Organizing Your Mac

Persuasive Presentation — A Brief Guide for Presenters

A new column by Harry {doc} Babad © 2009

Introduction

Over the years I both had to listen to thousand of really poor presentations, by folks of all ranks and pedigrees. I also must admit to have dished out more, at least early in my career, of lousy presentations, not on purpose — Just plain Ignorance or not caring enough to do better … If the shoe fits, you name your excuses.

 

In the earliest days, before computers, the materials I used were (as an instructor or professor) real equipment based demonstration (as a chemist: flasks, beaker and real chemicals) often in parallel with using typewriter and hand drawn generated transparencies (view graphs) using overhead projector. When the service became available at my employers location, I switched to 35 mm slides. No one could then and now read my handwriting either on paper or worse yet on a blackboard — it was chalk you know! So here’s why and how my skills evolved.

 

Lesson One — When leaving academia for industry, a new challenge arose, selling my research group’s new chemical products ideas to management; enter the profit motive and the time-constrained executive. You’ve heard the story for getting top management attention — so I’ll keep it short.

 

The boss sayeth “Tell me the problem me as I get a taxi for the trip to the airport. If you hook me, you can ride along.  If it’s important enough I’ll cancel the trip!” All this from my direct manager: Joel Z. was a CPC International Corp troubleshooter, and CEO of Story Chemical Co. where I worked. He was also a philosopher and scholar. Well lesson one took, and I had to taxi back from the airport a few times.

 

Lesson Two — In my first management job at Hanford (1974) I accidentally or perhaps subliminally {on purpose) signed up for my first ever-persuasive presentation class. It was a an interesting experience — the instructor, very politically incorrect, helped us see what were not doing correctly (e.g., #$%*&# screwing up.) Where/How? Tell me the ways.

 

…The short list we all struck out: in presentation planning, personal communication foibles, and graphics all of which sucked.  The slide image was the least bad of what I at least did wrong.

 

…An eye-opening experience! I neither got bored or sleepy during this training course, but was damn mad and on an adrenaline high for most of three days. I did however recommend the course to all the members of my research group. Later on, having graduated to Research department manager at ARHCo, requiring a presentation course and one in technical writing became the best tool for enhancing my professional staff’s communication skills.

 

About the same time, just in case the first instructor got it wrong, I took, as time permitted classes in creating successful presentations, communicating under stress {to reporters and CEOs}, and eventually a few related topics on graphics’ design. Although I far from being an expert, I screw up when short of time or stressed out, I decided to design a course on the topic. That except for an occasional use, has gathered dust… Its paper and view graphs any way, before using personal computers to power-pointing your way into an audience’s heart, your victims sitting in the dark, and likely to stay that way. After retiring, doing a lot of volunteering and some professional consulting, the communications problem were the same as in Industry. So, here’s my shot at providing guidance. You may not need it {sic} but read on anyway!

 

First Thoughts {Yes, my coffee cup is full.}

 

Five Upfront Guidelines Premises-Basis for Club Presenters:

• Folks who demo software or widgets at a group meeting are all volunteers
• So are the audiences, they came to hear, and they could stay away
• Uninteresting presentations loose us members
• KISS-KIFS: Keep it simple and focused.
• Avoid the windshield Wiper Effect – back and forth to find what you lost
  
  

The Meat — Lesson One — I think and so I am, and want to share!

 

Therefore, these guidelines {in no particular priority}

• Ask Yourself Why {not why me!}  — Why am I doing this demonstration? What do I hope to accomplish and to share? What’s the audience likely to be like? This includes both their mood and knowledge.

• You Don’t Hold The Whole World in Your Hands — Keep a narrow focus on topic. Limit its range. For example, you don’t really want to demo MS Word in a club meeting; but use MSW to make several tables is a great how-to demo. Also don’t do an all about Photoshop Elements but do show us how to fix that cute picture of a new puppy with part of your grandson’s head cut off or other gotcha’s intruding on image.

• Add Value – The audiences’ time is worth more than yours — there are more of them. The folks who come; come to a Mac Club or other non-work or church related meetings to:

• Learn,
• Make contacts and friends (network
• Have fun — the pizza or cookies are just an extra.
• Push away boredom and ditch the TV

• Get Organized a Head of Time — Formally create  (a paper) outline presentation and recheck it for value. It also organized you thoughts so you can pick out what’s important in your talk. This processes is called creating a storyboard for you presenters or playwrights; and making an outline for you folks who haven’t tried yet.

• Do Equipment Pre-Checks — Make sure the demo, all aspects of it, work on your and the club computers. Be sure that the sound system works with YOUR voice, heaven forbid you sound like a chipmunk.

• Lectern or… — If possible face the audience – you can’t see the audiences’ reactions facing the screen. Off to the side of the meeting room works better than in the middle, you two for the price of one — the audience and the screen.

• Handouts Optional But… — Prepare a short handout on what you want remembered. A little thing, but one that breaks the ice with your audience.

• Point at the Screen to Focus the Audience — If available, use a laser pointer, but remember it’s not Darth Vader’s light sword. Flick to highlight something, and then turn the fool thing off. You are not trying to hypnotize the audience, or are you?
  
  Example, when you mention a tool in the tool bar you are using during the demo, point at it. Say a few words about it. Then when you use it again folks will remember, sort of, what it does.

And Just a Bit More…

• The Best Received Demos are Lightweight & Tutorial — The best demo involves a quick but deep and focused look at part of a products feature set.  This is easy, you actually using a specific set of features to create something useful or even whimsical, just like you would at home or in the office. {E.g., cleaning up an old picture, creating streaming a video clip from snippets, creating a personalized greeting card, creating a simple presentation or database.} The message your sharing is: See you too can do I; it’s not that hard. At the same time you are sharing, by doing, the features of the product with the audience in a painless and often fun manner.

• The Hardest to Carry Off— A product overview just sharing its features.
  Why? — This information is already available online in reviewed and described in great detail on the developer’s website. For a complex application there’s too much to show, and not enough time — leading to an almost certain lack of communication.

         …So, ask again… what are you going to add that hooks your audience…

• Avoid PowerPoint or Keynote — If you’ve not ingrained the 8-10 line rule in you brain, don’t do it!  Eight is better but harder.
  
  Eight what? Lines, including headers and blank spaces.
  
  Avoid sentences and limit words to less than 3-5 on a line! TBC works fine (e.g., to be continued on the next slide). It’s not that slides are bad, but most of us get carried away forgetting that the audience usually does not know as much as we do… so KISS and stay tuned to them.
  
  
  

• Poor slides bore the audience to tears and a rambling presentation allows then to catch-up on their sleep.  Ask Steve Jobs how much time it takes to create a good Keynote presentation; and that effort ignores his charisma and gift for speechifyin’. Check out the Business Week (January 25, 2008) Article Deliver a Presentation like Steve Jobs.

 

 

 

 

More Banter from Babad

 

I personally have little sitzfleisch and even less time in my life to waste on a blitz of features tidbits that I can better read or view on line. Except for narrowly focused products, which be come a how to use it presentation, most software has too many features to share in an hour or two at most. …And most clubs meet in the evening after a hard day and a big meal. [That’s almost as bad as right after lunch.]

 

So start off, break the ice “this product is for creating a comic book, or whatever. Create a slide or illustration or at most two listing the main features and give a thumb nail description of what they do —minimal Jargon please. A quick click to the developers’ web page if you’re hooked to the Internet, will do that just dandy!

 

Then pick one or two mini-projects to demonstrate use of the application or technique. This tells your audience what they can expect. Use things you not only have practiced, worked out the bugs, but that also highlight some of the tools (features) you introduced. Keep referring back to the features; continuity and minimizing confusion is GREAT.

 

§       Tell them what they’ll hear – get them in the mood. §       Show and tell them – the demo {a wow factor helps if not overdone! §       Tell them what they heard (what they should remember)

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Tip  — I tend to create a set of files and a few flashback screen shot JPEGS for key points, for each item I demo. They serve refocus the demonstration by illustrating the appearance of the actual stage of the demo project I create, at various stages of completion. These snapshots, as it were, serve to ground folks. When used as sprinkle-dust they allow the audience to catch up with you. Useful, if you run the demo a bit faster then some can follow.

 

Mostly what counts is NOT what’s on the screen. Its what you say that reaches your audience, based on the credibility of your presence & presentation.

 

How Long — If you are lucky you’ll have an hour uninterrupted – don’t count on it. Prepare a dry run 45 minutes long, you fill the hour, count on it. I tend you use a slide a minute at a really formal conference presentations. They include the title slide, acknowledgements and the entire break slides (spacers) between parts of the talk. I talk fast, like the New Yorker I am; so I can get away with that number. Remember going through a sequence in a program clearly, is the same as using a half a dozen slides, just the dynamics is different.

 

Butterflies and How You Carry It Off  — Don’t ignore butterflies, flow with them. It’s an old actors view that the only scenes you blow are those where you’ve not had butterflies, and the adrenaline not flowing. This effect works for demos too, I so swear. Even now after having given hundreds if not close to a thousand lectures and demos in my life, I get butterflies.

 

Murphy Happens — Make a joke, and go with the flow, the audience will love it and you’ll look cool and great.

 

So Check Out a Few Finalized Personalized Tips Below

• End the talk by sharing (summary please)
  - what’s good about the product you demonstrated, and
  - what problems you had.
  No product is perfect, that why I seldom give anything more that 4.5 macCs.

• Remember — Next week, your listeners will only likely remember that you did a great job (or not) and kept their interest — and — product X-Y-Z seems to do its designed tasks as promised and is easy (or not) to learn.

• If the product seems useful, or they are software junkies, they will download a demo! If they do won! If they don’t, you entertained them and showed then an application they never previously thought about using or needing — they’ll remember!

• Don’t Rush, Slow Down — its better to do one or three points clearly then a bakers dozen in a rush. If the clock eats at you slow down can leap ahead graceful with a few transition words {time does not permit me… shucks I over prepared—this is not a 3 hour lecture.}

• You are Not the Developer— Don’t demo just software features if web or reviews available unless you plan to really work at the presentation, as if you’re going to be paid a commission on sales. Yes I’m being redundant!!!

• Responding to Murphy— If something glitches, don’t move on — it’s either a result that you for not being prepared. Go back work it out if you can, sharing what you are doing to recover from the glitch. If it’s the software, shame on you for not finding that out before hand.

Side Note: I have seldom bought software based on a demo. I have downloaded the developer’s demo!  I’ve often bought a product after doing a bit of research, if I can’t get a reviewer’s copy. However, I always take time to read a few reviews online, as well as the developers’ descriptions, functions list and at times revision history. This is always true for a new {to me} application but even for the next better and biggerupdate to my most used software.

 

Conclusion

 

In closing, I must always remember that I always talk too fast or get carried away and take too much time adlibbing. These are my Achilles heels. So, I’ve learned how to do graceful {almost} fades to almost finish on time. Work your weakness, it’s not hard.

 

…But I no longer accept, without having my arm severely twisted, any formal presentation for which I’d not had some time to prepare. A formal presentation is one that has been announced in an agenda or newsletter.

 

Sharing information, over a cup of coffee, using napkins that just adlibbing about cabbages and kings that’s fine and fun, but its informal and usually off the top of your head…smile!

 

Trust yourself, you’ll do good and even better the next time. By the third presentation, you’ll have even begun to learn how to live with butterflies.

So here’s a toast to you! 

Doc.