Insights & Perspectives
Welcome to the Presentation Guild Blog!
This is a space where we share event recaps, member insights, practical tips, and ideas to help you grow as a presentation professional. Whether you design, write, strategize, or present, you’ll find content here to support your craft and elevate your work.
Key Insights on the Presentation Profession
If you’ve ever struggled to explain what you actually do for a living, this year’s State of the Presentation Professional Report is your new favorite reference. In a lively session at the State of the Presentation Industry event, Monica Longoria (Presentation Guild Research Director and Head of Marketing Insights at LG Ad Solutions) walked through […]
Presentation Work in Transition: AI as Accelerator, Accessibility as Standard, Strategy as Value
If you work in presentations, you’ve probably felt it — the ground shifting under our feet. At the recent State of the Presentation Industry event, the conversation wasn’t just about slides or tools. It was about what’s really changing in our work and how we, as presentation professionals, can stay ahead. This session was hosted […]
The Presentation Guild is turning 10: How it all began
If you ask how the Presentation Guild got its start, the story begins with a small, annoying moment — one that carried a much bigger message. The Presentation Guild’s founders, Sandy Johnson and Echo Swinford, reflect on the Presentation Guild’s creation 10 years ago this September. Back in late 2013 or early 2014, Echo was […]
Upcoming Events
Presentations & AI | 2026 Q1
March 19, 2026
In-House Insights | 2026 Q2
April 2, 2026
Certification Specialist Bootcamp | 2026 Q2
April 13, 2026 – April 17, 2026
Mastering Midjourney for Presentation Design
AI is changing how we design presentations. In our June 2025 “Presentations & AI” session, Amy Balliett shared how to master Midjourney for faster, more consistent visuals — plus tips for prompts, edits, rights, and risks.
Balancing Confidentiality, Pricing, and Client Relationships in the Presentation Design Industry
Every quarter, a vibrant group of entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and freelancers in the presentation industry comes together for a collaborative session hosted by the Presentation Guild, led by Nolan Haims of Nolan Haims Creative and Bethany Auck of SlideRabbit. These conversations are more than just casual catch-ups — they’re honest, insightful deep dives into the real […]
Playing with PowerPoint | Celebrating St. Patrick's Day | Orlagh Finegan
It was the day before St. Patrick’s Day. I was holidaying at a beach campsite in Dublin, and the usual Irish rain was bucketing down. While I may be painting a soggy picture, the tinny, repetitive noise of rain bouncing off my campervan roof is like a soothing meditation — one of my favourite sounds […]
Behind the scenes of the Presentation Guild brand update
In case you missed it, along with the launch of our new website, we also revamped our logo! We’re excited to share a behind-the-scenes peek at the evolution and inspiration behind the Presentation Guild brand. Nine years ago (our 10-year anniversary is coming up!), a group of smart and talented people got together to lay […]
Create an Invisible Action Trigger to Open an Embedded Document
Want to add a touch of magic and sleekness to your presentation game? Well, look no further! This hack is all about creating an invisible trigger that opens an embedded document with just one click.
How big is big enough? The 8H Rule reveals all
We all know not to use too much text on a slide. We all know to make the text we do use big enough for everybody in the audience to read. But how big is “big enough”? Play to the Cheap Seats One of the keys to text legibility is making sure that your […]
Evergreen and Aligned Social Media Content for Impact and Credibility
I’m Catharine Richardson, Head Genie at My TechGenie Ltd., an application support company designed to make your everyday tasks easier and more efficient. I recently spoke to the Guild about Prescheduling Social Media for the small entrepreneur, but when I was done, I found I had more thoughts to share! The biggest stumbling block for […]
5 Ways to Optimize Your Messaging for a Presentation That Sells
“In business presentations, positive impressions can help make a sale or win over an audience,” says Ian Lamont. Any marketing or sales professional knows this to be true, but how do we get there? How do we know when we are making the best impressions we can on our audience? Here are 5 ways to […]
Start with a bang! Create a powerful presentation introduction.
You Have 8 Seconds. Did you know that the human attention span is decreasing? 8 seconds. That is all you have to create a connection and grab attention during a presentation introduction. While we used to have a little while to draw in our audience, Microsoft’s recent study suggests that the first few seconds are […]
Presentations for Everyone: Understanding Accessibility and Designing Inclusively
In its purest sense, a presentation is the act of making information publicly available. Today, the world is the audience and electronic presentations are the delivery vehicle. A simple web search for “online presentations” lists over 104,000,000 results. Technology has become the presenter and the presentation. The appeal is easy to see. Companies can save […]
Did you miss "Must Know Chart Hacks in PowerPoint?"
I’m Sheila B. Robinson, owner of Custom Professional Learning, LLC and current Director of Education, Training, and Advocacy here at the Presentation Guild. I consult and give talks and professional development workshops on program evaluation, survey design, presentation design, and data visualization. A few years ago, I had to explain myself whenever I mentioned “data […]
Top Ten Presentation Peeves (Part 4 The Grand Finale) -- John Polk
Part 4: Number 1 Pet Peeve is revealed! This is it! The moment you’ve all been waiting for. In my first three posts in this series, I shared the first 9 of 10 PowerPoint Pet Peeves I’ve collected over years of collecting data from my students. And now the moment has arrived to reveal number […]
Top Ten Presentation Peeves (Part 3) -- John Polk
Part 3: Peeves 4, 3, and 2 In my first and second posts in this series, I shared the first five of 10 PowerPoint Pet Peeves I’ve collected over years of collecting data from my students. Now we are getting down to the final stretch. Let’s see what came in positions 4, 3, and 2. […]
You Are Certifiable
There’s this dumb thing that happens in business. It’s the situation where everyone at the table is talking about something, and you just nod along with the conversation because you don’t want the others to think you’re dumb. Everyone does it to some extent. It’s not your fault really; it’s typically the fault of the […]