Presenting some recent items about using stories in presentations:

• IGNITE: Like pecha kucha, the minimalist, Japanese form of presentation that inspired it, IGNITE presentations are not strictly related to storytelling. But given that both pecha kucha and IGNITE are kind of an anti-PowerPoint approach to presentations, and storytelling is an anti-PowerPoint approach, there’s a relationship. And when I say that IGNITE is anti-PowerPoint, I really mean anti-boring, deadly PowerPoint, because IGNITE still employs slides (as does pecha kucha). It’s just that “presenters get 20 slides and five minutes to make their point,” says the IGNITE site (and the slides advance automatically every 15 seconds). So, we can think of IGNITE as another way to tell a story. A stunning — albeit fictional — example of a story told in IGNITE fashion is Flash Mob Gone Wrong, told at Ignite London 2 by Tom Scott (who was interviewed about the project here). In an IGNITE presentation I learned of through my friend Stewart Marshall (see his blog post on how IGNITE and pecha kucha events can help improve one’s speaking skills), Scott Berkun asserts that storytelling is the way to go in an IGNITE talk. See his inspiring talk below:
• Storytelling, Not Facts: I’ve written a lot about Nancy Duarte and her new(ish) book Resonate in this space (as well as presented a Q&A with her), but a terrific article that provides an overview of the storytelling-in-presentations principles she developed for the book is Why we hate PowerPoints — and how to fix them, which appeared on the CNN site among other places. Here, Duarte said:

  Great presenters employ the basic narrative techniques used throughout history to connect with audiences and move them to action and new understanding. [UPDATE: Here’s a more recent Duarte piece — from the Wall Street Journal.]

• How to Tell a Story. My friend Sean Buvala, for whom telling a story is pretty much synonymous with giving a presentation, asserts that “one of the most searched-for communication skills on the Internet is ‘how to tell a story.’” I believe him, because that is certainly one of the questions I get asked most often. Sean, who offers a massive number of resources oh his Storyteller.net site, provides one very simple one as a starting place — a short article called How to Tell a Story.
• Finally … I am tempted to post one of the best storied presentations I’ve seen in a long time — by Park Howell. But Park has committed to a Q&A with me, so it’s best to wait and post it with his Q&A. If you just can’t wait, do a search for him on SlideShare.