Last week I attended a B2B marketing conference in Boston hosted by MarketingProfs. The event was fabulous and very thought provoking! The speakers were incredible. Nancy Duarte, one of the keynote speakers, she spoke on the how to present powerful and persuasive presentations. Nancy’s voice was calm but extremely engaging. Her presentation left everyone wanting more. Watch the video below to get a feel of what I experienced. Tweets were flying right and left giving her high marks and sharing mini highlights of her session. You can check out all of the Tweets for Nancy’s keynote speech by performing a search in Twitter on #mpb2b @nancyduarte. Wow, who wouldn’t want these type of comments during and after a presentation?

After her presentation, most of us in the audience began to ponder how we could improve and apply what we had learned to our own presentations. She released a book last fall which complemented her presentation. Check out her book and reviews on Amazon. Of course, I had to purchase her new book, Resonate, and get a signed copy.

Resonate by Nancy Duarte: Click here to purchase the book!

Here are my five top takeaways from Nancy’s presentation:

• Remind your audience how things are now
• Enlighten your audience how things can be
• Tell your audience stories
• Make your audience laugh
• Show your audience the new bliss

Nancy’s book explains step-by-step how to develop these type of memorable presentations. The book is also chock-full of beautiful illustrations. Creating powerful and engaging presentations is great skill set to add to your designer’s toolkit.