Last week at the Voices That Matter Conference, I was privaleged to attend a great presentation on how to give great presentations. Garr Reynolds, the author of Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, wowed the crowd by creating a compelling and informative presentation using Power Point (actually he was using Keynote, but Power-Point has become the "Band-Aid" of slide software). Unlike other information design experts (ie. Edward Tufte), Garr has a lot of hope for Power-point presentations, but with a few helpful suggestions (paraphrased here):

This past weekend was hectic for the New York art scene. The grand Armory Show came to Chelsea along with a slew of other less exalted fairs. The crowning event for me was the cultish photo event, the Slideluck Potshow, at the Chelsea Art Museum.

Slideluck originally began as a social gathering in an apartment and quickly burgeoned into a massive party. The main concept of Slideluck is based around the dual interaction of a potluck and a slide-show. An attendee must bring food/beverage to participate in the slide-show watching, which begins post desultory shop-talk and a grub session of mostly chocolaty deserts. The participating photographers range from celebrated professional to emerging amateur, but the images are always of the highest caliber. The participating audience is a mixed bag, but all are welcome to attend.

The most recent Slideluck was the first true combination of still photography and multimedia. The past attempts to include audio beyond music didn't succeed due to the overly-chatty atmosphere of the events. The recent combination of fewer freebie- hunters (the event is now paid-membership based), the leveled architecture of the Chelsea Art Museum, and the sophisticated content of the multimedia, fostered an attentive crowd. Or perhaps we now just expect more than images...

The once wee face of Slide-luck is converting into a diversified project-- both in location and work presented. It's worth the membership.