At a recent talk in Hobart, I had 90 slides. Thirty minutes. Ninety slides. If you’re doing the maths, that’s three slides a minute. Which sounds… fast. By most presentation advice, that’s a problem. Too fast.Too much.Too many chances to lose the room. Afterwards, no one mentioned it. Not one comment about pace.Not one raised eyebrow about slide count. Because they hadn’t noticed. 💡 ONE IDEA WELL The “one slide per minute” rule has been around for years. It sounds sensible. Clean. Reassuring....
15 days ago • 1 min read
Most presenters don’t realise when they disappear. It usually happens the moment they step behind the lectern. Not their voice. Their presence. Because nothing obvious changes. The slides are still there. The microphone still works. The words still come out. From the audience’s point of view, the talk continues. But something else quietly drops away. The energy.The connection.The sense that this is a person… not just a presentation. And often, it’s not deliberate. It’s instinct. When the room...
19 days ago • 1 min read
The first time I walked into an emergency department as a medical student, I had a reference point. Not a textbook.Not a lecture. ER Just before I started, I’d watched Noah Wyle step into County General as a junior doctor. Same scrubs.Same uncertainty.Same attempt to look like I belonged. At least, that’s what I told myself. Because here’s the truth: I thought if I sounded like a doctor, no one would notice I didn’t yet think like one. 💡 ONE IDEA WELL Fast forward a couple of decades, and...
22 days ago • 1 min read
Last month, I found myself sitting inside Melbourne Town Hall listening to Anna Lapwood play the pipe organ. If you’ve never heard a cathedral organ played live, it’s hard to describe. The sound doesn’t just travel through the air. It travels through the floor.Through the wooden seats.Through your ribs. At times, the whole hall seemed to vibrate. But the thing that struck me most wasn’t the sound. It was her energy. Lapwood didn’t walk onto the stage in the solemn way you might expect from...
29 days ago • 2 min read
I was sitting halfway back in a local cinema. My kids beside me, hands deep in bags of sweets. On screen, Mario and Luigi were racing through the desert.Bright. Loud. Familiar. The sound effects were all there.The cues I recognised instantly. But the voice wasn’t. Chris Pratt instead of Charles Martinet. It should have worked. It didn’t. Next to me, my kids were completely absorbed. I wasn’t. A few days later, I found myself leaning forward in the same seat. A quiet karaoke scene before...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Why are we so uncomfortable with silence? In presentations. In meetings.In conversations. The moment a room goes quiet, we rush to fill it. Another slide. Another example. One more clarification. As if silence were failure. It isn’t. 💡 ONE IDEA WELL There’s a Japanese concept called ma (間). It means “the space between.” Not empty space.Intentional space. A painting isn’t just pigment - it’s pigment framed by blank canvas.Music isn’t just sound - it’s sound punctuated by rest.A powerful...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
I watched the recordings of my talks this week. It’s not a comfortable experience. You see things you’d rather not see.You notice moments that felt different in your head.You realise how unreliable your memory is. But it’s also one of the most useful things I’ve done. 💡 ONE IDEA WELL If you want to get better at presenting,you probably don’t need more tips. Most of us already have enough of those. What we lack is something else. A clear view of what we’re actually doing. Because presenting...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
In the 1950s, schoolchildren were taught how to survive a nuclear attack. When the siren sounded, they were told to drop to the floor, cover their heads, and crawl beneath their desks. Duck and cover. It looked organised. Responsible. Sensible. It also wouldn’t have saved them. But it felt like protection.And sometimes feeling protected is enough to calm the fear. We do something similar when we speak. When the room is full.When the lights are bright.When a hundred pairs of eyes lift towards...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Next week I’ll be speaking at the ASOHNS meeting in Hobart. Right now, I’m performing the ritual that happens in hotel rooms and home offices all over the world in the days before a talk. Opening the slides one more time. Click.Click.Click. Checking everything still works. Fonts.Videos.Slide order. Because every presenter knows that beautiful slides have a habit of falling apart the moment they meet the conference computer. You arrive early for your session.Hand over your USB. And suddenly...
2 months ago • 1 min read