Resonate

Nancy Duarte's Resonate, a prequel to her acclaimed slide:ology, isn't your typical book on presentations.

For once, here's a book in which the slides and the visuals don't take center stage. Instead, Resonate is about a presentation's content: the story at the heart of every presentation and the best way to communicate it in order to leave an impression. As Duarte points out, the presentation and projector have become the modern-day equivalent of telling stories by campfire, yet too many presentations lack the intellectual and emotional appeal that usually accompany such an experience. With this in mind, there is a compelling case to be made that incorporating fundamental storytelling techniques in a presentation is an effective means to allow one's message to resonate with an audience.

Duarte's book is therefore less about presentation as such and more about the basics of effective communication. It offers a framework around which to structure content in order to leave a lasting impact. The technical analysis offered in Resonate may be off-putting to some readers more intent on learning how to design better slides or deliver better presentations, which are only touched upon tangentially. Regardless, what Duarte correctly emphasizes in Resonate is that all presentations begin with their underlying content, which when appropriately structured can have meaningful impact, with or without slides.

It is an indictment of how bad many presentations have become that someone like Nancy Duarte has to write a book reminding us about what it takes to tell a good story. If only to serve as such a reminder, Resonate is a worthwhile addition to the presentation enthusiast's library.