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