"Made to stick" authors on avoiding presentation mistakes

Chip and Dean Heath, authors of the best selling book "Made to Stick" devoted this month's column in Fast Company magazine to How to avoid making a bad presentation.
It is an interesting read. Two key messages for me:
  • Firstly: "before your audience will value the information you're giving, they've got to want it. Most presenters take that desire for granted. Great presentations are mysteries, not encyclopedia entries."
  • Secondly: puting the use of stock images into perspective. They are definitely better than clip art, but spending hours to find that perfect image to support let's say "innovation" ("which one, the bunny coming out of the magician's hat or the smiley-face guy with a light bulb over his head") will not help you communicate the concept better.
Apologies for the many apostrophe an quotation mark errors in this post, too many HTML codes to put in.