Questions and answers about the conference

Why did we change our name?

Read our answer below or watch our short video on the subject at the conference’s video vault.

Our debut of the Presentation Summit in 2010 does not signal our intention to change our content; it reflects a metamorphosis that has already taken place.

We remember back to 2003, the first season of PowerPoint Live. We had one track all about using PowerPoint, one track about designing slides in PowerPoint, and a track about whatever else people wanted to learn…about PowerPoint. That first year, we really were all about the software.

Not anymore. Since that first year, we have worked earnestly to offer a much more rounded learning experience for the presentation professional.

Our seminars focus on crafting strong messages, telling impactful stories that resonate with emotion, designing presentation content that focuses on the audience’s needs, and designing slides that invite the audience in and help the presenter engage. And yes, our seminars focus on software technique.

In 2009, our mobile presenting track taught all of the patrons how to work with Twitter and Facebook. In 2008, the spotlight was on eLearning. In 2010, we will likely be exploring all of the ways that presentations can be delivered, both live and in person, and virtually. Whatever the hot topic is for any year, we will be in a position to harness it and to inform you as to why it is pertinent and vital to the community of presentation professionals.

It might be true for years to come that a vast majority of our patrons use PowerPoint, but that is not all they use and that is not all they need to know.

This is evolution, not revolution. We have been evolving and growing since we began in 2003 and we expect that to continue for many, many years. We hope you’ll have the chance to participate in that growth.

What else is new for 2010?

Our bread-and-butter offerings have always been our seminars and our Help Center, and that will not change anytime soon. But we think there might be value in having a middle ground. We see the opportunity for patrons to share their questions and issues with us — be they ones that they came with or ones that arose at the conference — and let our experts address them directly via informal workshops or hands-on sessions. We plan to offer a special fourth session at least once per day, in which we respond directly to patron requests.

We know how much our patrons love makeovers and we intend to offer more of them and from different perspectives—design, message, delivery.

We also anticipate interest and curiosity around the pending version 2010 of Office and PowerPoint. We’ll throw a very large blanket over the new version and tell you everything you had no idea you wanted to know.

On the design front, we will welcome Nancy Duarte back to the fold and likely wake up Garr Reynolds in the middle of the night once again so he can give a keynote address in his PJs.

Last year, two different patrons suggested that we explore how “publications like Time Magazine” create their information charts. Well, how about if we bring in the man who spent the better part of two decades as the art director for Time? In a moment of incredible serendipity, indeed, Nigel Holmes will make his conference debut.

Oh, and the boat that you see docked at the hotel’s marina? That is where we will hold Monday evening’s trivia contest…

What type of an event is this?

The Presentation Summit is not a web conference and it is not a big trade show. It is a user conference where people attend in order to learn how to become better content creators, better presentation designers, better presenters, and better users of PowerPoint. They leave with a much broader and deeper understanding of the principles and best practices for presentation design, creation, and delivery.

Every detail about this conference is designed for and dedicated to the end user and his or her pursuits to become more capable, more creative, and more productive in the field of presentations.

PowerPoint is easy—why would I pay to go to a conference?

It’s true, with PowerPoint it is not difficult to pick up and begin creating slides. Our host’s daughters began creating slides when they were each 8, and we all know people who installed it and immediately began creating slides in advance of an upcoming presentation they had to give.

This is the bad news, not the good news.

This is why the risk is high with PowerPoint. With other creative apps, such as Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Access, potential users know that it is too difficult to begin using without help. But inexperienced PowerPoint users can already be on their fifth not-so-attractive slide within 15 minutes of breaking the seal. And PowerPoint presentations are rarely created just for fun or for private use—they are made to be shared with others. That means that an entire company’s reputation goes along for the ride when an inexperienced user begins creating and delivering presentations.

New PowerPoint users need something like the Presentation Summit precisely because the program is so accessible. They need to begin developing taste, sensibility, and restraint before they become a hazard to their own careers!

Perhaps more important, proficiency with the software does not imply expertise with crafting and delivering an engaging and successful presentation. In fact, sometimes the software actually gets in the way. The Summit goes far beyond just PowerPoint training, covering the whole of the presentation process in a uniquely organic way.

Intermediate users stand to gain even more. They too would benefit from the professionals discussing the finer points of presentation design; furthermore, they are ready to begin mastery of the techniques that would separate them from the pack. They know how to create slides; do they know how to create global formats? They know how to animate bullets; do they know how to create animation schemes that complement the message and can be duplicated in an instant? They will learn these and dozens of other similar skills at the Summit.

Advanced users up the ante even further and this conference delivers with fully-conceived workshops on advanced automation, deployment across thousands of seats at an organization, and a host of secrets revealed for working at maximum speed and efficiency.

This will likely be a tight budget year. How do I justify attending?

When we debuted this conference in 2003, presentation skills were barely on anyone’s radar. Companies were content to invest in traditional advertising and branding initiatives, secure in a belief that PowerPoint was an easy skill to pick up.

Everything has changed.

From Fortune 100 firms to the sole proprietor, everyone now realizes the importance of creating professional-grade presentation content and delivering it with maxiumum impact. With “Death by PowerPoint” a part of everyone’s vocabulary, the danger of being ill-equipped in this medium is crystal clear.

If you are the head of a communications department who wants to improve presentation skills, your choice is to hire new people with those skills or to train the people you have. In a down economy, Door No. 2 is the most viable option, and the last thing you need is just to send your team to another PowerPoint training class. They need a more complete exposure to the principles, philosophies, and finer points of presentation design and creation, and no event on Earth delivers that as well as the Summit.

If you are the independent contractor, small business owner, or employee of a budget-strapped firm, you make yourself instantly more valuable to your clients or your bosses when you give your presentation skills this kind of shot in the arm. We choose our cities carefully and manage our cost structures diligently so that we can remain affordable to small businesses and independent professionals.

If you need help convincing your boss of the value of the Presentation Summit, here you go…

How do I know it won’t be boring and
tedious like so many business conferences?

The end-users who join us at the Presentation Summit this fall will not have to sit through keynote addresses about sales forecasts, industry trends, or document object models. Instead, if you are one of the 225 to secure a seat at this conference, you will be watching the true experts in the presentation community. You will be watching the most talented presentation experts spin their magic:

  • You’ll see how professional templates are created.
  • How transitions are tuned.
  • How animations are perfected.
  • How slide layouts are made to look inviting and not obnoxious.
  • How to scrutinize your own work and be your own best critic.
  • How to ensure that your presentation looks as good on a notebook PC 3,000 miles away as it does on your own computer.
  • How advanced users can write powerful scripts to automate workflow.
  • How to choose the most effective way to communicate your message.
  • How to deliver that message with emotional impact.
  • How to increase your understanding of the software many times over.
  • And how to become dramatically more efficient and productive.

Here at R. Altman & Associates, we have been organizing and hosting user conferences since 1989. We know precisely the formula for a successful event:

1. Amass the most talented team of experts and trainers.
2. Instruct them to tell the audience everything they
know—the good, the bad, and the ugly.
3. Create an atmosphere of informality and friendliness.
4. Practically force the patrons to meet and get to know one another.
5. Pack outrageous amounts of tips and tricks into eight hours each day.
6. Wind down and socialize at 4:30pm.
7. Go out on the town with new friends each evening.

Our conferences spawn lasting relationships. We bring people together who share a common bond and spirit and we turn them into colleagues, business partners, best friends, soulmates…even bride and groom (it’s happened three times).

What types of people come to the Presentation Summit?

Active content creators, heavy users of PowerPoint, and those who are tasked with delivering presentations to audiences, both in person and virtually. We also attract many of the department heads who lead the afore-mentioned people. This is not an industry analyst event and it’s not a trade show for manufacturers of audio-visual equipment. It is an end-user event, featuring live presentations, workshops, and a hands-on support center. As such, we will attract those who create presentations in a number of scenarios: advertising departments, market research, sales, educational, judicial, financial, medical, government, military…those who create and then deliver presentations and those who design and create presentations for others to deliver.

In short, anyone who wants to become more proficient, more productive, and more effective with their presentation content is a likely candidate to apply for registration.

Is this a Microsoft event?

No it is not. The conference is independently owned and operated. Microsoft contributes in a very important and tangible way, but does not participate financially. This suits both parties—we produce an independent event, in which you know you are getting real-world advice and instruction, and Microsoft can support a conference that doesn’t create a resource drain.

Do I need to be an advanced user to attend?

Definitely not. We design the Summit for those who use the software regularly, or expect to do so, but we make no assumptions about your level of expertise. We offer three concurrent seminars and workshops, and there will always be a seminar taking place designed for beginning and/or intermediate users, or else there will be instructors in the Help Center dedicated to working with new users on fundamentals and basics.
So we are by no means a conference just for experts (although you’ll surely meet your share of them there). We think of ourselves as a conference for earnest users, for those who have made a significant commitment to the presentation industry.

How do I know that it won’t be a bunch of hype?

As we said above, the Presentation Summit is independently owned and operated. The host, Rick Altman, is a computer journalist of over 20 years with a noted lack of shyness for offering opinion and commentary. So while many trade show events have as their primary purpose the selling of goods, services, and technology, our primary purpose is the teaching of them. Trade shows offer carefully-staged demos in which the software always looks terrific; our presenters are there to show you what to do when the software doesn’t look so terrific. If a feature is awesome, we take delight in showing you. And if a feature doesn’t work properly, we take seriously our responsibility to tell you so, and more importantly, to show you the way around it.

Our sole interest is in expanding your understanding. We expect that by attending this conference, it means that you are already a PowerPoint user, have already decided to become one, or have chosen to immerse yourself in the presentation medium. The last thing you need is a sales pitch.

If it is not a trade show, will there be vendors present?

The Presentation Summit is not a trade show, but it features one. The Summit qualifies approximately 18 to 20 third-party vendors to exhibit their goods and services on one of the days. The Summit Expo is held on the Tuesday of the conference, and we integrate it into the program, so you can visit the vendors and not miss out on any seminars you want to attend.

If this is an independent show, will Microsoft be there at all?

Yes. There will be several representatives at the event, ranging from customer service reps, product managers, programmers, and developers. If you have a new feature to request, chances are you’ll be able to share it with the person who decides what features go into the next version. If you want to ask about a company policy, you’ll find a receptive ear for that, as well.

What happens on Sunday?

Sunday is our Registration day and also our so-called Crash Course Day. On this day, we offer optional seminars for those who are new to the software or who want to brush up on their fundamentals before the main part of the conference begins.

Our Sunday Crash Courses are the only part of the curriculum not covered in the conference fee. They carry an extra charge of $115 per two-hour course.

Why should I choose this conference over a hands-on training course?

This is the question we are asked the most. We think that the Presentation Summit offers the best of all worlds, as we provide both hands-on and hands-off components.

The formal seminars are presentation style, with sessions typically attended by several dozen people, sometimes over 100. If they were conducted like a training class, all in attendance would be forced to go at the pace of the slowest person, and you would not be satisfied. Instead, you will be watching the program in action or illustrations of ideas on a large screen with a state-of-the-art projection system, professionally prepared and paced by one of our accomplished presenters. You are certainly welcome to bring a notebook computer with you to follow along (about 25% do), but it is neither required nor expected.

The hands-on component features our renowned Help Center, at your beck and call from morning to night every day. At the Help Center, a staff of experts flanks a small armada of networked computers, and their job is to say “Yes Ma’am” or “Yes Sir” when you approach them with any question or problem. You can bring files with you on media or bring them on your notebook. You can watch over their shoulders, have them watch over yours, or have them clear out so you can just experiment. However you decide to utilize it, the Help Center is about as hands-on as you can get. We have patrons who come just for the Help Center, and others who describe to us about the 15 minutes spent there on Sunday afternoon (before the conference officially began) that made the entire event worthwhile.

You write often about “experts”—who are these experts?

Got an hour? The list reads like a who’s who of PowerPoint experts and presentation professionals. We combine the following groups of people to form our team:

  • Members of Microsoft’s Most Valued Professional (MVP) team of volunteers who assist users online in the newsgroups and in person at user group meetings.
  • Technical specialists who have developed international acclaim for their books, tutorials, training experience, and general expertise with the product.
  • Leaders of firms who create presentations for some of the largest organizations in the world.
  • Members of the Microsoft team of product developers, the very people responsible for creating the software.

What if the topics to be covered don’t address my particular needs?

See our comments above about our incredible Help Center. There, you can ask any question under the sun.

Can I bring my spouse and will he/she have to pay full price?

Yes and no, respectively. Spouses are welcome, and we have a three-tiered program for accommodating them (four, if you count just sending them off to the tourist sites and shops during the day). Your spouse or domestic partner can accompany you for meals, sit in on the seminars, or get full conference access. For details and pricing, call or email us.

So meals are provided?

Yes. Continental breakfasts each morning, full sit-down lunches on Monday and Tuesday, morning and afternoon snacks, and a few evening happy hours. Wednesday’s lunch is on your own, as many in attendance choose to head upstairs to pack and prefer to arrange their own lunch.

Will there be after-hours events?

Yes, we are already busy checking out all of the city’s hotspots. And you haven’t lived until you’ve watched or participated in our famous PowerPoint Trivia Contest, which will take place on Monday, right after the seminars conclude. Imagine a cross between Jeopardy and Family Feud, set to questions about PowerPoint.

How should I dress?

You should be comfortable, however you define it. Some people wear business suits and dresses to our conferences, but most don’t. Most wear pants and slacks, many wear jeans and conference t-shirts, and this close to the ocean, we suspect that sandals and shorts will both make appearances. After all, the expected temps will be mid- to upper-70s…

How do I get there?

Flying into San Diego is easy, with so many airlines offering direct flights or one-stops via major hubs. The Catamaran is located approximately 12 miles from San Diego’s Lindberg Field and transportation can be arranged several different ways. Use the link below to determine what works best for you.

Our dedicated reservation page includes details on transportation and touring.