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