You’ve probably already seen those presenters who climb on stage and rush into their presentation, apparently oblivious to the fact that they have an audience in front of them. Once they’re done, they rush out of the stage, as if you didn’t exist.
To avoid looking like one of these presenters, try to establish a connection with the audience as soon as possible. Look and smile at them as you enter the stage. Then take a few seconds to perceive the atmosphere and the feelings of the participants. If the mood is cheerful and relaxed, it will feed you with energy. And if the mood is hostile and tense, you will not commit the mistake of opening your talk with a comment that could come off as extremely insensitive to the needs and problems of the people in front of you.
You’ve probably all seen these slides: they use a picture which is “cliché,” like two shaking hands. Using a few of these clichés is fine, because they are often the clearest way to illustrate the idea of the slide; it’s nice to be creative, but clarity of the message comes first.
But some presentations seem to overflow with these clichés, using them on every slide. So I asked myself the question: why are some presentations nearly cliché-free, while other presentations are full of them? This question is not as trivial as it may seem. In fact, after some thinking and reviewing the presentations that used a lot of clichés, I realized why: it’s because their narrative is cliché. They are loaded with abstract business concepts such as engagement, empowerment, synergies, but are empty of concrete elements. These presentations promise a lot, but have nothing concrete to show for it.
The days of the expert or reliable narrator are over. We have entered the “Disinformation Age” where fake news, conspiracy stories, and meme warfare rule.
One of the most prominent casualties, at least from a presentation perspective, is the TED-like style, top down, subject matter expert: the teacher or preacher schooling their passively sitting and listening students.
We see trust move from the command and control leadership style and morph into something vastly flatter, decentralized/distributed, and perhaps even autonomously self-organizing.
A funny thing happened when I was describing my “dream job” to a friend. I imagined a company whose mission would be to help people become great presenters, and had a culture that was both supporting and nurturing while remaining professional and attentive to clients’ needs. My friend said: “I know that company!”
A few weeks later after a relaxing summer vacation between positions, I found myself in the company of all my new colleagues, some whom I met for the very first time, at our annual Fall team meeting. We spent the next few days together working night and day on exactly what my role would be and how we can better serve our partners and clients.
It’s your turn to present. You’ve launched your presentation and enter the stage. But how do you know if your presentation remote is working? If you start clicking back and forth between your first and second slide to see if it is working, everyone will notice what you’re doing, and you will not make a great first impression.
Luckily, someone shared a simple tip on twitter. Just duplicate your first slide. Your first two slides are now identical. In the notes of the second slide, write “MY REMOTE WORKS”, or something similar. Now you can do just one click and if the note appears in the Presenter view you can be sure your remote works. Only you will see it and the audience will keep fully engaged with you.
Moving with purpose on stage is good. Moving around aimlessly is not. It’s what we call derivative actions, things that we do unconsciously that betray our stress, lack of confidence or lack of preparation. Luckily, it’s very easy to stop parasitic movements, but the solution sounds counterintuitive: use eye contact to “anchor” yourself on the ground.
Yes, that’s right. Making eye contact with your audience will stabilise your attention and will prevent your feet from moving you around the stage.
What is it about designing events that I love so much? Suddenly I think of cookie dough, the small crunchy granules of sugar blended with butter, the heavenly flavour of vanilla extract and the sublime melt of dark chocolate chips. Even before I bake the cookies, the main event in this case, the ingredients themselves have satisfied.
Designing events are similar because I love what goes into making them delicious–I mean, shine. To create an event that is truly memorable, impactful and enjoyable you need a blend of four key ingredients: 1. Purpose 2. Teamwork 3. Creativity 4. Action
Some adults behave like bad, spoiled kids. They whine, they threaten, they become petty if they don’t get their way. They don’t hesitate to lie, or even worse, use the emotional card to play the victim, make you look bad and make you submit to their will.
These people are easy to recognize, but very difficult to deal with. Just think of the child rolling on the floor screaming. His parents will look bad whatever they do: scold him, do nothing, leave… they have zero good solutions. Other parents know this and usually try to look the other way. And those other parents who intervene usually only make matters worse, because they’re actually looking to shame the child’s parents, which solves nothing and reinforces the child’s power.
