When Can We Do it again??
Debut of PowerPoint Live leaves
unquenchable thirst with the host
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:
- Artist types
- Geeky businesspeople
- No-nonsense Office users
- Bosses who just want to play golf when they travel
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, happy tears.”
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 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.