A while ago I had the chance to do a two hour workshop for dance students at Gateshead College – and loved it. Â The slide deck I used was obviously designed for the day and the video below is very (very!) heavily edited.
Some of the slides were up there for just a few seconds and others were there for quite some time while we talked about things. Sadly, in this video, all the slides are up for 10 seconds (which makes some of them boring, I’m afraid). Â Some of them are also designed to be examples of the good, the bad and the ugly – so if you see something that makes you go “Eh?” don’t panic!
One of the main themes of the workshop was the difference between performing for an audience and performing for the sake of the material, if you see what I mean. Â I’d be interested in people’s reactions to the slides as they are – which bits work as a ‘stand alone’, for example, outside of the context of a two hour, interactive workshop…?
I should add a thank-you here to Nancy Duarte because one of the quotes in the slide deck I’d not come across before until I read her latest book – cheers Nancy!
Very good presentation.Audience are very important during presentation.I think information should be collected first and then modulate them according to the audience.
Hello simon,
Thanks a lot for the post simon. I am a management student who has just entered the ‘world of presentations’. I was in search of presentation tips and happened to stumble upon your blogs. And believe me it has helped me a lot. And “Look me in the eye and say that”, underlining the importance of eye contact was especially helpful for me.
I strongly agree with you that a presentation should be made with a lot of care as to who the audience is, and eye contact is absolutely necessary.
As you said there were few slides which were out of context in your slide video. I just wanted to know as to how much can, I, as a presenter, presenting to a mostly business-oriented audience, afford to go out of context with my content? Can i afford it at all?
I will be very grateful to you for your advice as it will be of great help to me in my career.
Hi Aravind – good to meet you.
You asked if you can go out of context with your content: as my mother used to say when I asked for permission to do something “If you have to ask the question, you already know the answer!” ;)
In short, you should stick to being ‘in context’ as much as possible. Make your presentation as focussed on the audience as you can – decide what they know, think about what you need them to know, and tell them the difference between those two situations in your presentation.
By all means add context if it will help embed what you’re saying in their bigger lives and make them more likely to remember what you tell them, but remember that they’ll all have different life-paths to you and may not recognise your definition of ‘context’.
Email me if you need more.
Hi Simon.
Thanks a lot for your detailed response to my query.
I will keep it in mind and try to put them into practice. It may take some time though :-)
And as you pointed out, as ‘context’ may be different for different people, it will be better for me to stick to being in context.
I am really grateful to you for your input. I am sure it will help me a lot.
Thank you once again Simon. :-)
The way you visualised the top five nightmares was brilliant Simon – I’m going to have to ‘steal’ that idea ^^
Thanks for the video and for the insight.
Flatterer, Carl! :)