Last month, the Colorado Springs outpost of AIGA Colorado hosted their second Shop Talk (our series of design-related talks hosted in Colorado Springs). This rainy evening, we got to improve our own speaking skills as the entertaining Paul Vorreiter of Reflective Spark gave us some surefire tips on talking about design as well as we do design. The first tip of the night? Bullet points kill people.

Paul started off with a bang (pun intended), and the energy didn’t let up all evening. He lead us through how to set up presentations to impress clients in the first 30 seconds, creating slides that don’t suck (see tip #1) and the boy scout rule that trips even experienced presenters up the most (always being prepared – meaning test, prepare and always have a backup!).

As someone who spent many a weekend at speech and debate tournaments in school, followed by numerous presentations over my career, some of these tips at first seemed no-brainers. But with Paul’s stories and examples of prominent people who seem to fail at these tips (and knowing that despite past experience, I and others in attendance still fall in some of these traps), the Shop Talk was a great reminder to up our design presentation game with a few helpful tips to implement immediately. Everyone in attendance also got a free download of Paul’s eBook for further learning – free stuff, bonus!

Hosted by the Machine Shop, a collaborative creative studio that is home for the COS outpost of AIGA, the talk had a cozy, conversational vibe to it that allowed for a great Q+A with Paul after his presentation, as well as fun conversations that lasted later into the evening (over snacks, of course). A big thank you to Paul for coming out and giving an insightful and inspirational presentation.

With Shop Talk events returning in the fall featuring more informative, inspirational topics in an accessible, conversational atmosphere, they are sure to be a series worth checking out. Stay tuned!

shoptalk

shoptalk

shoptalk

shoptalk