The Lecture Sketch
Despite having zero artistic talent, I’ve gotten into the habit of using sketching software and a small tablet for my conference lecturing (ie, instead of PowerPoint).
I have the tendency to use a lot of photos and discuss diagrams and charts. Actually drawing the charts live seems to be more engaging than throwing a complex chart up on screen.
And now, looks like there is a book to support this: The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam. Which, by the way, I came across via the speed review in Convene.
Anyway, I’ve done it this way a for about a year now and have gotten very positive feedback. And, actually, presentations are much easier to prepare since I'm not wasting time formatting bullets and whatnot... Below is a stitch of all of the “sketches” from one of my past lectures.
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Comments
Hey Jason, you could have found out about The Back of the Napkin sooner had you listened to my podcast with the book's author, Dan Roam, back in March. ;>) You can find it here:
http://tinyurl.com/3b8sfe
Enjoy!
Posted by: Jeff De Cagna | May 17, 2008 8:01 PM
People interested in visual thinking might want to check a new organization/conference that has sprung up in the last year: VizThink:
http://www.vizthink.com
Posted by: Jeffrey Cufaude | May 17, 2008 9:12 PM
Love the concept, Jason. Haven't read the book, yet (or listened to Jeff's podcast, hehe) but I'm all for anything that gets us away from the boring powerpoint presentations that have become the standard. Yuck. Hate giving them, hate listening to them.
Posted by: Lindy Dreyer | May 21, 2008 12:33 PM
Jason, not sure if you will still see this comment (I am a bit late to the conversation), but I LOVE this idea. I can put together a pretty snazzy PowerPoint, but they bore my to tears at this point.
So, before I go out and buy a tablet and sketch software, how does this work? Can you line your whole presentation like a series of slides(I see you include a lot of photos) or are they all different files? Do you preload all of your photos or other graphics you want to interact with? Is 6X8 a big enough space?
Posted by: Scott Steen | June 26, 2008 5:08 PM