Engaging Presentation Ideas For Creative Professionals

Most webinars are just sales pitches in disguise. And designers can smell that pitch deck from the opening slide. What we refused to do: My Digital Events team watched countless “creative webinars” that were basically 90-minute product demos with 5 minutes of actual value. We said *hell no* and built something completely different. The anti-sales event format we cracked: • Real workflows over feature lists • Diverse voices: emerging artists to industry veterans • Zero “seamless integration” and “scale content faster” buzzwords Why our digital event format worked: Jun Zee Myers from BuzzFeed didn’t talk about “animation solutions,” she showed how “The Land of Boggs” got made. Chris Snellings from the Golden State Warriors didn’t pitch collaboration tools, he walked through how his team delivered Stephen Curry content across continents simultaneously. Real case studies that solved problems. Real design-industry workflows. Real creativity in action. Delivered live and in real-time. The uncomfortable truth? Creative professionals have sat through too many “webinars” that were just thinly veiled sales presentations (in fact, I sat through a pre-recorded Canva one this morning, pretending to be live 🤦♀️ ). I’m sorry, people! But we are done with fake use cases and product manager-manufactured success stories. The surprising result is when you lead with craft instead of conversion, something magical happens. People actually watch, engage, get inspired, and implement what they learn. **I broke down the entire framework—what worked, what didn’t, and how to structure digital events that creatives want to attend.** Read it in the newest article of Together By Design: https://lnkd.in/gdgttQZq What’s the most painfully obvious sales webinar you’ve ever endured? Wait, don’t answer—I know, I know. #CreativeWebinars #EventStrategy #ContentCreation #DigitalEvents #AntiSalesy #CreativeConnections #CreativeWorkshop #DesignCommunity #HostLindsayRocks Lindsay Morris

Early in my career, I thought a great presentation was all about delivering the most information. More data, more slides, more details- surely that would make my message stronger, right? Wrong! I once spent hours crafting a data-heavy presentation, thinking I had covered everything. But when I finished, I saw blank faces. No engagement. No real connection. That’s when I learned a hard truth: People don’t remember information. They remember stories. The most impactful presentations aren’t just packed with facts- they create an experience. They stick. So I started shifting my approach: Starting with the why - Start with a bold stat: "80% of your marketing budget could be wasted due to unclear messaging." - Use a “Before & After” scenario: "Here’s your current workflow… Now imagine cutting it in half." - Show a big metric slide: "Current conversion rate: 1.2% – Here’s how we’ll improve it." Using a clear structure - PSA framework: • Problem: "Churn rate increased by 15% last quarter." • Solution: "Implement a feedback loop system." • Action: "Reduce churn by 25% in 6 months." -AIDA: • Attention: "Only 5% of customers complete onboarding." • Interest, Desire, Action: Show benefits, and close with clear next steps. Adding emotional hooks - Add a personal touch: "When I joined, manual processes were taking hours..." - Turn data into a story: "This spike? That’s when we went viral." - Use visuals/metaphors: "Our customer journey is like a relay race—every step matters." Ending with a call to action - List clear steps: "1. Automate feedback, 2. Train sales, 3. Monitor churn weekly." - Use a visual checklist: "Phase 1: Done, Phase 2: In progress, Phase 3: Launch." - Ask a motivating question: "Are you ready to turn this vision into reality?" And the difference? Night and day. People engaged more. They remembered the key takeaways. They acted on what I shared. Because at the end of the day, facts tell, but stories sell. So next time you build a presentation, don’t just create slides, craft a story that moves your audience. That’s how ideas make an impact.

We all hate being presented to... unless the presentations are stunning and easy to follow. Learn how to use AI to create stunning presentations Like everyone in business, I need to create presentations. Potential clients, existing clients, internal status meetings, stages, quarterly reviews... We all would like to have unique, and engaging graphics for our presentations. Because it is captivating to the audience and it keeps your audience engaged. Just look at the posts from people like Rory Flynn or Tianyu Xu and see how much engagement they get, and you'll understand what I mean. I know what you are thinking - yes, this is true, but to create amazing graphics is a lot of work and am a busy business person. And also, I do not have the talent or the skills to create this kind of graphics. Well, you do not need a lot of time or skill to get there, just use the process below: - If you do not have any presentation yet, start by asking your favorite LLM to create the outline for you. I am currently using GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini Advanced. Make sure to define: - The goal of the presentation - The target audience - The tone you want to use - and how much text you would like on each slide for advanced presenters - you can also ask for the presenter notes with more information and references Then, you can either use this outline, or if you already have a presentation - just upload it to ChatGPT, and ask it to help you with graphics. I ask for a coherent style across all the created images, and a list of 3 ideas for graphics for each of the slides Then I pick one idea, add or fine-tune it based on my taste, and ask the model to generate the graphics for me Depending on the graphics, and the background of my presentation, I will sometimes remove the background in Canva or an online background remover, before using it. A 15 slide presentation should take you no more than 10 minutes, and you dramatically increase the chances of keeping your audience engaged. If you want the exact prompts I am using in each of the steps please comment - I want it, and share what kind of presentations you usually create.