Presentation Review: Petr Dvorak, Inmite

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

Rating system: 1 = outstanding 5 = sucks

You can see a detailed description of my review criteria here

Message - rating 2

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

Content - rating 2

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

Attention - rating 3

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

Slides - rating 2

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

Presence - rating 2

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

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

© 2010 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved