Use cases › Talks and webinars
A talk, not a report with a projector pointed at it.
Conference slides have a different job. They support a person who is speaking, which means an arc instead of an agenda and six words on a slide instead of sixty.
Every other deck on this site is read. A conference talk is watched, and that changes what a slide is for. The audience cannot re-read the previous slide, cannot skip ahead, and is listening to you rather than to the screen.
So the slide stops being the argument and becomes punctuation for it. One idea per slide, a number large enough to be read from the back, and no paragraph anyone has to choose between reading and listening to.
The structure changes too. A business deck opens with the conclusion because the reader is busy. A talk earns its conclusion, because the audience has already given you the twenty minutes and what they want is to be taken somewhere.
The offline export exists for exactly this room
Conference wifi is a known hazard, and so is the moment a laptop is handed to an organizer who has a different version of everything. Every deck also exports as one self-contained HTML file with the fonts and images inlined. It opens in a browser on any machine, with no network and no login.
PowerPoint and PDF are there too. The HTML file is the one that survives the venue.
What a good one contains
Six slides that earn their place, and what belongs on each.
The opening image or the opening question
Something that buys you the first ninety seconds. Not a title slide with your job history on it.
An audience decides whether to keep listening well before you get to the agenda.
The tension The thing that is broken, or surprising, or not what everybody assumes.
No tension, no talk. This is the slide that makes the rest matter.
The turn What you found, did, or changed your mind about. One idea, stated plainly.
If this needs three slides, it is three talks.
The evidence One number or one example, big enough to read from the back of the room.
Charts that need a legend need a handout instead.
What it means for the room The part the audience can use on Monday, aimed at them rather than at your company.
Generosity here is what gets you invited back.
One closing line The sentence you want quoted. Nothing else on the slide.
Do not end on a thank-you slide. End on the idea.
How it goes
From an abstract, an outline or a transcript
A previous version of the talk works well. So does the session abstract you submitted.
Audience: Customers, and a short length band
The length band is what keeps the word count per slide down.
Midnight, for a dark room
A projector in a lit hall and a screen in a dark one are different problems. Midnight handles the second.
The self-contained HTML file
One file, fonts and images inlined, opens on any laptop with no network and no account.
Questions
How is this different from the other use cases?
Every other deck here is read. A talk is watched, so the slide stops carrying the argument and starts punctuating it. That means one idea per slide, a short length band, and numbers large enough to read from the back rather than a chart with a legend.
What happens if the conference wifi fails?
Nothing, if you took the HTML export. Every deck exports as one self-contained file with the fonts and images inlined, which opens in a browser on any laptop with no network and no login. PowerPoint and PDF are available too.
Can I start from the abstract I submitted?
Yes. An abstract, an outline, a transcript of an earlier version of the talk, or notes all work as the starting point.
Which theme works best on a projector?
Midnight for a dark room, where a light deck is uncomfortable to look at for twenty minutes. Northwind or Slate hold up better in a lit hall. All five are built in and a deck can be switched between them in one action.