I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Sean McManus of The Economist on their upcoming conference about innovation in March.  (Check it out here:  http://ideas.economist.com/event/innovation)  My task is to put together 5 San Francisco based speakers to do Ignite-style presentations on the topic of innovation.  The best part about the current stage task is researching and discovering new folks, new topics, new passions.  One such person that I stumbled on is Victor Diaz, an educator who spoke at TEDxSFED  (http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxSFED-Victor-Diaz)  Right topic for my task, not really, but inspirational none the less.  He assigns his fellow educators a task that I’d like assign to you, presentation makers and givers:  Ask you audience how they do it.

He’s talking about asking students how they make it to school, despite the crazy lives they live (poverty, abuse, etc), but I think the lesson can be passed onto anyone wanting to impart knowledge onto another.  Ask your audience how they get through their work, their tasks, lives.  It’ll help you understand them better and will help you cater your materials to their needs.

And on another note, his presentation is really beautiful.  Simple words, no clutter, interesting patterned background.  Something worth checking out if you want some inspiration for your own presentation design!