How I made my "PowerPoint" presentation from West Coast Green

Ever since my talk last week at West Coast Green, I have received dozens and dozens of emails from people asking, "How did you get PowerPoint to do that?!"

Well, in reality, I didn't.

First, use the right tools. Like most Microsoft products, PowerPoint lacks good design sensibilities. After years of trying to push it to do what I wanted to do with colors, fonts and video, I gave up.

The real reason I am able to make these presentations so visually rich is using Apple's Keynote. Keynote handles these elements far better than PowerPoint. C'mon, you should ditch that PC and have a Mac anyway.

Secondly, my speaking style is much more ancedotal. My job is to take this technical information and distill it into stories. As a presenter, my goal is to remove as much text as possible from the slides. You'll notice there are no bullet points on the slides, and the text is made obnoxiously large to reiterate the point.

At several points along the presentation, I have no slides at all, just an image or movie running in the background as I tell a story. For more on this technique, check out Merlin Mann's wonderful blog 43 Folders and especially his story on his own presentations.

Lastly, I am no expert on public speaking. Between teaching and traveling to conferences, I just get to to it a whole lot and the practice helps me. I also get to watch hundreds of other speakers each year and see how boring many talks can be.

To prevent boredom, I am experimenting with several techniques, including the Takahashi Method and the Guy Kawasaki Method for storytelling with visuals. The more I know about these ways to convey information, the more I realize how much great orators, such as Bill Clinton, are able to give a speech with such power using only words.

For more on using Keynote in a positive (double entrendre) way read on here and here.

DOWNLOAD MY FULL WEST COAST GREEN KEYNOTE (not PowerPoint) here (26 MB PDF)

Freed gets fiesty (a review of my talk at West Coast Green)

Green real estate blogger Keith from Greenerati wrote a review of my keynote presentation at West Coast Green. Now, I am friends with Keith, so he knows me well enough to call me "fiesty" in a good way.

Read the full story here.

You can download a PDF of my full keynote presentation here (though you miss my talk and the cool animations on the slides).

Interview with HousingZone

I just did a short interview with HousingZone on green issues.

Read the interview here...

More West Coast Green buzz in the paper today

I was interviewed for the San Francisco Chronicle to talk about West Coast Green.

My favorite part? Being described as "cheeky."

An excerpt:
Back for its sophomore edition, the nation's largest green building conference really puts its money where its mouth is by erecting a green modular home in front of the auditorium on a patch of grass below Mayor Gavin Newsom's balcony in City Hall.
Dubbed the Lotus, the 725-square-foot home is the brainchild of green architect Michelle Kaufmann and boasts solar panels, LED lights, a gray-water system that collects water from sinks and the shower and recirculates it to toilets, an energy-saving "on-demand" water heater and native landscaping. For those who'll need to take a load off just to contemplate the home's ramifications, there's also a backyard complete with chaise longues.

full story

Escher's "Relativity" out of LEGOs

Self proclaimed professional nerd Andrew Lipson has re-created M.C. Escher's famous drawing, "Relativity" out of LEGOs.

As a kid, I used to try to copy Escher's incredible work, but I only used pencil and paper. You can see more construction photos here.



More on Escher...

My current TV Profile

I was just interviewed for Current TV (the Al Gore user created content channel). I hate the sound of my voice, so I couldn't watch the whole thing, but it is beautifully edited.

Please be sure to vote for it when you watch.

Watch now...

A World Without Us?

In a wonderful thought experience, Alan Wiseman's new book A World Without Us poses the question, "What would the Earth be like if we just vanished?"

The idea poses a unique method to look at the issues surrounding environmentalism, especially in a reverse engineering kind of way.

Wiseman's site offers images of what this transition would look like.

Order Wiseman's book here from Amazon.

New Scientist Magazine touches on the same idea in their article:
"Imagine Earth without people "

The article begins:
Humans are undoubtedly the most dominant species the Earth has ever known. In just a few thousand years we have swallowed up more than a third of the planet's land for our cities, farmland and pastures. By some estimates, we now commandeer 40 per cent of all its productivity. And we're leaving quite a mess behind: ploughed-up prairies, razed forests, drained aquifers, nuclear waste, chemical pollution, invasive species, mass extinctions and now the looming spectre of climate change. If they could, the other species we share Earth with would surely vote us off the planet.

Now just suppose they got their wish.

Pretty freaky, huh? The article continues...
The same lack of maintenance will spell an early demise for buildings, roads, bridges and other structures. Though modern buildings are typically engineered to last 60 years, bridges 120 years and dams 250, these lifespans assume someone will keep them clean, fix minor leaks and correct problems with foundations. Without people to do these seemingly minor chores, things go downhill quickly.