Meet the team of LSU undergrads Inc. magazine calls one of "America's Coolest College Startups."
[Editor's Note: Below is an online-only addition to The Independent's eight-page INNOV8 section that published this week. LAUNCH HOUR consists of two events: the first, "From Tee to Green" with golfballs.com founder Tom Cox, is Monday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Click here to read more on INNOV8, which we've officially coined a "Cool Town" project. The eight-day effort to brand Lafayette's creative economy gets under way Sunday.]
LAUNCH HOUR
Wednesday, April 25
Acadiana Center for the Arts 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
By Kenny Nguyen, founder and CEO, Big Fish Presentations
Who we hope to attract: Marketing specialists, entrepreneurs/business leaders, college students, and anybody who hates boring presentations.
What you'll get out of this: The idea that you can enchant audiences worldwide with your presentations is pretty exciting. However, with the modern statistic that 30 million presentations are given a day combined with the growing trend of "Death by Powerpoint," there's a good chance audiences might fall asleep before hearing the next big idea. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't pitch your next crazy idea. Big Fish Presentations is here to tell you our winning strategies on what makes an amazing and unforgettable presentation.
The unique thing about Big Fish Presentations? We're all undergrads from LSU.
It all started in January 2011 when I attended a student organization meeting at LSU. Our speaker was an executive from a large international Fortune 500 company. We were stoked about having a representative from a big-name company speak to us, but when he delivered his presentation we were floored - and not in a good way.
The presentation consisted of 120+ PowerPoint slides, nothing but text, and he was nice enough to personally make sure to read every single slide. Are you kidding me? Sitting through that made me think to myself, "If the world's largest companies are presenting this way, audiences might not get a chance to hear tomorrow's brightest ideas before being put to sleep by boring presentations." This sparked an idea, and soon after Big Fish Presentations was born.
By assembling a young but talented design team, I began to pursue my dream of helping the world's brightest minds and companies present their ideas. And what a wild ride it has been.
Fast forward a year, and I and now a team of six LSU undergrads have evolved that dream into a fast-growing startup named one of 2012's "America's Coolest College Startups" by Inc. magazine.
By offering rockstar-quality slide design, presentation consulting and commercial video production, we've built a fresh brand with a client base that spans from Fortune 500 companies to small budding startups.
Through our work and research with these companies, we discovered different effective strategies presenters worldwide use to captivate their audience. However, we've concluded that there are three key specific strategies that can transform a normal presentation into an unforgettable experience for audiences (such as a TED talk or a Steve Jobs keynote). We've learned so much on our presentation journey, but we just can't tell you what those elements are. Not yet.
You'll have to come see us on April 25 at the Acadiana Center for the Arts.
See you for lunch and get ready to rock.
For more information on Big Fish Presentations, email [email protected] or call 225-317-9444. You can also check out some of its recent projects at www.youtube.com/bigfishpresentations.com.