By integration what I mean is this: each presentation (whether good, bad or indifferent) had it\u2019s own story but there was no \u2018over-arching\u2019 story. It was as if each speaker was at a different event. Here\u2019s the outline of the evening:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Speaker One: Our organisation does this<\/li>\n
- Speaker Two: Our organisation does this<\/li>\n
- Speaker Three: Our organisation does this<\/li>\n
- Speaker Four: Our organisation does this<\/li>\n
- Event organiser: Thank you. I think that tells us nicely how we can all get involved.<\/li>\n
- Me (thinking): Errrr\u2026 no it doesn\u2019t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
All it did was give me a set of four people talking about their organisation’s history. None of them even bothered to give me a phone number of a web page I could contact them by.<\/p>\n
Each presentation was like a stand-alone short story in a compilation of short stories assembled only because they all had the word ‘green’ in the title. Several presentations in one event should, instead, be thought of as different chapters of a book (with different authors).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So what was the problem and who was responsible?\u00a0 Certainly the speakers were, because they should have given me something I could take away and act on<\/strong>. But also the organiser.<\/p>\n
Why?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll put money on the fact that what had gone wrong was this: for each speaker the conversation withe organiser had simply been \u201cCan you come along and talk about what you do at Organisation X? It\u2019ll be a chance to raise your profile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, a professional speaker is going to know what to do with an invitation like that – but these people aren\u2019t profession speakers they\u2019re just people who have real jobs. They don\u2019t realise that a presentation which simply says \u201cWe do this\u201d isn\u2019t going to do anything.<\/p>\n
![\"Pieta\"](\"http:\/\/www.curved-vision.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/IMG_0434.jpg\")
<\/a>I\u2019ve been to a lot of exhibitions in art galleries where the choice of which artists are involved, which of their pieces are displayed, and where\/how this is done, has all been been done by a curator<\/strong>. The effect on me as a viewere, it seems, is as much to do with the choice of art pieces and their positioning as the actual pieces of art themselves<\/p>\n