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Presentation Zen Turns 10!

Written by

Nancy Duarte

Garr Reynolds holds a pretty special place in my heart. Many people think we should be competitors. Instead, we are close friends.

In 2005, I was cruising around the web looking at a new phenomenon called blogs. I didn’t have time to write one so I googled “presentation blog” and Garr’s site showed up and I loved every post he’d written. We were both tightly aligned in our beliefs that presentations should be simple and clear. I sent him an e-mail with the subject line “where have you been all my life?” and then his friendship changed my business.

One of the first things Garr did was send me a draft of his book Presentation Zen. He told me “Nancy, you write everything that I had to leave out.” And then he kept e-mailing me and bugging me to write a book until I finally wrote slide:ology (which launched a training business.) His unwavering enthusiasm and support since then have been incredible.

Garr and I met in 2006. He blogged about our visit! It’s so fun to have a record of where it all began. Keep in mind, we had NO blog at this time. That “close friend in Japan” he mentions at the end of the post is now his wife and the mother of two of the cutest children I’ve ever seen.

Actually, there is a record of nearly every year of our friendship. In 2006 and 2007 he helped us celebrate the success of An Inconvenient Truth. In 2009, he stopped by our office for a Q&A session. In 2010 Garr launched his second book, Presentation Zen Design.

We teamed up again in 2013 to answer questions at an Eat & Meet event. (He was one of our first visitors at the new office.)

The last time I saw him was last year, he stopped by and we chatted about kids, the creative process, and our friendship so far.

So today, I’d like to say thank you and congratulations to my friend, Garr Reynolds. I hope the next 10 years bring as much success as these last 10 have.

All the best from all of us at Duarte.

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We offer flexible, individual and team training to help build critical communication skills as well as hands-on, one-on-one coaching and full-service strategy, consulting and presentation design support. Learn more below:

Written by

Nancy Duarte

TOPICS:

Events, Presenting

Take the next step

We offer flexible, individual and team training to help build critical communication skills as well as hands-on, one-on-one coaching and full-service strategy, consulting and presentation design support. Learn more below:

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