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
