Writing Conference Presentations

261 hours per year on PowerPoint. That’s how much time the average person spends working on their slides. That’s a staggering amount of time. What’s worse? Most of it is wasted on formatting! People often ask me how I prepare my PowerPoint presentations. My answer surprises them: “I don’t think in slides. I think in concepts and stories.” For me, slides are not the starting point—they’re the final step. Instead of being constrained by Slide 1, Slide 2…Chart 1, Chart 2, I focus on crafting a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. My way: Story 1st, Slides 2nd This mindset shift happened years ago, and it transformed how I present. Here’s my simple 3-step framework for building impactful presentations: 1️⃣ Set the plot Start by painting a vivid picture of a problem or situation. Create a gap that sparks curiosity and propels your audience out of complacency. Think about why so many stories begin with, “Once upon a time…” It’s an invitation to a journey. 2️⃣ Add the twist Introduce contrast. Show the audience the gap between what is and what could be. Guide them through a transformation. As you alternate between the present and the envisioned future, make the latter irresistibly appealing. 3️⃣ Call to action End on a high note. Inspire your audience with a compelling vision of what’s possible if they embrace your ideas. Give them a clear, actionable next step. Once I’ve nailed the story structure, the data, charts, and slides naturally fall into place. PowerPoint: a tool, not a hindrance With this approach, I’m not constrained by slide sequences or formats. I can adapt to audience questions, improvise, and make the presentation more engaging and memorable. The story drives the presentation, and PowerPoint simply becomes the tool that enhances it. What about you? The next time you start a presentation, take a step back. Are you designing slides—or are you telling a story? Shift your focus. Start with the story, not the slides. And watch your presentations transform from forgettable to unforgettable. If you found this helpful, try this approach in your next presentation, and let me know how it goes!

One great presentation can do what multiple applications can't. Over the years, my presentations have earned awards, speaking invitations, and opportunities I never applied for. Most recently, at MAA MathFest 2024, someone from the audience approached me and said: "Your talk was so engaging. You made such a complex topic accessible." On the spot, he invited me to speak to high school students in Chicago. Full expenses paid + speaker fee. Here is the framework I use every single time... (You might want to save this.) 1. Know your audience before you make a single slide → Kids? Public? Policy makers? Academics? → Your job is to design your talk to suit them. → Picture one person in the audience, let's call them "Bola." 2. Map out the entire talk first → Write the takeaway from each slide in one sentence. → Connect each slide logically to the next. → Ask yourself: Will Bola digest this information? 3. Ditch the jargon → Would Bola understand this? → If not, go back to the drawing board. → Use simple, plain English. 4. Make it visual → One message per slide. Big font. Bullet points. → Use visuals or illustrations instead of text (if possible.)  → The moment your audience starts reading your slides, you've lost them. 5. Practice as you build each slide → After creating each slide, ask: What will I say here? → This reveals what to add, remove, or fix as you go. → Once done, practice the full presentation again. 6. Never read off your slides during delivery → Deliver like you're telling a story. → Everything on screen is just supporting visuals. → Know your slides inside out. Keep eye contact. 7. Use your body language intentionally → Don't stare at the ceiling, ground, or stand frozen. → Your movement and energy speak louder than words. → This automatically communicates confidence and authority. Great presentations aren’t about showing how smart you are. They’re about making your audience feel something... curiosity, clarity, and inspiration. That’s what makes you memorable. And that’s what opens doors. --- PS: What's ONE thing that's helped you improve your presentations? PPS: Want to see this framework in action? Link to the Chicago talk is in the comments. ♻️ REPOST if this was useful. Thanks!

Most presentations don’t fail because they lack data. They fail because nothing moves. Stories take us HOME. Not geographically. Neurologically. HOME isn’t a metaphor I’m borrowing. It’s a biological response. H.O.M.E. Human Oxytocin Mediated Empathy. (a concept by Paul Zak aka Dr. Love) When a story truly moves us, the brain releases oxytocin, the same chemical responsible for trust, bonding, and empathy. And here’s the important part: oxytocin doesn’t disappear when the story ends. It lingers. That’s why some stories stay with us long after the room empties. I first encountered this idea through Stories That Stick by Kindra Hall, and it fundamentally changed how I think about storytelling; not just on stage or in workshops, but in business, leadership, and everyday communication. Because if stories create a lasting emotional effect, we have to ask ourselves a harder question: What effect are we creating? Think about it. You’ve probably sat through hundreds of presentations this year. Most of them are gone. Completely erased. But a few remain. Not because they were clever. Not because they had great slides. But because they made you feel something. That’s HOME at work. When someone feels your idea, their brain tags it as important. Not urgent. Not impressive. Important enough to keep. So how do we create HOME in our stories? • Don’t just inform. Connect. Facts explain. Stories remain. • Stay with the struggle. Tension, vulnerability, transformation—that’s where oxytocin is released. • End with resonance, not closure. Let the feeling linger. • Be human, not abstract. People connect to people, not “case studies.” • And allow silence. Don’t rush to explain. Let the emotion settle. Stories don’t just communicate. They change the listener. Long after the slides are forgotten, long after the meeting ends, the story stays. That isn’t magic. That’s HOME. If your story doesn’t linger, it hasn’t finished its job yet. #Storytelling #RoshanAbbas #Decks #Presentations #BusinessStory

Some executives inspire action. Others get ignored. Why? Because facts fade. Stories stick. After a 1-minute pitch, Stanford research found: ⟶ 5% recalled a statistic ⟶ 63% remembered the stories Here’s how storytelling can reshape your career: Too often, leaders default to data dumps: ⟶ Dense board decks ⟶ Endless bullet points in team updates ⟶ Info overload in all-hands meetings The result? Information is shared—impact is lost. After a career in corporate communications, I know firsthand how storytelling makes the message stick. Here are four ways to bring your messages to life with narrative: 🟡 Board Meetings ⟶ Don’t just share quarterly results—frame them as a journey: What challenge did you overcome? What shifted? ⟶ When outlining strategy, position it as the next chapter in a larger story. People engage with progress they can visualize. 🟡 Team Communications ⟶ Go beyond status updates—share moments of resilience, creativity, or lessons learned. ⟶ Instead of reciting company values, illustrate them with real team examples that people remember. 🟡 Customer Presentations ⟶ Open with a real customer journey: their pain point, your partnership, and the change they experienced. ⟶ Before/after stories make transformation tangible—more than any stat ever could. 🟡 Change Management ⟶ Paint a picture of the future state so people see themselves in it—not just the steps to get there. ⟶ Share your own experience navigating change to build empathy and trust. ↓ ↓ Want to start? 1/ Look for the human impact inside your metrics 2/ Use a simple structure: beginning, conflict, resolution 3/ Practice with small stories—in meetings, Slack, or 1:1s 4/ Always end with a clear shift or takeaway Facts inform, but stories move people. Try adding one story to your next presentation using these ideas—then watch what changes. P.S. Have you used any of these approaches already? I’d love to hear what worked. ♻ Repost to help your network lead with more story. (Research: Jennifer Aaker, Stanford GSB)

I often say, “𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑢𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠, 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑟𝑠.” Public speaking is not just about knowing your subject. After all, knowing the words to a song doesn’t mean you can sing it. To engage an audience, you need to deliver your content in a way that captures attention. After delivering my keynote at a construction industry conference, I led a breakout session and coached volunteers on their presentations. That’s when I made my statement. A gentleman in the third row raised his hand and said, “Ms. Fripp, my subject’s boring.” I was up for the challenge. “What’s your subject?” I asked. He replied, “I teach OSHA rules and regulations—for five hours.” I’ll admit, that’s not easy material. I invited him to the front and asked, “Tell me one rule.” He said, “You have to wear your safety goggles.” “Good,” I replied. “Now, tell me about a time someone didn’t wear their goggles. Let’s imagine the story from his wife’s point of view.” Here’s how I suggested he begin his presentation: “Imagine you’re a 22-year-old wife and mother of two. One morning, you kiss your 24-year-old husband goodbye as he heads to work. While drilling through concrete, a chunk flies out and hits him in the eye—because he wasn’t wearing his safety goggles. He ends up in the hospital. You nurse him back to health. Now, how do you feel when he returns to that same site, knowing he still won’t wear his goggles?” With that opening, he immediately had his audience’s attention. From there, he could transition naturally into the regulations: “Welcome. As you know, OSHA construction regulations consist of hundreds of specific standards and subsections under 29 CFR 1926. Each year, new updates and revisions are added. This morning, let us reinforce why it’s crucial to stay vigilant and ensure your crews follow these guidelines.” The audience gasped—and then went wild. That’s the power of story. Even the driest content can come alive when you frame it with people, emotion, and relevance. Whether you’re explaining safety regulations, software code, or financial reports, your audience deserves more than information. They deserve an experience. That’s what I help my audiences and clients create. #presentationskillsexpert #keynotespeaker #publicspeaking #frippvt

Stop starting presentations with "Good morning" and agendas. Your transformation deserves an opening that matches its importance. Instead of this, if you started as: "What if I told you one decision could save us 2 million dollars this year?" Same content. Completely different results. The 9 ways to open presentations that actually matter: ✅ Strike with Visuals: Show the future state before explaining how to get there ✅ Connect Through Stories: Share relatable experiences that mirror their challenges ✅ Make Bold Promises: Commit to specific outcomes they'll achieve ✅ Create Interaction: Get them participating before they start resisting ✅ Share Personal Stakes: Reveal why this transformation matters to you ✅ Tell Success Stories: Transport them to organizations that got it right ✅ Quote Thought Leaders: Borrow credibility from respected voices ✅ Ask Disruptive Questions: Challenge assumptions they didn't know they had ✅ Present Shocking Statistics: Use data that reframes their perspective The transformation communication principle: Engagement is earned in the first 60 seconds, Not assumed throughout 60 minutes. Most leaders bury their most compelling content in the middle of presentations. The most effective leaders lead with their strongest material. Your opening sets the tone for everything that follows: - Energy level - Attention span - Receptivity to change - Willingness to participate The presentations that create lasting transformation Begin with moments that create immediate connection. And focus on the right change, by subscribing to my free newsletter here: news.sarajunio.com

Everyone loves a good story. You should be using your data to tell one every chance you get. The importance of narrative in scientific communication cannot be understated. And that includes communication in traditionally technical environments! One thing that gets beaten into you in graduate school is that a scientific presentation is a technical affair. Communicating science is fact based, it's black and white, here's the data, this is the conclusion, do you have any questions? Actually, I do. Did you think about what story your data could tell before you put your slides together? I know this is a somewhat provocative question because a lot of scientists overlook the importance of telling a story when they present results. But if you want to keep your audience engaged and interested in what you have to say, you should think about your narrative! This is true for a presentation at 'The Mountain Lake Lodge Meeting on Post-Initiation Activities of RNA Polymerases,' the 'ACMG Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting,' or to a class of 16 year old AP Biology Students. The narrative doesn't need to be the same for all of those audiences, BUT IT SHOULD EXIST! There is nothing more frustrating to me than seeing someone give a presentation filled with killer data only to watch them blow it by putting the entire audience to sleep with an arcane technical overview of the scientific method. Please. Tell. A. Story. With. Your. Data. Here's how: 1. Plot - the series of events that drive the story forward to its resolution. What sets the scene, the hypothesis or initial observation? How can the data be arranged to create a beginning, middle, and end? 2. Theme - Good vs Evil, Human vs Virus, Day in the life of a microbe? Have fun with this (even just as a thought experiment) because it makes a big difference. 3. Character development - the team, the protein, gene, or model system 4. Conflict - What were the blockers and obstacles? Needed a new technique? Refuting a previous finding? 5. Climax - the height of the struggle. Use your data to build to a climax. How did one question lead to another and how were any problems overcome? 6. Resolution - What's the final overall conclusion and how was the conflict that was setup in the beginning resolved by what you found? By taking the time to work through what story you can tell, you can engage your entire audience and they'll actually remember what you had to say!

Most presentations are built completely backwards. You open your slide deck and start piecing something together that sounds close enough to a comprehensible narrative. You take shortcuts because you know there will be a prompter or you can read your notes on the virtual call. But, If you want to be persuasive, if you want your team to feel part of something bigger than themselves, you need to put your slides down and start designing an experience. This takes time, thought, and actual care. Not last-minute and rushed formatting energy. Here are four shifts I want you to try: 👉 ONE: Put your slides away. Close the deck. Yes, really. Slides are support. They are not strategy. They are not meaning. When you start with visuals, you start decorating before you know what the room actually needs. You end up solving layout problems instead of communication problems. 👉 TWO: Get clear. Why this talk. Why now. Why these people. 👉 THREE: Design for the person with the least context in the room. Your audience is never one type of human. You have different learners. You have experts. You have new people. You have customers. You have folks who are pretending to understand and hoping no one calls on them. Ask yourself, who in this room has the least background on this topic, and how is this landing for them? This is not about watering anything down. It is about being concise and intentional. It is about cutting the extra language, the internal shorthand, the industry speak that makes you sound smart but leaves half the room behind. When you do this well, the experts still feel respected and everyone else can actually track with you. That is how trust gets built. 👉 FOUR: And this is a biggy, get your audience involved in the content! Not just emotionally. Actually involved. Yes, people should see themselves in your stories. That is step one. Step two is participation. Are you asking real questions or just talking at them? Are they turning to each other at any point? Are they thinking, choosing, reacting? Are you showing something in action instead of explaining it to death? Engagement is not just being charismatic at the front of the room. It is shared experience. When people do something with you, even something small, the message lands in their body, not just their notes. A presentation is not a slide deck with a human attached. It is a live moment with actual people. Treat it like that, and your talks stop feeling like information and start feeling like something worth being in the room for. Nobody want to be talked at anymore. People want community. What are you doing to build this? #publicspeaking #meaning #leadership #presentations #engagement

Storytelling isn't just for bedtime tales or Netflix series. It's the secret weapon that can make investors lean in and commit to investing. Here's the thing, investors are bombarded with pitches daily. They've seen every chart, spreadsheet, and growth projection imaginable. But what they rarely see? A compelling narrative that makes them feel something. Your startup's journey is unique. It's filled with challenges, pivotal moments, and small victories that led you to where you are today. That's your gold mine. Start with your origin story. What problem did you encounter that sparked your idea? Paint a vivid picture of that moment. Make investors feel the frustration you felt. Then, take them through your evolution. The late nights, the failed prototypes, the moment you realized you were onto something big. Don't shy away from the setbacks – they show resilience. Introduce your team as characters in this story. What makes them the perfect cast for this adventure? Investors aren't just backing an idea; they're backing people. Now, here's where it gets interesting. Frame your market opportunity as the next chapter waiting to be written. How will your solution change lives? Create a vision of the future that's so compelling, investors can't help but want to be part of it. Remember, facts tell, but stories sell. Weave your metrics and projections into the narrative. Don't just say you have product-market fit – tell the story of your first customer who couldn't live without your product. The best part? A well-told story sticks. Long after the pitch deck is closed, your narrative will be what investors remember and share with their partners. So, next time you're prepping for that big pitch, put down the spreadsheets for a moment. Ask yourself: "What's the story I'm really telling here?" That's where the magic happens.

The power of storytelling isn't just in the tale you tell. It's in the response you evoke. Want to move people to action? Here's how. Forget long-winded introductions. They know who you are, so start in the middle of the action. Imagine this: You're standing on stage, heart pounding. The audience is silent, waiting. You take a deep breath and.... just begin painting a vivid picture. That's how you grab attention. No background needed. Now, don't just tell, show. Details make your story real. They transport your audience. But skip the statistics and focus on what you felt, heard, see. For example... "The red velvet curtains rustle. A faint scent of beer lingers in the air. Your palms are sweaty against the cool microphone." But here's the secret sauce: tension or a twist. Keep them guessing. Build anticipation. For example... "You hear it. The heckler. There is always one in the crowd, and usually you take it personally. But this time you're ready, and your stand-up comedy routine is, too." Your story needs a destination. But forget the "moral of the story." Instead, end with a call to action. A "let's" statement. "Let's rewrite our stories to turn life's hecklers into a positive. Let's be prepared. Let's start now." This moves your audience from passive listeners to active participants. Remember: 1. Start in the middle 2. Include vivid details 3. Add tension or a twist 4. End with a "let's" statement Master these elements, and you'll do more than tell stories. You'll inspire action. You'll create change. You'll move people. Next time you communicate, whether in a presentation, an email, or a casual conversation, try this approach. Watch as your words transform from mere information to catalysts for commitment.