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Tell an Engaging
Story in Just 90 Seconds
by Adele Sommers
Can you tell
your story in 90 seconds? Similar to an elevator
pitch, I’m talking about a full synopsis of a presentation,
hypothesis, proposal, or mission statement.
 If
you’ve ever had to sell an idea for a project,
for example, you know that mustering facts and data
entails only part of the process. You’ll also need
to add emotional appeal that will lead your audience
to assimilate your ideas in their minds, hearts, and
souls. This article offers highlights of a potent presentation
approach, and suggests how to take it a step further
by distilling your thoughts into an interest-building,
90-second synopsis.
The presentation
approach I’m referring to comes from renowned speaker
and author Cliff Atkinson. He asserts that in order
to convey your ideas convincingly, you should apply
a movie metaphor to carefully craft a rich visual and
auditory narrative instead of relying on an endless
stream of bullet-point lists.
His 2005 book, “Beyond
Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create
Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire,”
spells out a methodology that one can surely apply to
any type of presentation prepared in any medium. (For
more details, visit his Web site at SociableMedia.com.)
According to Atkinson,
to help people make informed decisions about complex
topics, we need to “blend one part storytelling,
one part persuasion, and one part Hollywood screenwriting
to create a powerful approach” to presentations.
But instead of infusing our performances with gratuitous
drama, we can use a rigorous methodology to structure
our critical thinking into compelling, scalable stories
that flow like movies.
 Aiming
the Spotlights
Atkinson’s
formula parallels a three-act play in which the first
few statements (Act I) set the stage for the entire
problem/resolution discussion. Act I should strive to:
1. Establish the
setting
2. Designate the audience members as the main characters
(protagonists)
3. Describe a conflict that the audience is experiencing
4. Explain the audience’s desired state (to rebalance
the situation)
5. Recommend a solution
Act II then “develops
the action” of the presentation by elaborating
on three or four main points of a solution. Act III
recaps the problem, turning point, and resolution to
help the audience fully digest the story. 
Letting the Drama
Unfold
In a presentation
I recently created for a professional group entitled
“An Overview of Creating and Marketing Your Own
Digital Information Products,” I developed the
following high-level outline using Atkinson’s three-act
formula:
Act I (Setting
the stage)
1. Global competition, cooperation, and consumption
are increasing
2. As information professionals, we face shifting occupational
trends
3. Many people with similar skills are competing in
a crowded marketplace
4. Information products offer novel opportunities to
spark attention and add value
5. You can use information products to create new audiences
for your skills
Act II (Developing
the action on the main issues)
1. What are information products, and how do
we ourselves consume them?
2. Why would we want to produce information products?
3. How do you create and market digital information
products?
Act III (The
turning point and resolution)
1. Don’t risk being overcome by competition, obsolescence,
and unfulfilled dreams
2. You can create information products to attract new
audiences for your talents
3. The types of products you produce will depend on
your goals
4. Using a 7-step process, you’ll lay a solid foundation
for success
 I
expanded the above outline into a presentation that
can easily last two hours, depending on the amount of
detail I choose to provide. Yet I also wanted to produce
a short overview that would require no more than two
minutes to explain the program. (Indeed, Atkinson
refers to a five-minute version of a presentation that
you can derive when pressed for time.) So, that leads
us to...
Creating a 90-Second
Synopsis
From my original
two-hour presentation, I produced an 86-second narrated
Flash overview that runs from my Web site. Here’s
how I did it:
1. Using a copy
of the original presentation, I removed all slides except
the ones representing the initial outline and a few
transitions that helped the presentation flow more smoothly.
2. I recorded a
voice-over with PowerPoint’s built-in slideshow
narration features using a CD-quality setting.
3. I then used TechSmith’s
Camtasia
Studio to record the visuals and audio while the
completed PowerPoint slideshow was playing. (With Camtasia
Studio's PowerPoint Add-in, you could easily combine
steps 2 and 3 by using the Camtasia Record button
on the PowerPoint toolbar.)
4. To convert the
Camtasia recording to Flash, I used Camtasia’s
production tools and selected the Flash output options
I desired.
5. I published the
resulting .swf, XML, and HTML files to my Web site.
To
see the resulting 86-second overview, follow this link.
In conclusion,
for any type of presentation you have in mind —
be it marketing, informational, technical, or instructional
— you can use Atkinson’s authoring approach
to strengthen your logical and emotional case, which
will leave your audience with clearer and more compelling
reasons to embrace your ideas. And by producing a 90-second
narrated synopsis, you can entice your audiences to
consume your story, either in advance of your live presentation
or after the fact.
Copyright 2006 Adele Sommers
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This
newsletter issue focuses on using persuasive story-telling
to communicate compelling and convincing concepts
to your colleagues, clients, customers, employers,
personnel, and students. At stake are the project
ideas, proposals, and pipe dreams you have incubating
in your think tank that are begging to launch this year.
Have
you attended a Webinar lately? The term Webinar
is short for “Web seminar,” which refers to
the virtual meeting space where 
