Mapping Our World

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Originally uploaded by distillerymedia

This American Life with Ira Glass did a radio show on maps awhile back as well as a related show on getting lost, both of which served to underline just how many different types of maps there are in the world. They run the gamut from the weather map in the local paper to maps of deep sea fish hatcheries and to maps of lampposts in a given neighborhood.

Maps aren’t all uniformly beautiful, but some are absolutely stunning and remind us consultant types that PowerPoint is woefully ill-equipped to convey beauty.

Hat tip to Violet Tiger who has more incredible maps over on her site.

TAL’s Ira Glass on Storytelling (and Presentations)

Presentations can be boring, tedious, gouge-your-eye-out-with-a-spoon, mind-numbing affairs. Sometimes it’s the result of an  inexperienced presenter, sometimes too much reliance on the PowerPoint deck, sometimes the easy mistake of the presenter visualizing himself naked instead of his audience. In my field, one of the bigger mistakes I see is a researcher relying too much on facts.

Now, before I lose Sterling Brands all of our clients, I’ll say that facts can be important. It is important to know what people believe, how they feel about their life and your brand. But that’s just it: it’s important to know how they feel. And in order to communicate clearly how someone feels you have to bring that information to life in ways that depart from the page. Do that and you create the scenarios in which a client cares about that person’s feelings.

Ira Glass takes on the point in this video on the power of storytelling and anecdotes.