Think of examples of both well-run and poorly-run presentations you have attended. What are the characteristics of each?
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About Me
- James in Bologna
- Bologna, Emilia-Romagna region, Italy
- Thanks for stopping by and reading the 'bo-log'. In January 2017, I upgraded my MCA (Master of Creative Arts) at the University of Technology Sydney to a PhD. The project, 'Masculinity on Trial', looks for Australian masculinities lost in the establishment of the Anzac hegemony during WW1. From March to July 2017, I am being hosted in Italy at the University of Bologna on an ErasmusPLUS doctoral research writing scholarship.
11 comments:
Hi! Great to see (almost!) everyone at the workshop..
I enjoyed it very much and learnt a great deal. Presentations are a big part of my role, sometimes formal (eg to clients) and often informal (eg team meetings etc)
It made me realise how important it is to prepare, regardless of forum or audience, or even how well you know the subject.
My most memorable presentations have been made by well informed speakers who have planned their presentation and anticipated any questions they may be asked. My favourite ones involve humour - done well it can leave a lasting impression. Done badly it's disastrous!
I've also been to some dismal presentations where lack of preparation and sometimes interest can be painfully evident and result in a waste of time for all involved.
Hello everyone
Well its been a bit of a whizz bang time since our workshop.
The skills and tips picked up from the workshop were very beneficial and it was great to see all of us perform well.
I guess the limit of presentations are my team meetings currently, excluding the odd wedding and funeral here and there. However I feel now I have the confidence and skills to perform well and look forward to future presentations.
I have been witness to some great presentations. One of the most memorable was a motivational speaker who had lost his legs. Using scaffolding as his props,he climbed up and sat on a plank..4 metres in the air...think humpty dumpty, in a nice way!!!
He had obviously had his presentation well polished as he probably does it most weeks, however the content, his interaction and humour despite his predicament.
Poor run presentations you can tell are not prepared well at all and you can tell the presenter does not know his material. If you are not a great improv person then everyone will see through it and you see the red faces and anxiety spread through the room. It can be truely awkward and not an experience worth remembering.
Ciao for now....
Hi team, good to catch up with everyone recently in the capital
For me presentations have the ability to make or break the audiences day.
Done well they’re inspiring and can change the hearts and minds of the masses (aka Martin Luther King ‘I have a dream”) or make you switch off and walk away so disappointed with the word of mouth follow putting other people off (aka Amway meeting)
Be it a current customer who we know well, a prospective customer, our internal customers (meetings etc) or as with Nick’s example an outside motivational speaker, everyone attending is doing so for a reason and they’re giving up their time to attend and have their own reasons and expectations for being there.
Often the well received and remembered presentations are thoroughly prepared, the speaker is knowledgeable and has a strong grasp of the topic (not read word for word from their que cards), it’s in appropriate location and with (or without) visuals but nevertheless ‘engages’ the audience, it isn’t too long and humour is used to make it memorable.
I remember a not so good presentation where the topic wasn’t highly exciting, the presenter dragged on and laboured the point(s) to what was a fairly knowledgeable audience, he didn’t talk in sync with his PowerPoint presentation, sound level wasn’t good with people struggling to hear and to top it off for those that could hear English was I expect a 4th or 5th language such was his struggle.
So any preconceived nerves he had coupled with his lack of preparation to fit with the audience only compounded the problems. Needless to say most people’s attention was lost long before the presentation was over.
Hi all. I really enjoyed seeing everyone again and my time in Wellington. The homework was a bit of a shock to all of us I think but we all did a superb job of it.
I recently went to a presentation by a rep from the states selling Osprey packs. I work at Bivouac Outdoor some weekends which makes a nice change from the travel industry.
I was really disappointed. I came away without having really learnt anything. He did not have an introduction or mentioned from the start what he was going to cover. He didn’t tell the audience that they could ask questions at the end so people would interrupt him throughout his presentation. He then lost his place of where he was up too once he had answered the question. He moved back and forth which was really off putting. He did have slides but they did not work well in his presentation as they where not in the correct order so he had to switch forward and back all the time with lots of silence while he did it. It wasn’t too good that’s for sure. It really showed that he had not prepared very well which I believe is the key to a good presentation.
A really good presentation I went to recently was with Jan Bibby and the PDR training. It was very well prepared, the slides really worked and where in order. She added humor into the presentation at the right times which really lightened the room up. I really enjoy listening to her as she has a great speaking voice and comes across as very confident. I could listen to her all day.
Well that’s it for now.
Mel
I can’t immediately think of any poorly run presentations and that is probably because they were so boring I have forgotten them. This was generally as a result of poor preparation, selling a product by talking about the benefits as they see them and hadn’t really thought about it from our point of view. Hunching around a lap top, peeking under someone’s armpit and nothing interesting to listen to, I think, constitutes some of the worst presentations that I have been to.
However I really remember the good ones.
The most recent one, I was expecting it to be boring as it was a dry subject – CEO of a bank talking about current issues facing the banking industry. Somehow he made this interesting. How? Firstly he used examples that bought the topic down to a personal level making it interesting and understandable. He had just the right amount of humour and had interaction from the audience.
Another one that sticks in my mind was a motivational speaker, different to Nick’s as this one had both legs. He used humour and his topic was thought provoking and he had some quick activites to back up what he was saying. This also broke up the talk nicely. He ended with a very punchy video clip which summed up what he had been saying and as they say a picture speaks a thousand words.
Hi All
Great to see everyone at Module 3
I have promised myself that I am going to keep up with this module and this would not be my favorite subject but I have to admit I did actually enjoy the presentation part of this module and really was interested by what other people’s passions were by how they talked about it!
I remember a presentation that I went to with a motivational speaker called Tony Christiansen, he was an amazing guy with some amazing stories, and he was talented interesting and funny a real inspiration! I can still remember so much from that presentation and to this day there are a few things that he told us that I will never forget. I felt that he captured the audience as he was prepared, interesting and quick witted!
Presentations that are poorly run you can normally not recall what they are about or why you were even there, there is no structure, no preparation and quite often the person cannot even answer the questions when asked.
I have just read what others have said in the blogs and Nick I think you have talked about the same guy as I am talking about – see how a good speaker makes a difference!!
Cheers
Liza
Hi Everyone
The characteristics of a well-run presentation is one that is well prepared for, presenter knows the content and that the content is revelant for the audience.
A poorly run presentation main characteristic is that the presenter does not know the content and therefore it does not flow and becomes boring.
As per Mel's blog, i also enjoyed the presentation by Jan Bibby on the PDR training. She was passionate about the topic and knew her stuff and made the presentation interactive.
Hi Team,
Presentations are a large part of my role and something I am always looking to improve.
Poorly presented presentations that I have experienced are generally lacking in planning and sequencing of information. They often do not relate to the audience and too much time is spent on unnneccessary "could know" detail.
Polished performances are well planned, can be inspiring and often have an element of humour relating to the presentation. One of the best presentations that I have recently experienced is from the Deputy CEO at Air NZ where he related to the audience, provided a inspirational introduction, lots of humour, structured content and was delivered with a clear purpose.
Thats all from me, have a lovely weekend team.
cheers
Virg
For me the difference between a well run and a poorly run presentation is all to do with the presenter. Anyone can stand and ‘read’ but only a good presenter is organised, captivating, thinks about the audience and their needs, is creative with the delivery of information and passionate about the topic.
I had a 7th form Physics teacher who made me love physics by the way she taught, she had a love of life and sharing information, creative presentation techniques, and really gived a dam. Then when I got to university and took physics the lecturers were rather sleep inducing. They were intelligent, knew the topic inside and out and were passionate about physics, however were monotone, didn’t have a passion for sharing their information, spoke to prepared slides and easily went way off the topic when asked a question, all in all they were rather boring.
I think also well run presentations, involve the presenter having good self awareness, knowing what works for them and what doesn’t work. So one does need to seek feedback, and even better video yourself, it is amazing how you really don’t know how many times you play with your hair etc etc.
In summary back to the P’s - planning prevents poor performance!
Hey Team, sorry for the delay!
I suppose the main thing I base any presentation on is what I take away from it. Like alot of the people who have written before me, presentations are part and parcel of the role I am in (Sales).
Some of characteristics of poor presentations I have attended include a lack of understanding of what was being presented (i.e. the presenter could not deliver the 'message' to the audience), presentations that goes on too long (i.e. the point has been delivered, but the presenter feels more material/learning is needed) and lastly, like what Margaret said, the presentation is boring - so you come away not knowing much about the subject.
On the flip side good presentations are ones that engage you from the offset (a bit like a good movie). I feel I have also benefitted from presentations with regular stops (whether these are breaks or work group sessions where group learning is encouraged). Lastly, presentations where relative learning material is given for you to take away (and not given to you during the presentation which may distract you).
Cheers
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