Outstanding Presentations

WebExpo 2011: Presentation Lessons Learned

2011-10-04T20:09:00.010+02:00

WebExpo was a fabulous place this year - full of energy and enthusiasm from over a thousand geeks. The quality of the presentations there contributed to this great atmosphere. I'd like to share some lessons from the presentations that I had a chance to see.

Lesson #1 Technical topics don't have to be boring

I've said this before and most of the speakers at WebExpo proved it. There were some extremely technical topics presented this year, but that didn't stop the speakers from making them interesting, interactive and even exciting. You don't think Information Architecture can be sexy? Don't tell that to Adam Fendrych! He showed us how it can be done and that it's possible for any topic. If YOU are excited about your subject and manage to share that enthusiasm with your audience, you've got a winning presentation every time.

Lesson #2 Less content equals more impact

When Adam Hruby first presented for us in the training session, he had loads of things to say to his audience. All of it was interesting, but as he only had 30 minutes to speak, something had to go. He masterfully cut down his content and was then able to add even more energy, visuals and emphasis to the content points that remained. And, with less content, his message was much clearer and the audience was able to stay focused and remember his very specific calls to action. Adam ended up being one of the stars of the conference and was a joy to watch present! Look out for him at future events!

Lesson #3 Proper preparation makes a huge difference

There were two speakers that admitted to me before they presented that they didn't prepare as well as they should have. Unfortunately, the results made it painfully obvious. What makes this argument for preparation even stronger is that they are naturally talented presenters. However, even this natural talent didn't make up for lack of preparation. There is no substitute for going through all the preparation steps. And, leaving your presentation preparation until the last minute never works! Don't say to yourself, 'I'll just wing it and see what happens'. As Mark Twain said, 'I can't make an impromptu speech without at least four days for preparation.'

Lesson #4 Introverts can be great presenters

You don't think you can be a great presenter because you're not an extrovert? The right kind of preparation and practice can make even a shy person a successful speaker. I talked with Richard Fridrich after his very popular presentation and asked him if it came naturally to him. He said, 'Absolutely not! I am an introvert and it takes a lot of practice to feel comfortable talking in front of so many people.' His method? After he feels confident about the presentation that he's prepared, he practices it many times out loud in his living room. This not only helps him feel more relaxed, but he often edits his presentation after hearing what it sounds like. Great advice!

Lesson #5 Everyone can be an outstanding presenter!

I have to admit that when Zdenek Farana first presented for us at the training session, I had my doubts whether he would really be ready for the conference. But, the WebExpo program manager, Jakub Nesetril, was determined that he had a great message and if we could all work together he might be good enough by September. Well, 'good enough' does not describe what we saw on the big day at WebExpo. Zdenek took all of our advice to heart and worked his ass off to make one of the best presentations I saw at WebExpo this year. I was astounded to see the difference between his first and final versions. He has proved what I truly believe - everyone has the chance to be an outstanding speaker if you really want to put the work in and make it happen! Bravo, Zdenek!

And, on that note, I challenge all of my readers to make the extra effort and strive to be outstanding the next time you speak! I hope to see you presenting at the next WebExpo!

PS And, to all of the people who participated in my Networking Game at the WebExpo WarmUp party - what was the lesson? Don't be afraid to say 'Can I join you?' to a group of strangers at an event!! I loved to see so many people using it at the conference - good for you! You never know where that phrase will take you!

© 2011 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

99 seconds to present - what do you say?

2011-06-18T13:42:00.000+02:00

Last week I attended the Business Tuesday event, Success Stories. Before the main event started, there was an opportunity for a person to present their company in 99 seconds. I had never seen this before and I think there are some lessons to be learned from this type of mini presentation. I won't name the person who gave this particular talk because it's not the point of this post. But, if you're given this type of opportunity, here are some things you should think about.

What is your goal for this type of presentation? To sell your product or service? To introduce your company structure or history? To give detailed information about your processes?

Absolutely NOT! Your only goal should be to get people excited enough about your organization to want to know more and to motivate them to talk to you after the event or contact you later.

What should you say to fulfill this goal? Here are some ideas:

Tell us why you exist. What problem are you solving? Who are you solving it for?

What are you doing right now that's exciting? Why should we be excited about it? Be specific! What are you especially proud of that your organization is currently doing and who are you doing it for?

Why should we care about your organization? Why should we want to know more? Are you leading a tribe that we'd like to become a part of? Why should we not miss out on the opportunity to become a member of your circle?

The world is all about connections and sharing experiences now. Forget the sales pitch! Give us a reason to listen, care and become involved in the exciting things that you're doing!

And, unlike the person who presented on Tuesday, stick around for the whole event and the networking opportunity afterwards. If you leave after your presentation, the message you convey is 'Well, I said what I needed to say and if they're interested, they'll contact me'. That's not the point.

I look forward to seeing the next 99 second presentation opportunity. Take advantage of it and I'll give you a winning review!

What is Normal?

2011-05-19T22:12:00.002+02:00

Most presenters:

Use bullet point slides

Fill their slides with text

Use printouts of their slides for conferences

Look more at the screen than at their audience
Start presentations with their company history or detailed bio information

Recycle slidedecks from past presentations

Think that presentations are about giving their audience information

Don't ask themselves why audiences should care about their presentation

Worry more about how they look rather than what they say

Leave all the audience questions until the end

Call their slides their 'presentation'
Are just glad to be done with the presentation no matter the outcome

If most people are doing it does that make it ok? It makes me think of when I was a kid and I wanted something that 'everybody' else had. My mother would ask me, 'If everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too?'.

My question to you is - if everyone else is approaching presentations this way, does that mean that you should? Are you too worried about appearing normal? Do you want to be like most people or do you want to be a presenter that makes an audience think, 'Wow! That was something different, something better'?

Don't follow the herd. Be outstanding!

© 2011 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Mashup Presentations: Six Tips

2011-05-03T18:43:00.002+02:00

I recently attended the fifth Mashup at HUB Prague and I'd like to share some lessons that came out of watching the presentations there.

Don't know what a 'mashup' is? It's an event that features presentations that consist of 10 slides with each slide appearing for only 20 seconds. There are other events that you may have heard of - Ignite, Pecha Kucha, that have similar formats. This is a very different kind of presentation, but when delivered well it can be fun and a great promotional tool.

This is obviously a slide-driven presentation. You are a slave to the number of slides you can use and the amount of time that you can spend on each slide. Meticulous planning and rehearsal is mandatory! This is not something to leave until the last minute.

Here are six tips to think about if you plan to present at this kind of event:

1. This is not the place for bullet-point slides full of text (actually, there is no place for those, but especially here you need to forget about creating slides like this). Vivid photos, a few words in a huge font, quotations - these are the kinds of slides that fit this event.

2. Spending only 20 seconds on each slide does NOT mean that you need to talk really fast. It means that every word you say needs to be necessary and to absolutely relate to the slide showing at the moment. Don't make the mistake of talking at Chipmunk speed - you will look like a fool and your audience will be lost.

3. Have you said everything you wanted to say and the slide is still just sitting there? DON'T just stand there and look at your slide waiting for it to advance. DON'T say to the audience 'the next slide will be coming up soon.' You need to be able to think on your feet and add something more to say that's important to your message. When you create your presentation, put in extra 'fillers' to add in case you have too much time. One of the presenters at this event asked the audience some questions when he found that he had extra time until the next slide came up - that's a great example!

4. Yes, it's a slide-focused event - but that means the AUDIENCE is focusing on your slides - NOT you! Demand that the organizers put the computer in front of you so that you can see the slide that is up without looking behind you.

5. Don't waste any time on things like your company history, track record, financial results... people really don't care and it's out of place in this kind of event. Give your audience a reason to listen and a reason to care about what you're saying.

6. This is meant to be a fun event. You need to put enough work into the preparation and practice that you can give the audience the impression that you are having fun with it, too. Make it look easy (even if it's not) and you'll allow the audience to have a great time and to love your presentation.

Take the next opportunity you can to give a presentation at this kind of event. There are more and more happening in Prague now. Used in the right way, you can make a great impression and have the chance to spread your message. I'm looking forward to seeing the next one!

Communication Wednesday: Google, Seznam, Nokia

2011-04-09T18:47:00.015+02:00

The day after the Internet Developers Forum, I attended Communication Wednesday and saw presentations about mobile maps. The three main presenters were Jaroslav Bengl (Google), Ivan Mikula (Seznam) and Igor Smerda (Nokia). Their performances can teach us some lessons about promotional presentations and how they can be delivered in an informal setting.

The lessons:

Being first is an advantage

If you find yourself in a similar situation, always ask to be the first presenter. Google had a clear advantage because of this. Bengl had the chance to set the tone, introduce topics and not be afraid that they were already mentioned and to be the one that the others are compared to.

Never be defensive

If you're not lucky enough to be the first, don't make the mistake of comparing yourself to the first presenter. Bengl gave a great presentation of Google maps. He was relaxed and had a friendly style. He also had the confidence that he had a really good product to present. Both Mikula and Smerda appeared to be defensive about their products and how they compared with Google. There is no reason for this and it leaves a bad impression. I'm sure there are great advantages to both Seznam and Nokia's mobile maps. Focus on those and forget about putting the competition down. It never looks good.

Focus on the benefits

There's a big difference between telling your audience what your product can do and showing them what the benefits are. Facts are nothing without telling your audience why those facts are important to them and why we should care about them. For example, Mikula told us a lot about the sms marketing campaign for Seznam's mobile maps. Why? I can't imagine why this information was important to the audience that was there. Smerda also gave us a lot of information that seemed unnecessary because he didn't explain how it was connected to his message.

Know your audience

Communication Wednesday events are great for speakers because it's possible to find out in advance who will be attending. It's an opportunity to create your presentation with this specific audience in mind. When you have this possibility, ask yourself why people are coming to the event. What do they want to learn from you? What are they worried about? What kind of information will excite them?

Don't reuse your slides

It's always easy to recognize when a speaker uses the same set of slides for different events and it gives a bad impression. It's especially easy to spot when the presentation language is Czech and the slides are in English. Don't do this. The message it conveys is laziness and a lack of concern about the impression you want to give your audience. Every audience is different. Take the time to create new slides that will mean something to each one.

Recognize that every presentation is an opportunity

Communication Wednesdays are pretty informal and friendly events. It's not the place for a hard sell presentation. But, that doesn't mean that there isn't an opportunity to impress potential clients, create excitement about your products and expand your tribe. Make sure that each presentation you make aims to do these things. Bengl clearly recognized this. Mikula and Smerda could have focused much more on these goals in their presentations.

I have to wonder if Google is more aware of how important presentations are to their bottom line. I attended two events in two days and Google was clearly the winner both times. I'm looking forward to seeing other companies becoming more aware of the impression they make when they present and starting to make the kinds of presentations that this requires.

© 2011 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

The Lost Opportunities of Michael Jurek & Microsoft

2011-04-09T12:03:00.027+02:00

If you read my previous post, you know that, with one exception, the Internet Developers Forum was a disappointment regarding the quality of presentations there. Michael Jurek was the keynote speaker and represented the main sponsor of the event, Microsoft. I have no doubt that Michael is an expert in his field, but these days that just isn't enough for people to pay attention or even to stay in the room, as you will see.

Here are three mistakes that I think Michael made:

No interaction

Michael chose not to use the projector remote so he positioned himself to the far left of the stage close to his computer so he could advance his slides. Subsequently, his attention was either focused on his computer or on the screen the whole time. He NEVER looked at the audience!

The audience was not part of this presentation. He never asked us questions or looked to see if we understood what he was talking about. After about thirty minutes, people started to get up and leave the room. I stopped counting after awhile. At the end of his presentation, about half the audience had left. And this was the FIRST presentation of the conference! The keynote should be the presentation that gets people excited about the rest of the day. Instead, it was the presentation that set the tone of boring, slide-focused talks that filled the rest of our time.

Slides

Michael chose to fill his slide deck with bullet point slides full of text. Even in technical presentations, this really isn't necessary. I understand that there is some information in this kind of presentation that needs to be put on a slide, but there are so many other ways to do this! There is no excuse for filling a slide with words and forcing your audience to either read or listen to you. Invariably, they will choose not to listen because it's the easier option. So, that makes the speaker obsolete and it would be better to just send us the slides because all of the information is already on them.

No passion

Michael's topic was about Cloud Computing - the theme of the entire conference. Michael showed absolutely no enthusiasm for this topic. It seemed that his attitude was 'I will put out all of this information and if people are interested, they'll want to know more. If they aren't, I don't really care'. Maybe that wasn't really his attitude, but that was certainly the impression that Michael gave during his presentation.

I don't think that speakers need to entertain us - that's not what I'm talking about. There are just some very basic questions that they need to ask themselves when they prepare. These questions will give the impression that the speaker cares.

Why are you excited about Azure? Why should the audience care about it? What does the audience already know about it? What problem is it solving? How is it different and better than the competition? What is your ultimate goal for this presentation? What do you want your audience to do with this information? Next time, I would advise Michael to think about these questions when he's preparing his presentation. Answering them will make a big difference to his impact.

I asked Michael what he thought about his presentation after he finished. He said that he knew he made a lot of mistakes because he had already had presentation training. I asked him if he knew that half the audience left during his presentation. He said that he was aware of it, but it was just the people that hate Microsoft that left. But, Michael, they were there at the beginning and maybe they expected to hear something interesting from you!

The bottom line is - Microsoft spent some money to sponsor this conference. What was the return for them? Did they motivate people to look into their products and services? Did they share trends that are happening and move people to care about them? Did they increase their tribe?

Sponsorship is a lot more than just putting a table in the hallway with your products. A big part of it is taking the opportunity of making an outstanding keynote presentation and making it translate into increased business. Unfortunately, this didn't happen at the Internet Developers Forum. I hope that Michael rethinks how he presents next time and takes advantage of the opportunities.

© 2011 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Filip Hracek Saves the Day!

2011-04-06T15:26:00.022+02:00

This year's Internet Developer's Forum was a miserable place for presentations*. I will talk about what went wrong there in my next post, but I want to start on a positive note. The one shining light in the blue room yesterday was Filip Hracek, Developer Relations at Google. Out of all of the presenters, he seemed to be the only one that knew what a presentation should be and why it's so important.

There are three areas in which he excelled. Here they are.

Opening & Closing

I knew immediately when he began that his presentation was going to be a good one. He started off with a question and a brilliant set of photos. That got our attention and piqued our interest. He also looked directly at the audience and was clearly talking WITH us instead of talking TO us - there is such a difference!

He closed his presentation with a clear summary. His slide stated, 'What did I say?'. And, instead of just listing his agenda points, he told us what was important about them. Basically, he was telling us what we should remember about his presentation - that's exactly what a summary should be!

Interaction

He was the only presenter that truly connected with the audience. He understood who his audience was - young, tech-savvy individuals - and he created his presentation around that fact. He asked questions like, 'Does anyone already know this?' or 'Has anyone used this yet?' . When most of the people in the room raised their hands, he immediately modified his presentation to get to the heart of his point instead of explaining something that the audience already knew or had experienced. This is SO important in a technical presentation. Of course, you have to be prepared for the possibility that no one, everyone or half of the audience raises their hands, but the extra preparation can make all the difference.

Slides

Filip didn't use ONE bullet point slide. This was so refreshing after sitting through so many all morning. He used photos or just a few words on a slide. He also used his slides for some great quotations to make us think and to help him expand on his point. He jumped from the quotation to some very vivid examples. It was such an effective way to use this tool! Filip's example illustrates exactly the way slides should be used! Get your audience curious about your point and then TALK to them. Don't make them try to read and listen at the same time - it doesn't work!

Filip's performance proves that even a technical presentation doesn't have to be boring. There were a lot of possibilities for the sponsors of the Internet Developer's Forum to connect with their customers, share knowledge and expand their tribe, but the only company, in my opinion, that took advantage of this opportunity was Google. Sending Filip to be their representative for the day was an excellent choice. Bravo, Filip! Thanks for saving the conference for me!

*I am only referring to the presentations in the 'blue room'. There were workshops going on in the 'red room', but I couldn't be in both places at the same time...

© 2011 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Three reasons I'm not a Toastmaster

2011-02-28T07:56:00.001+01:00

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Three reasons I'm not a Toastmaster

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Petr Ruzicka is an outstanding speaker!

2011-02-17T13:35:00.007+01:00

Petr Ruzicka from Cisco spoke at Communication Wednesday last night. It's not very often that I have the chance to see such an outstanding speaker so I'd like to share the experience.

What did he do that was so exceptional? I could list a lot of things that he did right but I want to highlight the one that I think can make a big difference to speakers who are already sure of their content.

He OWNED the room while he was speaking. I've seen very few presenters that can pull this off naturally, but Petr knew exactly what he was doing and it really made an impression on the audience.

Here's how he did it:

When it was his turn to speak, he came up to the middle of the speaking area, stood tall, looked at everyone in the audience and didn't say a word. In the few seconds that he did this, the message was clear - this room was unquestionably HIS for the next twenty minutes! This simple act makes the audience alert and maybe even a little uncomfortable - that's ok - it means they are listening and they don't know what to expect, but they know that he is in control of the situation. And, he maintained this control throughout his talk.

I recommend doing this, but only if you've earned the right to own the room. What does this mean? Petr knew his content inside and out, he was absolutely sure that this was the right presentation for this particular audience and he was passionate about his company and his topic. After you've mastered these challenges, try this opening gesture. The power you get from it will amaze you and the audience will be yours!

Thanks, Petr, for demonstrating a powerful way to give presentations and showing us how it should be done every time we present!

© 2011 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Stop Ignoring Your Audience!

2011-01-31T15:28:00.008+01:00

Start this year by making your audience the focus of your presentations from the very beginning of your preparation to the final delivery. Their needs and expectations should be for the focus of your message and should shape the content you decide to include.

If you can ask yourself a few key questions before you write the first word of your presentation, your audience will notice the difference and reward you by listening to you, remembering your message and acting on your proposals.

It doesn't take a lot of time. It's more about changing the way you approach your preparation.

So, next time you have to give a presentation, start with these key questions:

Who are the decision makers in your audience (they are the only ones that really matter)?
Why are they attending your presentation?
What do they expect to learn from you?
What do you want them to do with the information you're giving them?
What do they need to know in order to act on your proposal?

When you've answered these questions, base your presentation preparation on the answers you came up with.

Try it! Your audience is waiting for you to pay attention to them. This small change in thinking can make all the difference.

I wish you luck in your presentations in 2011. Let me know how the changes you make have helped you make outstanding presentations!

© 2011 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Stop Reading Your Slides!

2011-01-06T20:41:00.013+01:00

Want to know the fastest way to get your audience to stop listening to you and for you to lose credibility? Read your slides to your audience. It's amazing, but some people still think this is an effective way of presenting.

This practice was once quietly accepted, but I have noticed audiences becoming visibly uncomfortable when speakers do this now. And, I absolutely empathize with the way they feel. Why should we sit there and waste our time while you read something aloud that we can read much faster to ourselves? Why don't you either say something that adds value to your slides or just do us all a favor and forget about presenting and send them by email?

Does that sound harsh? Well, it's meant to. It's time that people wake up and realize that reading slides to the audience is one of the worst presentation sins they can commit and doing so has serious consequences for their image and their organization's brand.

I'm sure that most of my readers never even think about doing such a thing, but will you all do me a favor? The next time that someone you know gives a presentation and reads their slides, please gently tell them to stop it!. Thank you.

© 2011 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Stop Wasting Our Time!

2010-12-29T18:29:00.016+01:00

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?

Seven ways to kill your presentation

2010-10-31T21:52:00.001+01:00

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Presentation Review: Pierluigi Pugliese

2010-10-30T13:06:00.013+02:00

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!

Presentation Review: George Tziralis & Miro Solanka

2010-10-09T16:04:00.019+02:00

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

2010-10-05T15:24:00.010+02:00

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

2010-09-27T10:34:00.014+02:00

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!

6 Reasons Your Audience Is Ignoring Your Presentation

2010-09-13T07:24:00.001+02:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

6 Reasons Your Audience Is Ignoring Your Presentation

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Presentation Review: Cornel Sampson

2010-07-26T09:49:00.015+02:00

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

2010-07-21T08:44:00.010+02:00

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!

Presentation Review: Will Bennis

2010-07-02T08:06:00.021+02:00

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

2010-06-22T21:46:00.030+02:00

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!

Presentation Review Criteria

2010-06-20T17:07:00.017+02:00

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

2010-06-15T21:46:00.001+02:00

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Presentations still suck here

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Five Reasons Why Presentations Matter

2010-05-18T15:55:00.001+02:00

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Five Reasons Why Presentations Matter

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Breaking a Presentation Rule

2010-04-26T09:07:00.001+02:00

Check out my new slideshow!

Breaking a Presentation Rule

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Open Presentation Skills Workshop - 17 June 2010

2010-04-21T18:48:00.003+02:00

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

2010-04-03T18:20:00.011+02:00

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!

2010-02-20T19:08:00.015+01:00

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?

2010-01-22T16:42:00.020+01:00

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?

Presentation consultations

2009-11-09T14:04:00.004+01:00

Who needs presentation consultations?

Professionals who are required to make presentations and do not feel completely satisfied with their results or with the amount of time it takes to prepare and practice their presentations.

What are the benefits of presentation consultations?

Saving time on preparation and practice
Gaining confidence in delivering your message
Improving your and your organization’s image
Obtaining the skills necessary to create and deliver outstanding presentations every time

How does it work?

You are guided through every stage of preparation for your presentation, given strategies for practice and the opportunity to receive constructive feedback on your presentation before you deliver it to a real audience. Assistance is also offered on slide design.

Steps in this process include:

Assessment

Speaker and audience objectives, the speaking environment, audience analysis, core message definition

Preparation

Content creation and elimination of unnecessary information, connecting content to your core message, opening strategies, tactics for keeping attention, leaving a strong impression, slide creation

Practice

Opportunity to rehearse presentations with constructive guidance and tips for delivering a dynamic talk that will set you apart from the rest

Video Training

The chance to see yourself speaking as others see you and to learn strategies for greater impact

Feedback and Future Steps

When possible, I will attend your live presentation and offer you feedback and tips for future improvement

© 2009 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Five Reasons Why Presentations Matter

2009-08-18T18:40:00.006+02:00

Why should we be so concerned about presentations? Does it really matter how we present? Is it worth spending time and energy to get it right?

I think presentations are vitally important. Here are just five reasons why.

1. Your image

When you speak in front of a group of people, fair or not, you are being judged by that group. If you present well, you automatically project an image of confidence, credibility and competence. This kind of impression sticks in people's minds. You're taking a gamble if you don't consider the weight of this impression when you are preparing for and delivering your presentation.

2. Your organization's image

Not only are you representing yourself when you speak publicly, but you are giving the audience a face to your organization. Whether you work for a well-known multinational or a small NGO, the image you project when you present will compel the audience to make a judgement regarding your organization.

3. Your message

When you present, you obviously have a message that you want to convey to the audience. If you make a clear, powerful and memorable presentation, your audience will understand, remember and believe in that message.

4. Creating a buzz

You want to get people talking about you, your organization and your message well after your presentation. You want to be asked to speak again at a conference or to be chosen to handle that big account next time. How you present your ideas and motivate your audience can make all the difference.

5. Your future

You never know who is in the audience and what they can mean to your future. What people see when you give a presentation can have an effect on your future prospects. Take advantage of this opportunity to really shine!

© 2009 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

The Seven Deadly Sins of Presenting

2009-07-07T08:26:00.011+02:00

Commit just one of these sins and you will have less chance of getting the results you want when you present. Avoid these at all costs!

1. Reading your slides

If you have so much text on your slides and you don't know your presentation well enough to speak naturally, you may be tempted to read your slides to your audience. First of all, if your slides are full of text, your audience has to make a decision - read your slides or listen to you. They will almost always choose the first option. And, they can read much faster than you can speak so they will be waiting for you to catch up and will be wondering why you didn't just send them your slides instead of delivering a value-added presentation.

2. Not doing your homework on your audience

If you don't take the time to find out who your audience is and what they want from your presentation, it is clear to the audience in the first five minutes. Doing an audience analysis is a crucial step in your preparation process.

3. Not knowing what your core message is and being able to communicate it

You should know exactly what you want your audience to remember about your presentation and be able to communicate this in a simple and succinct way. When your presentation is finished what should your audience remember?

4. Putting too much non-essential information in your presentation

Every piece of information you include should be directly related to your core message. If it's not important for your audience to know this information, leave it out or you will lose your audience's attention! Keep asking yourself, 'Does my audience really need to know this? Is it important for them?'

5. Not grabbing your audience's attention from the very beginning

If you are tempted to start your presentation with some bland facts about yourself or your company or if you start right in with information without giving your audience a reason to listen, you will lose your audience before you even get started. Remember the structure of an opening: an attention-getting statement or question, the objective of your presentation and then an outline. Make it easy for your audience to pay attention!

6. Not knowing your subject well enough before you speak

If you are giving a presentation, you should really know what you're talking about! Once you have structured your presentation, practice it enough so that you need only an outline to remember your main points and the examples/stories that you've included to make it real for your audience.

7. Not having any enthusiasm for your topic

If you're not enthusiastic about your topic, it's impossible for your audience to have any enthusiasm for it. Show your audience how important this information is for them to know and keep their interest by your own enthusiasm!

What Seth Godin does right

2009-06-03T08:57:00.013+02:00

Seth Godin is a great example of an outstanding speaker. His latest talk at TED is one of my favorites. Take a look at it and I'll highlight some things he does exceptionally well:

http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2009/05/seth_godin_at_ted.html

1. He immediately gets our attention. He opens his presentation with some attention-getting examples of people 'who know what they do for a living'. He compliments these stories with some eye-catching visuals. He gets our attention and leads us directly into the objective of his talk - 'what do we do for a living? I think we try to change everything'. That's gets us listening and curious about what we are going to hear.

2. He then clearly tells us what to expect from his talk - 'What is the process of making important change? I've been studying this for a couple years and I want to share a couple stories with you today.'

3. He gives us some very clear examples of people who are making these kinds of changes and how we can 'change the status quo and make big, permanent, important change' and the process we should go through when trying to do this. These stories are real, interesting and supported by some great visuals that keep our attention.

4. He makes his core message extremely simple, easy to remember and he moves us to his message with something we can understand - the factory stage, the advertising stage and now we are in the leadership stage. If he had simply started talking about the leadership stage, we may not have had something to compare it to and he may have lost some of his audience.

5. He relates his message to his original statement - 'What we do for a living now is find something worth changing and then assemble tribes that spread the idea and it becomes a movement'. Everything is connected in his talk - there is no information that is NOT connected to his core message - this is KEY!

6. He supports his message towards the end with even more examples. This reinforces his message after we have completely understood what he is promoting.

7. He gives us something tangible to think about towards the end with his three questions. The aim is to make your audience think about your talk after the presentation is over and this is a great way to do it

8. He gives us a wonderful summary of his talk. He doesn't say 'I talked about this... blah blah blah'. He tells us what we should remember - ' Challenge, Culture, Commit'. This kind of stuff stays with an audience.

9. He finishes with a call to action. He tells us to do something! 'What I want you to do is create a movement. Start. Do it. We need it.' Nothing could be more motivating than a direct call to action.

10. Above all, Seth is contagiously enthusiastic throughout his talk. He believes in what he's saying and he wants his audience to believe in it. Follow his example and you might even create a movement of your own!

Advocating Intolerance

2009-05-13T19:08:00.005+02:00

I find myself becoming less and less tolerant of speakers who appear to have no consideration for their audience's needs and expectations. Yesterday, I walked out of a presentation halfway through. I'd never done that before and I know that we are supposed to sit quietly, pretend that we're interested and clap enthusiastically when a speaker has finished, but I just can't do it anymore.

Here are the reasons I left early yesterday:

1. The entire event was something quite different than what had been advertised and was a disappointment itself.

2. The main speaker didn't even bother to create PowerPoint slides, but instead put up an Excel screen that most people couldn't decipher and proceeded to go through it point by point. No one knew why we were being subjected to all this information or what possible benefit knowing this data had for us.

3. One brave audience member suggested that we could be sent this Excel sheet and go through it on our own (i.e. please, skip this boring part and get on with what we came to hear!). This hint was ignored and the speaker plodded on through the numbers...

And, then I left. As I was leaving, I could see others looking on with envy and I felt a bit guilty. Should I have continued sitting until the end? My answer remains NO!

And, I think that no one should be forced to sit through a presentation that adds absolutely no value and is simply a waste of time. Of course, you can’t do this when the speaker is your boss, but if it’s a public event and especially one that charged a fee to get into, walk out and make sure the organizers know why you did.

What if we all voted with our feet this way? Would speakers begin to get the point and start making their presentations more audience-focused and beneficial for the listeners? I think so.

This situation calls for a revolutionary act that won’t make everyone happy but will begin to change the current state of presentations today.

Shall we start to be a little less tolerant as audience members? Yes. But, remember, that we are also speakers at times. This means we have the responsibility to create presentations that people don't want to walk out on in anger. We need to put everything we have into making presentations that people WANT to listen to. Let's do it!!

© 2009 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Form or Substance?

2009-04-28T21:21:00.016+02:00

Has anyone heard of Albert Mehrabian's Communication Model? You probably haven't heard the name, but anyone who has taken a training course in communications or presentations has probably heard these findings being quoted by the trainer:

7% of meaning is in the words that are spoken.
38% of meaning is in the way that the words are said.
55% of meaning is in facial expression and body language.

But do these findings really apply to business presentations? I asked this question because it just didn't seem right to me. Only 7% of meaning is in WHAT you say to the audience?!

So, I looked around a bit and found Dr. Mehrabian’s website. He states very clearly that his model has been used for situations that really DON'T apply!

This Communication Model was meant to apply only to ‘face-to-face, one-to-one communications, containing an emotional or attitudinal element’. Dr. Mehrabian goes on to state that 'unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes, these equations are not applicable.'

So, what does that mean to business presentations? Is it unimportant HOW you deliver a presentation - of course not! But, even if you have beautiful body language, meaningful gestures and wonderful facial expressions, if WHAT you are saying to your audience isn't focused on their needs or isn’t important to them, they won't listen to you!

So, start spending much more time on the core message of your presentation and choosing the words that will motivate your audiences to listen and less time deciding on the right gestures and facial expressions!

Observations from an audience member

2009-04-03T12:19:00.010+02:00

Recently I attended a couple of conferences and had the chance to see a lot of presentations. There are an enormous amount of lessons to be learned when you look critically at what is going on. Here are just five lessons from the presentations I saw.

1. Use photos on your slides. And, I don't mean a little photo box next to some text. I mean a slide-sized photo with a few words on top of the photo. And, make sure it's high-quality (try http://www.flickr.com/ or http://www.istockphoto.com/). There was only one presenter at one conference that used these types of slides and the difference in impact was clear.

2. Don't read your slides - EVER! Please remember that the audience can read much faster than you can speak and we are waiting for you to catch up (and to say something that we can't read ourselves).

3. Don't start your presentation with the history, profile, strategy etc of your organization unless it's the point of your talk. This kind of information is not important to your audience and if you start with it, they will stop listening to you before you get to the objective of your presentation.

4. Please spell-check your slides! It's a real sign of laziness or an attitude that you don't care what your audience thinks when you don't take the time to make sure the words you put on a slide are spelled correctly.

5. Keep your audience involved (and awake!) by asking them questions. Audiences are really bold (or rude, depending on how you see it) now and have no problems sending messages on their phones or even getting out their laptops and getting some work done when a speaker doesn't interest them. First, make sure that you have prepared an audience-focused presentation and then keep them listening by making it as interactive as possible.

© 2009 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

What do you expect?

2009-03-27T10:59:00.006+01:00

I recently attended a talk by a speaker who was speaking about a potentially very interesting topic. Unfortunately, the one thing that I remember most about her presentation is the way she started it (not an unusual thing for audiences to remember the most, by the way). The first thing she said after she was introduced was 'I know that there are a lot of expectations about this talk and I hope I don't disappoint you.'

Do you know what this first statement caused me to do? I was EXPECTING to be disappointed! I was also wondering why she had thought that there were so many high expectations. Had there been some kind of audience questionnaire that I didn't get? Was I somehow different from the rest of the audience because I didn't have really high expectations of this speech?

The point is that apologizing or admitting that you might not live up to expectations at the very beginning is NOT the way to start your presentation. Even if English isn't your first language and you don't have much confidence in your English speaking skills, don't apologize at the beginning for mistakes that you might make later. If you do, your audience will be expecting you to make mistakes and they might not truly be concentrating on your topic.

Start your presentation strong and confident and your audience will expect great things from you. And why shouldn't they?!

What about the audience?

2009-03-19T08:59:00.003+01:00

Who are these people anyway?

During my consultations, one of the first questions I ask is, ‘Who will be in the audience?’ I am constantly amazed at how many times I get the answer, ‘I’m not really sure who will be there. Does it really matter that much?’

Let’s make something really clear. One of the only things that really matters when you are creating a presentation is who the audience is! These people who will be sitting in front of you should shape the entire focus and structure of your presentation so you really should find out who they are.

The first question you should ask yourself is, ‘Who are the decision makers?’ These are the people that you should focus your presentation on. You hope that the other people in the audience are interested in what you’re saying, but they are peripheral. The decision makers are the focus here.

Some questions you should ask about your decision makers:

- Why are they attending the meeting/conference?
- What do they want to learn from you?
- What are they worried about?
- What kind of information will excite them?
- What decision are they expecting to make?
- What do they need to know in order to make that decision?

This should get you started in the right direction. Don’t be afraid to do some investigation before you start creating your presentation. If you’re speaking at a conference, call the organizers and get the information you need about the audience. If you’re speaking to the Board, talk with the people who know them best.

And, depending on the situation, it might be possible to ask your audience directly some questions before you prepare your presentation. Speakers are not expected to be mind readers! Ask them what they want to hear from you – they will be refreshingly surprised to know that you are creating your presentation based on their needs and not yours. And, isn’t that how it should be anyway?

© 2009 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Information overload

2009-03-13T10:15:00.005+01:00

How does this happen?

The best way to illustrate how speakers end up with presentations that are too long and too full of information is to give you a real example.

Not long ago, one of my clients asked me to help him with his presentation. He was scheduled to speak at a conference in order to share his experience with a new technology. The main objective of his talk was to show the audience how this technology had helped his organization reach more clients and make their experience with his organization more user-friendly and efficient.

In our first meeting, my client showed me the slides that he had created and he wanted my feedback.

His first eight slides included detailed information about his organization: history, structure, its latest marketing campaign, recent changes in strategy etc. In other words, the first part of his presentation had absolutely NOTHING to do with his presentation objective and there was no reason for the audience to listen to any of this information.

If we had kept the presentation as he had created it, he would have lost his audience's attention before he had even gotten to the point of his talk.

This is a very common mistake. We think that the audience MUST be interested in us as speakers or in our organizations so this is what we initially talk about. In reality, the audience is not interested in us or our organizations (unless we are celebrities, of course).

They have come to hear what you have to say about the topic and nothing more.

In this example, we ended up deleting all of the first eight slides and starting the presentation with what the audience came to learn about - this great technology and how it could be applied to help them gain the same benefit that the speaker did. In the end, the presentation was a success and the speaker gained credibility in his field.

So, the next time you‘re planning your presentation, ask yourself if the information you've included is absolutely necessary for the audience to hear. If it isn’t, take it out!

What are we doing wrong?

2009-03-06T10:27:00.002+01:00

Top three mistakes

I think it’s important to first recognize that there is a problem with the way presentations are being made and then we need to try and define what we are doing wrong. Only then can we attempt to solve the problem and start making outstanding presentations.

You may have a different list, but I’ll give you the top three mistakes that I think people make when they create and deliver presentations.

Firstly, presentations are too long! Have you ever left a presentation and said to yourself, 'That was a great presentation, but it was just too short.' I didn't think so.

Is there a time limit for presentations? Of course not. But, we have a tendency to put way too much information into our presentations and make them much longer than necessary. We want to make sure we’re not leaving anything out and, in doing so, we bombard our audiences with loads of unnecessary information. And, the result is that we lose our audience’s attention.

Secondly, presentations are usually not audience-focused. If the audience is even considered in the preparation stage, it’s usually just an afterthought.

One of the most important questions you can ask yourself is what the audience expects from you. Why are they coming to see you speak? What do they expect to get out of this presentation? What do they want from you? Presentations are NOT about the speaker. They are all about the audience!

And, lastly, there’s a real problem with the way we think about slides. Please remember that your slides are NOT your presentation. Their only function is to support your presentation i.e. you and your message. Use them to get your audience‘s attention and make them curious about what you’re going to say. They should function as a way to get your audience to listen to you.

So, this is a start. If we can take these three issues and start to make changes, it’s a good step on the way to making our presentations more focused, engaging and effective.

Next time we’ll look deeper into the problem of information overload and how to avoid it.

© 2009 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Why presentations?

2009-02-27T08:55:00.002+01:00

Why do we make presentations?

This sounds like a pretty basic question, but one that I think deserves to be explored. Not many people enjoy giving presentations, do they? Some people are even terrified of it. Why do we put ourselves through this uncomfortable experience? With all the technology we have available today for communicating our ideas, why do we even bother with the painful process of creating and delivering presentations? Why don’t we just email our PowerPoint slides and be done with it?

Because presentations are not about communicating facts. All evidence to the contrary, giving people facts is not the point of presentations. So what is the point? Presentations give speakers the opportunity to persuade, motivate and impress their audiences. In a presentation, we have the chance to move our audiences emotionally, to illustrate our ideas with powerful stories and to inspire our audiences to believe in and act on what we are saying.

If your objective is simply to give your audience a lot of facts, please skip the presentation and send them a document with all the information they need.

But, if you want to do something more, then you’ll need to give them more than just facts and tell your audience why this information is important to them. Show them how they can benefit from knowing these facts. Illustrate how this information can help them. Motivate your audience to act on your proposals by connecting these facts to something tangible and important to them.

So, the next time you have a presentation to make, ask yourself what you really want to achieve. Do you want your audience to have a better impression of your organization? Do you want them to sign a contract? Do you want to motivate them to adopt and adhere to a new company policy? Do you want them to donate to your cause, start investing with you, become your clients?

Once you know why you’re making the presentation, you can forget about ‘just giving them some facts’. Help the audience fulfill your objective by moving beyond the facts and giving them a reason to listen to you!

© 2009 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

What is outstanding?

2009-02-20T07:44:00.004+01:00

30 million every day!

Presentations are an extremely popular form of communication. It's estimated that there are 30 million presentations being delivered every day around the world. How many of those are truly memorable and engaging?

As we said last time, most are frustratingly boring and a waste of time.

So, if our goal is an outstanding presentation, what do I mean by 'outstanding'?

I think that it all comes down to content. The main factor that separates a 'waste of time' presentation from one that is worth listening to is WHAT the speaker says. You can have beautiful body language and stunning eye contact, but if what you are saying isn't important to your audience they won't listen to you. Period.

Focusing on the content of your presentation takes a change in thinking from the very beginning. The speaker needs to start changing who they are making the presentation for – the audience!

It's all about the audience. Everything needs to focus on what the audience expects to learn and what the audience wants to know from the speaker. How many times have you sat through a presentation and thought, 'Why is he telling us this? Why is he giving us this useless information?'. It's frustrating for an audience when they can't connect what you are saying to something meaningful for them.

Therefore, before you open PowerPoint and before you write the first word of your presentation, ask yourself some questions - Why should the audience listen to me? What does the audience expect to learn? What do I want the audience to do with this information?

That should get you started in the right direction. Just these three basic questions will start to make a difference in your preparation and get you on the road to making an outstanding presentation.

© 2009 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved

Let's Change It!

2009-02-12T13:35:00.022+01:00

On the edge of their seats.

When was the last time you looked at your audience and saw them leaning toward you, genuinely interested in your presentation? When was the last time your audience acted as if what you were saying really mattered to them?

OK. Let's turn the tables. When was the last time you sat in the audience and felt compelled to give the speaker your undivided attention because what they were saying was clearly important to you? When was the last time you didn't feel like each presentation you saw was simply a waste of time?

I, as a fellow audience member, can fairly easily guess what the answers to those questions are.
The sad truth is that most of the time speakers are speaking to audiences that aren't listening.

What's happening here? What's the point of making presentations anyway? Why aren't we taking advantage of this great form of communication? What can we do about it?

The main objective of this blog is to address these questions and talk about what we can do to start thinking differently about presentations.

Let's change the way things are done! It's time to start making presentations that people WANT to listen to and that get the results that speakers set out to achieve.

Let's get audiences back to where they should be - on the edge of their seats!