Pappum's presentation skills workshop: some things are easier to understand in the room

We hosted our in-person presentation skills workshop, The Rhythm of Presentation, about storytelling and design, and the best parts was being in the room with people.

Last Saturday, Thays Santos and I hosted our in-person Pappum workshop. The Rhythm of Presentation, about storytelling and design, and honestly, one of the best parts was simply being in the room with people.

Watching how different minds can solve the exact same exercise is always interesting to me. And no matter someone’s background or level of experience with presentations, I could feel how we’re all looking for better ways to communicate these days.

The beauty of different ways of thinking

We had people who were more practical, more structured, more science-driven. Others were much more intuitive, emotional, and visual. And you could see those personalities showing up in the way they built ideas, discussed concepts, organized stories, worked as a team, and think how to solve each challenge we gave them.

Our brains understand meaning through stories, and of course there are principles that help. From Aristotle to modern neuroscience, we know that strong storytelling often needs emotion, logic, and credibility.

But here at Pappum, we always say it needs one more thing too: you.

Your perspective, your rhythm, your way of thinking, your way of connecting ideas. And that’s exactly the beauty of it. There isn’t one perfect way to communicate well.

That’s why I love practical workshops and I think we need it more of it. People don’t just sit there listening, they’re present. They test, build, adjust, rethink, and usually surprise themselves a little in the process, and once people stop overthinking and actually start building, really interesting things happen.

Where most people struggle

or most people, design still feels more challenging than storytelling. A lot of people actually do know what they want to say. They have ideas, references, points of view, and good material. But when it’s time to turn that into slides, structure, visual hierarchy, rhythm, and flow… that’s where things usually get harder.

And it makes sense, good presentation design is not just about “making slides look good.” It’s about knowing how to support an idea visually without killing your story.

You can give it clarity without making it generic.

Create structure without removing personality.

And try to focus on making something feel intentional.

That’s a huge part of the work we do at Pappum, whether it’s presentation design, templates, storytelling, or presentation skills workshops like this one, we always try to being able to explore that live, with people, in real time, and is one of my favorite parts of the process.

We live in a very digital world, and of course that has its place. But moments like this always remind me that sometimes, we just need to be in the same room. To read each other better. To exchange knowledge in real time. To be together in a more human way.

And I don’t think that will ever stop being important.