Stop Wasting Our Time!

What's the first question you should ask yourself when you start preparing your presentation?

a. What are my audience's expectations?
b. What are my objectives?
c. What font should I use in my slides?

Answer? None of the above. Your first question should be: Is it really necessary to give a presentation or is there a more efficient way to communicate this information?

Really think about it.

What would happen if, instead of boring people with twenty slides full of charts and graphs about your organization's quarterly financial performance, you send all of this information by email and ask your audience to review it before your talk? Make it clear that you are not interested in wasting anyone's time reading charts for people in a presentation when they can do it themselves.

Your role in the presentation will then be to interpret, tell them why it's important and to answer questions that your audience has had both the time and the necessary information to formulate. That will take a lot less time than slowly flipping through each slide during the presentation and saying, 'Let me draw your attention to the figures from last month, blah, blah, blah'.

Isn't that a better use of everyone's time? Are you brave enough to try it?

© 2011 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Seven ways to kill your presentation

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Seven ways to kill your presentation

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Presentation Review: Pierluigi Pugliese

Pierluigi Pugliese, an Agile coach at Connexxo, presented Soft Skill Essentials for Software Craftsmen at WebExpo 2010. His was the last presentation that I reviewed for this conference and, like the first (David Hussman), I was thrilled to find such a high-quality performance. What stands out in my mind the most about his talk is that he turned his presentation into a learning experience with the audience absolutely involved from beginning to end. For only the second time since I have been reviewing presentations, I am giving a complete 'outstanding' rating!

Rating system: 1 = outstanding 5 = sucks

You can see a detailed description of my review criteria here

Message - 1

Pierluigi's main message was clear from the start. His aim was to give us concrete methods for communicating better with people because soft skills are just as important as technical knowledge when dealing with a community of software professionals. He introduced his message by asking us questions, 'How do we deal with people? How do we create a more productive team? 'What about developing individual skills in addition to team development?' This message served as the basis for all his content and the activities he included. Because of this clarity, everything made sense.

Content - 1

Pierluigi didn't just give us facts and expect us to take them at face value. With every content point he asked us to try it out ourselves and come to our own conclusions. His method for this involved introducing a concept, having us practice it in pairs and then asking the whole group what we learned. He challenged us to think and act - this is not done often enough in presentations! He wasn't just feeding us his knowledge. We were encouraged to experience it and use that experience to see how these methods really work. He used a wide variety of examples, games, anecdotes and audience interaction to reinforce his message.

Attention - 1

I found it impossible NOT to pay attention to Pierluigi throughout his presentation. He opened his talk with a question, 'What do you expect to learn today?' It's not an unusual question to start a presentation, but this was different because he really expected us to answer him and he waited until he got some concrete answers to it. I think people were a little shocked because they didn't expect to get involved right from the beginning, but it set the tone for the whole presentation. We knew then that we would be an integral part of his talk - that's exactly how an audience should feel! The rest of his presentation involved some kind of audience interaction at all times. He never let us go!

Slides - 1

Pierluigi's slides were bright, colorful and clear. And when there was text, it was sparse and big. Absolutely how visual tools should be used!

Presence - 1

Pierluigi's presentation style can best be described as BIG. He used the whole room and commanded attention from everyone there. He got down close to people and gave thoughtful responses to questions. It was clear that he really wanted to make us understand - he didn't just want to do his presentation and hope that we got it. The feeling that I got from him is that he is the best kind of educator - someone truly interested in getting his message through and having his audience remember and use what they've learned after they leave his talk. I think that a few audience members were a bit unnerved by his style. They weren't used to all of this interaction and attention (after one of the first pair exercises, one member of the audience even said he felt 'uncomfortable'). But, Pierluigi managed to explain the method and why we were doing it (and to be sensitive to this man's feelings at the same time) so that even this audience member admitted that he was 'getting it and feeling good' after the next exercise.

Thank you, Pierluigi, for allowing me to review such an outstanding presentation. I managed to learn a lot about your topic and to witness a fabulous performance at the same time. Bravo!

© 2010 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Presentation Review: George Tziralis & Miro Solanka

George Tziralis of Openfund and Miro Solanka of Sportmeets gave a joint presentation at WebExpo 2010. I hadn't initially planned to review their presentation, but I met them while we were waiting for a different presentation to start and they immediately showed interest in getting feedback on their presentation. I'm really glad it turned out this way because they delivered an excellent presentation. As good as it was, however, they were particularly interested in how they could improve so this review might seem overly critical in light of the fact that it was such a good presentation, but it's meant to be that way.

I have to say that George and Miro are a great example of how two people can do a presentation together. George supplied the general information and advice about getting funding and help with a start-up and then Miro was a concrete example of a start-up that got help from Openfund. It's not easy to do, but they managed to deliver two presentations as one in message, consistency and style. Great work! You can view their slides here.

Rating system: 1 = outstanding 5 = sucks

You can see a detailed description of my review criteria here

Message - 3

The title of their presentation is, Seed Capital in Practice, A Guide for You to Start Up. At the beginning I was a bit confused about what the core message was. Is this an introduction to Openfund and what they are all about or is this a guide for people who want to get funding this way for their start-up? The messages were mixed and sticking with one of these would have made it clearer. It was obvious that Miro's part was an example of what can happen if you do things right, but I would have made the Openfund part stick to a single message - this is what you need to do if you want to successfully get funding and advice from a seed capital firm.

Content - 3

Most of the content was clear and gave a lot of information about what you should do if you want to get help with your start up. The part I found confusing was the 'What You See' and 'What You Get' section. I think I would have called it 'What you think' and 'What investors think'. Why not try putting a headline: 'What you think' and one statement 'we have no competition' (for example) and then on the next slide use the headline, 'What investors think' with one statement 'hasn't done market research'. After these two slides, you can address the issue and give advice on this one topic. And then the other topics would have this same, simple style. Sticking to just one statement for each headline will make it much clearer what you want the audience to remember.

In Miro's part of the presentation, there was some basic information missing (and an audience member asked afterwards) - how do you make money and have you been successful so far? Miro set up the problem/getting funding scenario really well, but we were all curious about how the idea could be profitable and whether it's working for him now.

Attention - 3

Both George and Miro were very good speakers and used lots of opportunities to keep their audience's attention in a variety of ways. I only had a problem at the beginning (and it's connected with the core message above). George started his part by talking about Open Coffee in Greece and how much it had grown. I kept thinking - what the heck does this have to do with getting seed capital and start-ups?! Why not try opening next time with some interesting facts on the topic - what percentage of start-ups are successful (or fail) in the first year? how many of them fail to get funding? what are some reasons that applications are rejected? This would naturally lead to your message about how to be successful getting the help you need to start.

George had a good summary at the end with all of the points that he would like us to remember from his talk. This was lacking in Miro's part. I would have liked to see him talk about the lessons he learned about the application/start-up process that will help others. What should you have done differently? What would have made it an easier process? How could you have prepared in a better way?

Slides - 2

Both George and Miro had great slides (and their styles and color schemes matched). The only thing I would change is the color scheme for the 'what you see' and 'what you get' section. Remembering what red, green and yellow means was too much for me (when I'm trying to listen to the speaker at the same time). Just simplifying that part will make a big difference.

Presence - 2

George and Miro are very good speakers - professional, natural and they seemed comfortable in their roles. The only criticism I have is when they were dealing with audience questions, they seemed a bit hostile. I admit that there were some strange questions coming from some audience members, but it happens. Remember to keep your cool.


Thank you, George and Miro, for agreeing to a last minute presentation review. I truly enjoyed your presentations and the advice above is the result of your specific request to find something to 'fix'. Your performance was absolutely one of the best I've seen this year!

© 2010 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Presentation Review: Petr Dvorak, Inmite

Petr Dvorak, iPhone Developer at Inmite, presented ‘Mobile Web Services from the Perspective of an iPhone Developer’ at WebExpo 2010. This was the second presentation I saw on the first day of the conference (David Hussman was the first). David’s performance was a hard act to follow, and Petr made it even tougher on himself by asking me beforehand to be especially critical in my review. But, I’m happy to say that although I have a few words of advice for him, Petr’s presentation was great and I didn’t have to use the word ‘suck’ :).

Rating system: 1 = outstanding 5 = sucks

You can see a detailed description of my review criteria here

Message - rating 2

From the very beginning of his talk, Petr told us what his key message was, ‘iPhone might not last forever, but web services written for it will’. This is a clear, simple way to start, but I might have gone further and told the audience why this is important to them, what they are going to learn about it and how this is going to shape the presentation. Great start, just extend it for it to have more impact.

Content - rating 2

Petr did two things that I really liked. He used examples to illustrate his content points and he frequently reviewed what he had talked about by saying ‘there are two points you should remember about this…’ before moving on to the next topic. Excellent! Especially, in technical presentations, don’t assume that your audience is going to absorb everything. Keep telling your audience what’s important and what you want them to remember!

Attention - rating 3

This is the only area that I think Petr could improve greatly on. He opened his presentation like a flash of lightning. It seemed like all of the sudden we were in the middle of his presentation! I could have used a much more targeted and attention-getting opening. Remember to include something to get us thinking about your topic and to spark our interest. Also, the conclusion could have been better. As I stated before, Petr continually made sure we were keeping up with him during his presentation, but at the end he left us hanging. It’s a good idea to end with a summary of what we’ve learned, what we should remember and why it’s important. And, finally, it would have been good to use more rhetorical and direct questions to keep us interested and focused on his topic.

Slides - rating 2

Petr’s slides mostly included one or two sentences that were easy to read quickly and then start focusing on his talk again. He also used good photos to make it more colorful. Petr’s talk was in Czech, but his slides were in English. I assumed that this was the reason there was so much text on them sometimes. I think it’s hard to present with two languages at the same time and it’s something I would avoid (but I think it was a necessary evil at this multilingual conference). In a monolingual setting, a lot less text on slides would have been desirable.

Presence - rating 2

Petr had a very confident and open speaking style that was a pleasure to watch. He didn’t hide behind the podium (even though it was possible), but came down on the level of the audience and placed himself directly in front of them. It’s refreshing to see speakers doing this and I wish I would see it more often. The only word of advice I have for Petr is to slow down! I know it’s just nerves getting in the way, but during the first five minutes Petr was speaking way too fast and I wanted to tell him to breathe!

Petr was one of the few Czech presenters at WebExpo 2010 that agreed to have his presentation reviewed and I was very pleased to be able to see him give his talk. Thanks for the opportunity and I look forward to seeing you present again!

© 2010 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Presentation Review: David Hussman, DevJam

David Hussman, owner of DevJam, gave a presentation called Products & People Over Process and Dogma at WebExpo 2010 in Prague. David's presentation was absolutely outstanding! It was a pleasure to see something done so well. So, the goal of this review is not to give him advice, but to show everyone what he did right so they can learn from his example.

This was the first presentation I saw at WebExpo and, to be honest, the topic scared me a bit because I had no knowledge of Agile. It turns out that I had nothing to worry about. David's presentation was easy to understand, thoroughly enjoyable and the first presentation that I have given a perfect score to. Bravo, David!

Rating system: 1 = outstanding 5 = sucks

You can see a detailed description of my review criteria here

Message - rating 1

David's message of 'challenging the status quo of Agile' was clear from the start and he encouraged us to share, compare and learn in order to fully understand and be involved in the presentation of this message. Throughout his talk and in many different ways, David reminded us of his message and how the information he was presenting directly related to it.

Content - rating 1

David supported his message by including content that challenged our way of thinking about Agile and looking at how we can approach things differently to get a better result. He introduced each content point with a question for us either to ponder or to answer directly. With every new point, he included real stories or examples so we could visualize and truly understand what he was talking about. I came into this presentation knowing next to nothing about Agile and, because of his instructive and open approach, I never felt lost - that's an amazing accomplishment that many technical presenters should strive for!

Attention - rating 1

David started his presentation by asking his audience to make two lists of words, processes that we use and products that we end up with. We were told to discuss with our partner how the way we do things helps produce our results. We were immediately involved and engaged and truly a part of his presentation. It was clear from the beginning that this wasn't going to be a typical, boring presentation with the speaker throwing a bunch of facts at us. This style of speaking continued throughout his talk and there was never a moment that he lost our attention. He also periodically reminded us of what we had learned and invited questions before he moved on. From beginning to end we were captivated!

Slides - rating 1

David's slides included questions (one per slide), photos, easy-to-understand flow charts and lists. Most of his slides were exactly what they are meant to be - glancing slides - we glanced at the slide, got curious and then put our focus back on what David was saying. This presentation was clearly not about slides - they were only the tool David used to whet our appetite for what he was going to talk about next. We need to see more of this! Let's stop our dependence on slides when we present and remember that slideware is just one of many presentation tools.

Presence - rating 1

David's speaking style was open and personable. I didn't get the feeling that he was 'the expert' (even though he is!) overloading his audience with information. He gave the impression that he was truly interested in getting our interest and involvement in his presentation. He was really more like a guide taking us on a journey of challenging our current thinking and pointing out specific ways that we might think differently.

Thanks, David, for the opportunity to see your presentation and share with my readers an example of an outstanding presentation!

© 2010 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

6 Reasons Your Audience Is Ignoring Your Presentation

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6 Reasons Your Audience Is Ignoring Your Presentation

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Presentation Review: Cornel Sampson

Cornel Sampson of Aisa International delivered the second presentation at July’s meeting of the Prague Networking Group. As I stated in Don MacLennan’s review, the presentations started much later than planned and the circumstances were made even more difficult for Cornel due to a few members of the audience who chose to continually heckle his presentation. I have kept this situation in mind when reviewing his presentation, but I still think there are some valuable lessons to be learned from Cornel’s performance.

Below are some details and advice for future presentations.

Rating system: 1 = outstanding 5 = sucks

You can see a detailed description of my review criteria here

Message – rating 1

Cornel’s core message was absolutely clear. He wanted to let us know that we need to take concrete steps in order to plan for our retirement. He stated his message at the start of his presentation and reminded us throughout. We knew exactly what his message was about and what we could expect to hear.

Content – rating 5

Although Cornel’s message was clear, I was extremely disappointed that he didn’t follow it up with the content necessary to support it. Before the event, we were told that Cornel would be giving us a case study. However, he gave us an imaginary example of a taxi driver who didn’t do the necessary financial planning in order to enjoy his retirement. A presentation about investments and retirement planning demands certain content: What is Aisa’s track record in helping its clients successfully prepare for retirement? How has Aisa managed to protect its clients in difficult financial times like the ones we are experiencing now? How has Cornel personally helped real people invest their money well? We needed real examples with real success stories in order to consider investing with Aisa (of course, without real names, but they must be obviously real people).

Advice: In order to support your message, think about the questions I stated above and structure your presentation around these points. Your organization has to earn the trust of its potential clients in order to be successful and that requires concrete examples of your and your organization’s credibility, experience and ability to earn a return on your clients’ investments. While I appreciated the humor of your presentation, I really don’t think it was effective in accomplishing what you wanted in your talk.

Attention – rating 4

Cornel started his presentation by asking us to raise our arms and lead us in a cheer while there was a photo of him and his wife in a tropical setting. I understand that he wanted to wake us up and get our attention, but the crowd was already stimulated by the amount of wine that had been drunk earlier and I don’t think this opening set the right tone for a presentation on investments.

Advice: There is a big difference between getting the audience’s attention and giving them a reason to listen. Yes, the cheer got our attention, but was it connected to your message? Did you make us start thinking about our retirement? NO. If you want to project an image of credibility and trust, I would drop this kind of opening in any situation. Ask us some questions about our retirement plans. Ask us if we’ve considered offshore investments – why or why not? Get us thinking in the right direction!

Slides – rating 4

Cornel’s slides were fine for the humorous tone he had set for the presentation, but I don’t think that they were appropriate for the message he wanted to communicate. There were some serious slides besides the taxi driver examples, but he focused on these slides too much instead of talking directly to the audience. This gave the impression that he was unsure of the information.

Advice: When you change the content as advised above, I would use very few slides and, instead, focus on the audience. If you want to include some statistics, don’t give us a graph showing how much we can earn with your investments – the audience was smart and knew that it’s always relative to the financial situation at the time of retirement. Also, please always use the spell check after you’ve created your slides. You misspelled ‘credibility’ and that only gave the hecklers more ammunition!

Presence - rating 4

The crowd was tough. Anyone who attended this event will confirm this. And, the hecklers were acting childishly and deliberately tried to humiliate Cornel. That isn’t fair for any presenter. However, he could have handled it better. When there was the first legitimate question, he very abruptly said, ‘Let’s save the questions until the end.’ Why? People had a lot of questions and the information that he was giving them demanded some interaction.

Advice: In an informal setting like this event, it’s possible to stop hecklers from ruining your presentation. I would have singled them out and asked the audience if they would rather listen to the hecklers or listen to what you had to say. I’m sure the audience would have been on your side and very clearly told the men to shut up or leave. Don’t let hecklers put you on the defensive.

Cornel, I know this was a tough presentation to make. I admire the fact that you didn’t give up and managed to finish in spite of some really rude audience behavior. But, I would work on improving your image of credibility by giving your audience real examples of how you’ve helped your clients succeed financially. That will change the whole tone of the presentation and help you spread your message. Thanks for the opportunity to review your presentation and I look forward to seeing the next one!

© 2010 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Presentation Review: Don MacLennan

Don MacLennan, SVP of Product Management at AVG, presented at July’s Prague Networking Group meeting at The Office. It was an informal setting and, due to a wine tasting event, the presentations started an hour and a half later than scheduled. I think this made it a much more challenging environment and I kept this in mind when reviewing.

Below are some details and advice for future presentations.

Rating system: 1 = outstanding 5 = sucks

You can see a detailed description of my review criteria here

Message – rating 3

I think that Don’s message was about AVG’s ability to protect its clients for free and manage to make a profitable business out of it. This could have been made clearer and been said much earlier in the presentation. You don’t want your audience to say ten minutes into your presentation, ‘Oh! That’s what this is about!’, and this was the case here.

Advice: Tell your audience directly why you are speaking to them at the beginning of your presentation. You can say something like, ‘This evening I will show you how AVG manages to do two things at once -protect its clients for free and make a profit.’ This will get the audience curious about HOW AVG can do this and so you can go into the details. But first you need to tell the audience what they can expect to learn.

Content - rating 3

Judging from the questions, people wanted to know much more about the threats they face and how AVG deals with them. This should have been part of your presentation. What’s your core business? How does it work (in a very easy-to-understand way)? What does your business mean to your clients? How are they protected? I was lost at the end when you were talking about being a partner of choice, a good employer and supporting the community. All of this didn’t seem to fit with the rest of your presentation and your main message. I would leave it out next time.

Advice: When you prepare your next presentation, be a ruthless eliminator of information that doesn’t fit with your core message. Throw everything out that has no connection. And, make sure you include the information that the audience is most likely to be interested in. Anticipate the questions you might get from a particular audience and incorporate that information into your presentation.

Attention – rating 4

Don fell into a common speaker’s trap by telling us too much about himself and his company at the beginning. There is really no reason to say anything beyond your name, position and company in most presentations. And, company histories/profits/stats are never a good way of grabbing the audience’s attention. The start of a presentation is a crucial time and you don’t have much of it to get your audience listening. Don’t waste that valuable time with long introductions and company histories.

Advice: I think your idea of a disruptive business model was interesting but it was buried in too much other information. You might start your presentation with a question to see who knows what it is and then give a couple interesting examples (with different slides – that’s later) and then you can say that AVG is a disruptive business model, too (and explain how it is). Also, it would be a good idea to encourage questions at the beginning. You can also use rhetorical questions to introduce topics so you can get the audience interested in what you have to say next.

Slides – rating 3

Your slides were pretty standard, but I saw a lot of lost opportunities. As I mentioned before, the disruptive business model slide could have been much more interesting. I also think that you could have used more eye-catching slides to spark our curiosity.

Advice: Instead of listing all of the disruptive business models, choose two of the most interesting examples and include slides with photos and an intriguing story of how they are disruptive business models. Also, try to cut down on the amount of text you use on your slides. Photos and key words are much more powerful and will get your audience listening to you.

Presence – rating 2

As I mentioned before, the presentations started much later than they had been scheduled and a lot of people in the audience had had more than a little wine... That can be hard on a speaker. Don handled it very well and kept his composure during the whole presentation. Don is a genuine speaker – he appears to be genuinely interested in his topic and in conveying his message to his audience. That’s always refreshing to see and I look forward to seeing Don present again!

© 2010 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Presentation Review: Will Bennis

Will Bennis, the owner of Locus Workspace, spoke at the June meeting of the Prague Networking Group. He was the second speaker that night, following Pavel Suchanek. The presentation was in a bar, The Office, with the audience standing in front of the speaker. Will had a relaxed and engaging speaking style, but I think he can make some changes in order to present his company better and to allow a clearer and more powerful message for the audience.

Below are some details and advice for future presentations.

Rating system: 1 = outstanding 5 = sucks
You can see a detailed description of my review criteria here

Message - rating 4

I wasn't quite sure what the core message of your presentation was. Did you want to tell us about the benefits of co-working? Was this about how your company is different? Sometimes it felt like the main message was showing us how great your competition is! Your message was lost in a large amount of information on many different topics.

Advice: For your next presentation, Will, sit down and think about what you want from this presentation and what your audience expects/needs to hear in order for your message to be clear. You don't want your audience to guess what your point is. Make it crystal clear for them! You want them to remember ONE thing about your presentation - what should it be?

Content - rating 4

Too much (positive!) information about your competitors. Too much information about your background. Not enough information about how your company is different and better. The order of your content was off e.g. you didn't tell us who your target customers are and the benefits of your company until the end.

Advice: After you‘ve figured out what your core message is, throw out every piece of content that isn't directly connected to that message. Give your audience a maximum of four content points. I can imagine they might be: What is co-working?/What is Locus Workspace?, Who is it for? What are the benefits of being a Locus client? What are the specifics of doing business with Locus (prices, hours, amenities etc)?

Attention - rating 4

You started your presentation by telling us about yourself for about 10 minutes. This is a common mistake made by speakers. While I would enjoy sitting down and learning more about you, this is not a way to get the audience's attention when you start a presentation. Also, I think because you have academic experience, sometimes this felt more like a lecture than it should have. There just wasn't enough focus on the audience and keeping their attention. Also, the ending was weak ('Thanks for your patience. Sorry it was longer.'). Don't ever apologize at the end of your talk! Make a strong impression at the end.

Advice: Most people don't yet know what co-working is so start your presentation by asking us what we know about it (and be prepared for a whole range of answers). Ask if there are any freelancers in the audience. Ask what problems there might be when people work from home. Make us curious about these topics! Create a knowledge gap! End your presentation by telling us what to remember or reminding us about the benefits of Locus.

Slides - rating 3

Your slides were of the standard, bullet-point variety. Nothing amazing, but not horrible either. But, I think your topic offers the opportunity for your slides to be a lot more interesting. And, when you showed us the photos of your workspace, you said, 'The place is better than it looks in the photos.' Either get better photos or don't point this out! Also, you kept looking at your slides or pointing your thumb at them (for no apparent reason) instead of focusing on the audience.

Advice: Find great photos of co-working spaces, people working from home, frustrated people etc. And, please get new photos of Locus so we can see how great it is during the presentation! Also, take out all complete sentences on your slides. You are giving your audience an option - read or listen (we really can't do both). Unfortunately, most audiences choose to read and, therefore, ignore the speaker.

Presence - rating 2

It's clear that you are an experienced speaker and you were enthusiastic about your topics. You had a speaking style that was engaging and easy to listen to. I felt like you really cared about your audience's understanding of your topics and I think everyone felt comfortable asking questions and interacting with you.

Advice: This is really your strong point and gives you an advantage because a lot of people have to work very hard to feel comfortable speaking in front of people. When you've worked on the other points I've mentioned, you will have no problem being outstanding next time - I'm looking forward to seeing it!


© 2010 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Presentation Review: Pavel Suchanek

Pavel Suchanek presented his company, ALAKARTE, at the latest Prague Networking Group meeting. It was an intimate and relaxed setting in a bar, The Office, with the audience standing directly in front of the speaker. Pavel was quite at ease as he presented and seemed comfortable in his role. However, there were some problems with his presentation. Below are some details and advice for future presentations.

Rating system: 1 = outstanding 5 = sucks

You can see a detailed description of my review criteria here

Message – rating: 4

Pavel finished his presentation and I struggled to remember what his main message was. A few days later, a friend asked what Pavel’s company did and what makes it special and I really couldn’t give a coherent answer.

Advice: Pavel needs to think about the ONE thing that he wants his audience to remember and make this the message that shapes the structure of his presentation. This message should be stated immediately after he gets the audience’s attention. Tell us why it’s important to listen! Tell us why we should care!

Content – rating: 3

Having an outline of what the audience can expect to hear at the beginning of his presentation would have made it easier to follow the content. And, I would have appreciated a much clearer content structure.

Advice: When Pavel creates his content for his next company introduction presentation, he needs to ask himself some questions: What is ALAKARTE? How does it work? What makes it different? Why is it important? Also, make each content point distinct from the others so it’s easy to follow.

Attention – rating: 3

Pavel started his presentation with a question for the audience – a good strategy. But, he didn’t follow this up by really listening to the answers. Some people answered the question, but weren’t acknowledged by Pavel so the effect was lost. Listen to your audience’s answers!

Also, there was a very weak conclusion (‘So, that’s our company. I don’t want to keep you too long’).

Advice: Keep asking your audience questions, but remember that our answers are important, too. Introducing each content point with a question is a nice way to keep your audience’s attention, as well. Don’t forget to give us a strong final statement so we have a good final impression.

Slides – rating: 5

There was only one slide up during the whole presentation – the homepage of his website. Eventually, an audience member asked to see how the website works and we saw a little bit, but this should have been a planned part of his presentation.

Even though there was just this one slide during his presentation, Pavel kept looking at it as if it contained something different (I’m sure it was just nervousness). Every time he looked at the slide, however, the audience expected to see something different and something related to what he was saying. It was confusing.

Advice: If you’re going to use slides, make sure they are related to what you are talking about. A demonstration of how your website works would have been the perfect way of helping us visualize what you do.

Presence – rating: 3

This was a hard one to rate because I had two different views. First, Pavel is a good public speaker. He had great eye contact with the audience and looked like he was genuinely enjoying his presentation.

BUT, he hardly showed any enthusiasm for what he was saying. Because this is HIS company, I expected him to be really excited about his business and to share this enthusiasm with us. It just wasn’t there and that was disappointing.

Advice: It’s your company, Pavel. If you don’t show any enthusiasm, your audience can’t either. If it’s nerves that prevent you from being excited, keep practicing until it feels natural.

Thanks for agreeing to the review, Pavel, and I look forward to seeing your next presentation!

© 2010 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Presentation Review Criteria

To kick off my campaign of ‘Making Presentations Outstanding in CZ’, I put out a slideshow called ‘Presentations Still Suck Here’ (you can view it here). This has generated a buzz and even received ‘The Top Presentation of the Day’ from Slideshare.

The next step in the campaign is a Presentation Review series. I will be writing about presentations that I see and giving constructive criticism so that the speakers can improve and so my readers can look critically at their own presentation performance and learn how to get better.

I will always notify the speakers in advance before reviewing their presentations. My aim is not to embarrass people, but to give them the chance to show me their best and to offer others the chance to learn from their experience. I will never review a speaker who does not agree to it.

In order to give a fair review, I have laid out certain criteria that I will be looking for in each presentation. I will rate each one using the following scale and giving some additional information and tips for improvement.

Rating: 1 – 5

1 = outstanding 5 = sucks

Criteria:

Message
Is the core message of the presentation clear, simple and memorable?

Content
Is all of the information necessary and connected to the core message?

Is there a logical structure?

Attention
Does the presenter get our attention from the start and keep it throughout?

Is there a strong impression at the end?

Slides
Do the slides catch our attention and create curiosity?

Do they make us want to listen to the speaker to get more information or are they a distraction and too much the focus of the presentation?

Presence
Is the speaker clearly enthusiastic about their topic?

Does their presentation presence convey confidence and credibility?

I look forward to seeing your next presentation! If you’re not presenting at the time, look for me in the audience and give me your feedback regarding the presentation, as well. Let’s start working together to make presentations outstanding in the Czech Republic!

© 2010 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Presentations still suck here

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Presentations still suck here

View more presentations from Jeanne Trojan.

Five Reasons Why Presentations Matter

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Five Reasons Why Presentations Matter

View more presentations from Jeanne Trojan.

Breaking a Presentation Rule

Check out my new slideshow!

Breaking a Presentation Rule

View more presentations from Jeanne Trojan.

Open Presentation Skills Workshop - 17 June 2010

Outstanding Presentations
17 June 2010 9:00-17:00
Friends Coffee House (http://milujikavu.cz/en/)

Are you getting the results you want when you present?
Is your audience really listening to your message?
Do you want to feel more confident when presenting?

Spend a day improving your presentation skills with Jeanne Trojan!

This interactive workshop will include:

Streamlining the preparation process

Defining and communicating your core message

Creating content that motivates your audience to listen

Getting and keeping your audience's attention

Designing slides that support your message

Leaving a strong final impression

Participants will practice the skills they've learned throughout the workshop.
Feedback is an essential part of the process.

Space is limited to eight participants.

Price: 4 500CZK (includes a handbook, light lunch and drinks)

Register:

jmtcz@jmtcz.com

(+420) 777 952 343

When it's done right

It's the nature of my work that I attend a lot of presentations. Unfortunately, a lot of them are awful. Last week, I was pleasantly surprised.

I was invited to a presentation of the House of Wine (www.houseofwine.cz) at the Royal Oak (www.royaloakprague.com). There were about twenty of us in the audience and our presenter was Elsie Pells. Elsie immediately caught our attention with a video introducing us to the wines of South Africa. The video was short, but it got our attention and made us want to learn more.

After the video, Elsie gave a talk in more depth about what makes her wine special and we had a chance to taste each variety as she went along. Not all of us have the advantage of having our audience taste wine and eat cheese while they are listening to us, but I can think of a hundred ways that even this could have been made boring. Elsie avoided every one of them.

How did she do it? One word - enthusiasm! She was wildly enthusiastic about her product and she managed to infuse us with the same amount of enthusiasm throughout her talk. Her presentation lasted close to two hours, but not once did I or anyone else notice how long it was.

This was not the only thing she did right. Her audience was clearly the focus of her talk and she continually asked us questions and kept our attention by weaving interesting stories into her presentation. The effect was phenomenal.

It has been a long time since I enjoyed a presentation so much and it has restored my faith in the possibility that it can still be done right. I left the presentation with a renewed energy to help people do what Elsie did. Bravo!

© 2009 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Break the Rules!

Have you heard any rules about slide creation? How about these?

1. Slides should contain no more than 7 lines with 7 or fewer words per line (or 6 lines/6 words, 5 lines/5 words - depending on who you listen to)

2. 3+1+1: 3 different elements on your slide plus one kind of background plus one flash (animation, sound, video etc)

3. 10/20/30: No more than 10 slides, no longer than a 20 minute presentation, no font smaller than 30 (Guy Kawasaki)

If you follow first rule, whether you use 7, 6 or 5, you can still end up with A LOT of words on your slide and your audience will still end up reading your slides instead of listening to you. It should take a few SECONDS for your audience to read your slide and then get back to listening to you.

I'm not sure if I even understand the second rule. You could spend too much time trying to figure out what defines an element and if you really need something that is called 'flash'.

And, if you read deeper into Kawasaki's 10/20/30 rule, he is only talking about a very specific kind of presentation - the fast-paced pitch to venture capitalists. While I agree that you should use big, readable fonts, there are many kinds of presentations that have to be longer than 20 minutes and that should use a lot more than 10 slides. If you feel you have to limit the number of slides you use, you will end up putting too many ideas on one slide just to make the cut.

Knowing that your slides are just a tool to support your message, the fewer words, the better (you want them to listen to you, not read your slide). And, make sure you have only one idea per slide, no matter how many slides you have to use (think about how many slides Steve Jobs or Seth Godin use with only one word or a photo).

When you are creating your slides, ask yourself what the key words are and only use those (I'm talking about only one to three words!). You will fill in the information for the audience by speaking. If your audience needs detailed information, make documents for them and let them know they will have all the details after your presentation. And, don't limit yourself to words! Maybe an image will attract their attention and spark their curiosity about your message much better than words.

Forget rules, use your creativity and don't depend on your slides to tell your message! Use your slides to grab their attention and make them listen to you. You will have a much better chance of making your audience remember your message and getting the results you want!

© 2009 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Slide or Presentation?

How we use language says a lot about the way we think. Quite often clients ask me, 'Should I send you my presentation?’ What they're really asking is, 'Should I send you my slides?’ What's the difference?

In my opinion, the difference is huge! Your slides are NOT your presentation! They are a tool to support your presentation. Your presentation is you and your message. When we start thinking about our slides as our presentation, it affects how we prepare and deliver our presentations.

Let's look at preparation first. Think about how you start preparing. What's the first thing you do? Do you open up PowerPoint and start designing your slides? If yes, you are missing some major steps in your preparation. Instead, you should get away from your computer and think about your objectives, your audience and their objectives, your core message etc. One of the LAST steps you should take is creating your slides.

Why? One reason is that when you make a slide, you have some kind of commitment to it and it's very hard to eliminate it later. If you go back later and think that the information you included in the slide isn't important to the audience, you might be reluctant to remove it because you have already put a lot of work into it.

Another problem when you think of your slides as your presentation is that you are compelled to put too much information onto your slide instead of just saying it . Your audience is then forced to make a decision - should they read your slide or listen to you speak? The easier option is always just to read and ignore you. I assume that that isn't the reason you are speaking to people.

Create slides that inspire curiosity in your audience. How about just putting one or two words or an image on a slide and then making your audience listen to you in order to learn something?

More on slides next time!

© 2009 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved