I was asked recently how I did this. I didn’t have a ready answer – because I wasn’t doing so.
Firstly, this was because it was a freebie presentation I was doing for fun so I’d not made any attempt to measure things and secondly because I won’t know if people have taken my ideas on board until I see presentations from them subsequently – which I won’t for that group, because of the freebie, taster-session, fun type of event it was.
It did bring to mind, however, a conversation I had with someone on another forum (which I can’t find at the moment) where they suggested that the volume and length of your applause told you how successful the presentation had been. I disagreed.
Firstly, I feel that at best all this will do is give you a measure of how well received your presentation has been at the time, not how effective it’s been in the longer term. I can leave audiences raving and wanting more if I decide to (and get lucky! :) ) but that’s not always appropriate. What’s more important to me is that the message gets taken in – and if that means finishing on a quiet note with no applause at all, then so be it!
Secondly, with my theatre-background-head speaking, I’d argue that all the applause can measure is how well well you did what you did. The volume of the silence before it tells you more about the quality of what you tried to do in your presentation….. if you see what I mean.
So where does that leave me? Well pretty much unable to measure the effectiveness of presentations, unfortunately, unless I get feedback from clients later on (which fortunately we do, obviously). That’s a hit-and-miss affair, of course, so if any one out there’s got good metrics for measuring ‘success’ I’d love to hear them. Come to that, I’d even be interested in how one defines success in a presentation, much less measures it! :)
Very much agreed that applause shouldn’t be the measure – nor even the pause before applause, as outside of the theater that is often a bit of an awkward moment – even a poorly received presentation is sometimes applauded out of good manners.
Hi John – fair point: I guess I was thinking in terms of my time in theatres when I was writing about the type of the silence.
Simon,
I myself was asked this question recently.
There are a number of metrics I use to determine if it was a success.
While not exactly scientific, most important of all is my basic gut feeling.
Nonetheless, here are some other indicators I use:
The audiences was engaged – giving strong eye contact, taking notes, nodding/smiling/laughing, asking meaningful questions, listening intently, (not playing with their blackberries), the energy in the room was high (which is dictated by my own level of passion and enthusiasm), people approach me afterwards to ask questions or share their experiences.
These are indicators that my talk/presentation was a success.
Thanks for the post!
All good measures Terry – though I’d be very (very!) seriously worried if I ever gave a presentation and these things weren’t happening!
Part of the problem lies, obvisously, in the fact that the presentations can have been a barnstorming sucess at the time but not in the longer term – and that can be for dozens of reasons which aren’t in my control.