to an impact investing meetup in Vancouver. It was also the first time I was on a panel of speakers and it was a really humbling experience to be there with other passionate/knowledgable people working in the Vancouver impact investing space. I would like to share my prezi presentation that I gave that day as well as couple of notes that I have picked up along the way from building my fair share of prezi presentations.
1) Build a picture: Prezi is a fantastic tool when you are trying to present a concept as an overall vision. It adds the dimension of space to the presentation which is a blessing in disguise. I find the best prezi presentation is a picture that you build in an audience’s mind. When the presentation is finished, it really should be a complete single picture with a few takeaways. This is the most important differentiation point on why you should pick prezi over keynote: when you want to construct a visual picture as opposed to a linear flow of ideas.
2) Draw out your presentation: When constructing this presentation, I spent a long time beforehand thinking about what I wanted my final picture to be. I knew the message I wanted to deliver: the acumen story in two parts — the business/investment process and moral leadership. How that information is presented is a different story. I chose a mountain and split my presentation to show the first part and then unveil the lower half of the mountain as the second story.
3) Construct your path: I love the zooming ability of prezi, and when used properly, can really add alot of impact to your presentation. My two favourite ways of using this tool is the ability to give a sense of diving into something, or moving from one concept to another (think — movie reel). I personally haven’t been able to find an effective way of using the tool that rotates words (unless its surrounding a circle) as I find that it disrupts the flow path instead of adding (I’ve had feedback where I was overly excited and use it too much — people actually became dizzy with the zooming in and out).
Hence, this tool really should then be used to unveil layers (think — Inception dream layers) in your presentation — however deep you want to dive. Keep the layers consistent working from big –> small, or in my presentation above, I chose to go small –> big. For my presentation the 3 layers I wanted to create was moving from the core of Acumen — creating a world beyond poverty, to the how of their business model, building on that to their complete picture which includes moral leadership, and finally the overall call to action of getting involved with Vancouver for Acumen.
Before June 2006, very few have heard of Ted, much less TedConferences, TedTalks and TedFellows. That all changed when TED decided to release their Talks online, with this mission:
“We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearing house that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.” http://www.ted.com
Starting out in 1984 as a conference bringing experts from the world of Technology, Entertainment and Design, it has since evolved into something more. Ideas and concepts that resonate. Shared. Spoken about. In the spirit of spreading ideas, TEDx has been created, enabling communities around the world to construct a TED-like conference with support from TED.
Here at UBC, we have our very own TEDx Terry Project. The project launched last year and was received with tremendous success. This October 3rd would be the 2nd Terry round of talks and registration is now open!
“Imagine UBC’s most fascinating and engaging students coming together for a day, giving ‘the talk of their lives,’ sharing their ideas and discussing their visions for UBC and the world. Now imagine being there, with students, alumni, faculty, administration, and members of the general public watching this unfold and partaking in the various discussions, and think of all the possibilities that this idea-share holds.” — http://www.terry.ubc.ca
Registration is free and comes with a free lunch. It is currently restricted to UBC students, staff and faculty and some alumni. To reserve a ticket, click here, and to have a glimpse of what is in store for us, check out what happened last year!
I had the pleasure of attending TerryTalks last year and it was a wonderful experience. UBC has some of the brightest student minds in North America and the ideas that were shared last year blew me away. I am definitely not missing this year’s! Get your tickets now and see you there!
One of my biggest fascinations lately is the usage of social media to spread causes. Of the many mediums used, I would like to share with you 2 of my favorite idea-viral social media videos, deconstructing them as I go along. The videos are: The Girl Effect and Obama’s Yes We Can.
Here’s how we break it down:
1) We start with an idea. The girl effect had this fact sheet and Obama had a presidential campaign to sell.
2) The question: How do we get people to care? How can we create a movement?
3) Now, think about it. What would you do if you were in their situation? What is the most effective way of reaching as many people as possible given our resources and message? Many of us who are trying to fund-raise for a cause, running for an election — think for a minute what you have done in this same situation. Most of us would use Word-Of-Mouth support, newspapers, personal websites, facebook with personal networks, and often; that is more than enough.
But what if instead, the people you are trying to reach out to, instead of being your university, is magnified thousands times fold to a nation? And to add in another clincher, what if you only had 4 minutes to sell your idea?
4) Now, watch both videos. That’s what they came up with.
5) Both videos are have their dissimilarities, but deconstructing the videos further, here’s what I was most drawn by both concepts:
1) Usage of typography and colours. Less is more. Both videos only have 3 colours — black, white, red (Yes, we can) or orange (the girl effect). Brilliant. Often colours can overwhelm the sense and take away from the main message. This way, the changing of colours of the typography, draw us in towards the importance of the words and the weight that they carry.
Yes, we can: notice that words only appear after the main punch of the speech is delivered, and the words merely give us a reinforcing ‘graphical’ representation of what was said earlier.
The girl effect: how many videos do you know that are made up of purely only words, that you are hooked onto every letter. Note the effects of ‘sinking’, stretching of typography on words like ‘profits’, and how the typography seem to take a life and meaning of the words they present.
2) Music — Music is an element that transcends race, culture, and the merging of a brilliant score with the magic of the internet is a winning combination.
Yes, we can: Notice that the main message of Obama that his campaign team wants to be delivered — Yes we can, we want change, is spoken and chanted throughout the music video, solidifying the phrase in your mind even after you have finished watching the video. This video is one of the most beautiful harmonizations of speech and song, balancing the seriousness of the message and catchy tune that occurs throughout the video. To add to the political feel of the video, they threw in chants in the background — just like one would experience in a political rally.
On top of all of that, they used singers that have different pitch classes, combining them in polyphony, a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice creating the order of each unique voice fitting into the picture of ’ yes, we can’. It creates the effect of being inclusive and united — great delivery.
The girl effect: When words fail us, music speaks, and the makers of The Girl Effect, used purely instrumental music to evoke the emotions that they want. First, choice of music — classical, without words, drawing the viewers of the video into the words. The music is there to create and enhance the emotion. It starts with a piano introduction with (I’m guessing — do correct me if i am wrong) a xylophone carrying the melody of the piece. Brilliant choice of instrumentation as its bright, sharp tones are often associated with the ‘aha!!’ moments — like a bell going off in our heads.
Usage of pauses creates the dramatic effect — See 0:32s into the video the climax of where the register of the piece, moves into the higher octaves and stopping abruptly before the presentation of the main idea (0:32s) — A Girl with a single chord. The music after this, takes on a beautiful homophony, a texture in which two or more parts move together in harmony, the relationship between them creating chords, layering in idea after idea, part after part, building upon the foundation of the main idea — A Girl. Another pause occurs at 1:40s when another idea is presented.
The music then moves to a Development stage– presenting what happens with a girl is helped, before modulating back to the original theme that was presented at the start. Notice that the movement of the piece is presented in A-B-A theme, the “A” parts addressing what you can do and what you should do, and “B” part, what a girl can do. Great underlying distinction of what you can do and what a girl can do using music, isn’t it?
3) Presentation of idea. An idea which advocates change needs to engage an audience on these three levels: Visualization, credibility and impact ( micro –> macro). An audience needs to be able to relate to your idea, to actually think that your idea is worthwhile, and to be able to see its impact.
Yes, we can:
Credibility: obviously the use of big movie stars and singers were a great draw, especially in terms of drawing the type of audience.
Visual: The image of Obama presenting his speech throughout the video interchangeable with images of the singers.
Impact — the core message of this video is, besides “yes we can” is to VOTE. Simple action on a micro level, but huge on an macro level: all you have to do is fill out a ballot and watch change unfold. Evidently, it worked!
The Girl Effect: Now this a little trickier with limited funds and resources. What do you do then? You sell your video line by line. Curiosity always kills the cat, and the video is built on a question– answer basis.
Credibility: They build a concrete idea without overwhelming you and by appealing logically step by step to things that have been done.
Visual: they ask you to visualize in a a form of a simple story line, what a girl can do in her village.
Impact: they then multiply the idea of helping a single girl by 600 million girls in developing nations and combined with a brilliant use of dots multiplying across your screen — voila, you’re not only hit with the visual impact, but the micro to macro shift in idea.
2 minutes later you’re left sitting in your chair thinking — man, that was awesome and that totally can happen.
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So, the next time you want to spread a cause you believe in, think about the message you are sending with your colours, typography, music and presentation: visual, credibility and impact (micro to macro). Maybe, you’ll be able to create the awareness and change that you are looking for.
