Having said that, I wonder if conference organizers are taking advantage of the platform that SlideShare offers.

It is President Lincoln’s Gettysburg address turned into a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation. It is very educational.

Enjoy!

YOU HAVE AN OFFICE? Bastard! The rest of us lowlifes are toiling away in tiny, little fu*king cubes, and you got an office to toss around copies of the presentations you’ve attended?

And how many conferences do you go to, anyway, Mr. Bigshot? Future of Money one week, Finovate the next week. Nice life, buddy.

I’m thinking now, that maybe you need copies of these presentations cuz you’re too hungover from partying the night before to hear what the speakers are actually saying. Or maybe that’s you hanging out in the back of the room playing with your stupid little iPhone and not even listening to what the presenter has to say.

Seriously, though, I do agree w/ you on the “sharing” point. I, too, have combed thru SlideShare looking for charts, pictures, inspiration, etc.

But I will tell you why I don’t share more presentation decks: If a conference organizer pays me to speak, then my feeling is that they “own” that deck, and I don’t have the “right” to post it on SlideShare. And unless we agree to otherwise, it’s their prerogative to post the deck or not.

Oh, and please tell your friend Shawn that his sarcasm wasn’t lost on me. I simply chose to respond in an even more sarcastic way.

Oh, and add a picture or two – I’ll re-pin it. : )

Like you said, the best presentations come from the delivery, not the deck. But the deck serves as a very valid reminder of the experience, and the ideas beyond the deck.

Plus, what’s better than having stacks of cool looking presentations laying around your office or falling out of a folder at a conference than to say, yes, I too was there. That, I too, think about these larger issues, are tied into the latest thing (insert cool kid toy or concept or social network of the moment). Maybe that’s part of it too. Eye candy.

I certainly use slideshare for research to tie in concepts for something I was working on. (but am increasingly watching for video posts of those same presentations because, you’re right, you need the delivery, the context, the addition of everything else that goes into a presentation). Posting a presentation on a site like slideshare ensures it’s always there, in the cloud, available as reference, or in some cases inspiration.

Some people might also use Slideshare to “borrow” other people’s ideas, or even worse, copy their original creative work. I understand being influenced by something, I understand quoting with proper references and permission, but like every other creative endeavor, there is a probably a bit more than ‘borrowing’ probably going on.

Which is why sharing your work has alwats been a dual edge sword. Post content to gain traction for your ideas, but don’t be surprised one day if one of your charts shows up in some other person’s deck.

So we might need some other math added to your 60/30/10, where at minimum 20% is re-purposed. Which is why I like the movement toward more ways to digitally stamp origonal images, photos, and even presentations. Because you always need to cite your sources.

I look forward to hearing you in person one day as well Ron. Cheers.