I previously highlighted a talk by Sir Ken Robison, the TED speaker with the most views of his video to date. He gave a talk at an Apple event in which he used a single slide at the end of his talk to great effect. Here is another example of this effective minimalism.
Dr. Lorimer Moseley is a pain scientist who says that pain is mostly a product of our mind. The structure of his talk follows Garr Reynolds' recommendation to start with a PUNCH. His story is Personal, Unexpected, Novel, Challenging, and Humorous. He first shares a personal story about feeling pain. But there is an unexpected twist that offers a novel perspective on where pain comes from and challenges the listeners' knowledge about why they hurt. Lastly, Dr. Moseley is humorous throughout the talk, playing to the Australian audience culture with language. This all helps capture and maintain the audience's attention.
What you may also notice, is that Dr. Moseley eschews the normal practice of bullet-point slides to guide his talk. Instead, he uses a natural, conversational tone to tell his story and explain the concept of pain being in the brain. Only in a few instances does he use very visual slides to clarify his talk. In fact, the key message of his talk was accomplished with a single slide.
Dr. Moseley and Sir Ken serve as excellent examples of how we can often say more with less on the screen.
What is a message you can share effectively with only one slide?