Christmas Greetings from Troy and Lori of TLC Creative Services, Inc. Many thanks to the Video Resources team for letting us jump in and make a fun Christmas greeting in their very cool green screen studio!

– Troy @ TLC 

I am heading home from a great 5 days at Microsoft as an invited guest at the 2016 MVP Summit. Each day was spent on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA in conference room meetings seeing the future of PowerPoint and providing input on the current version needs, feedback on concepts and giving examples of real-world use of the application the very dedicated dev team works on. Here are a few photos of the week:

(Top to Bottom)

1. Fun photo opportunity at the main conference center.
2. Comparing PowerPoint notes and files with PowerPoint MVPs Steve Rindsberg and Heather Ackmann.
3. Multiple espresso bars for the event were fantastic!
4. Some of the signage found across the Microsoft buildings
5. Troy with a number of the amazing PowerPoint dev team
6. 11 of the 15 North America MVPs for PowerPoint were here!

-Troy @ TLC

 I have been in San Francisco this past week at the largest attendee conference I’ve ever worked. DreamForce is massive, with 160,000+ attendees! I have seen just a fragment of the crowds while coordinating the presentation graphics backstage at the “small” 700 seat Yerba Buena Theater (same venue Apple uses for its product launches).

-Troy @ TLC

I am extremely excited and humbled that Microsoft has awarded the MVP (Most Valuable Professional) for PowerPoint to me again for the next year!

Curious about the MVP program? Information on what it is here.

Note: The letter from Microsoft lists 2016, which is almost over, but I am on the final review and renewal cycle where other MVPs are awarded at the beginning of the year, so this is my “2017” status.

-Troy @ TLC

We design great speaker support presentations. But it is not always about the (great) graphics. Sometimes the most engaging presentations are just a presenter on stage presenting.

Corporate meetings have guest speakers. Being the Presentation expert behind the curtain means we get a VIP seat to see and hear many of today’s engaging speakers, bands and entertainers. In 2015, General Colin Powell stands out as a memorable presenter, not for any presentation graphics, but just for being a fantastic and engaging speaker. This is Gen. Powell’s only slide and my view of the stage. It was a great hour of presentation!

– Troy @ TLC

For January, The PowerPoint Blog is focusing on 2015 Portfolio Highlights. Looking at the 2015 project calendar, it was a busy year. Along with the number of presentation shows we get to support, comes lots of travel. It’s great to experience new parts of the world and build new memories.

Here are a few of the memorable destinations that took place in 2015:

• Istanbul, Turkey
• New Orleans, Louisiana (multiple times)
• Bermuda
• New York, New York
• Orlando, Florida (multiple times)
• Los Angeles, California (many, many times)
• Singapore
• Seattle, Washington
• Many other ballrooms in cities across the U.S. and Canada

– Troy @ TLC

Happy New Year! Everyone at TLC Creative Services is excited about 2016! Today is the 10 year anniversary of The PowerPoint Blog (Jan. 1, 2006 was the first post)!!

Our New Year’s Resolution has been in the works for a few months with the addition of new team members and a lot of planning for the blog and a few other presentation community projects this year. For The PowerPoint Blog, I have come up with 12 presentation  topics – one for each month of 2016, we have filled in the blog post titles for over 1/2 the 2016 posts, and we have over 30 posts ready to go! So, for 2016, look forward to PowerPoint samples, tips & tricks and tutorials every Monday-Wednesday-Friday!

Today’s photos are not of the TLC office (which does have some great holiday decorations too!), but of our Christmas lights at home – which is now a 10 year tradition.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

– Troy @ TLC

A few weeks ago, at The Presentation Summit in New Orleans, I was happily a part of the audience listening to Nigel Holmes give the opening General Session talk. Nigel is British, funny (in a British way), memorable (especially the vibrant blue rimmed glasses) and amazingly observant. In talking with Nigel later, he made it very clear that he is not claiming the below pie chart graphic as his, but I am giving him all the credit for weaving it into his talk since it was the first time I have seen it.

One of the TLC Creative designers recreated this amazing 3D perspective pie chart (from a photo I took of Nigel’s presentation) and it still makes me smile!

Feel free to download the TLC Creative version of this slide Here.

– Troy @ TLC

I received a very exciting email Friday (standing outside the Astor New Orleans with a number of other PowerPoint MVPs) confirming Microsoft has renewed the MVP Award for contributions in PowerPoint technical communities through 2016! This will be my 15th year as an MVP for PowerPoint and I am truly excited about the award, AND about being connected to the Microsoft development team over the next year with so many great things lined up to happen in MS Office and PowerPoint!

– Troy @ TLC