Presenting to groups is a privilege, and if our message beggars a response – that’s remarkable!
Notes:
The above thought is a response to a recent post by my friend, Tony Hollingsworth entitled ‘Should people “live tweet” during an event or presentation?” It generated a number of comments, including mine:
“How can we make our presentation so remarkable that it beggars a response – that people HAVE to tweet, but they are contorted between the dilemma of watching you present to get the next gold nugget and turning to their screen to tweet the next gem.
Kind of like a kid with two favourite ice-creams – one in each hand. Which do I lick next?”
Bottom-line: when we get the opportunity to present one-to-many, it’s a privilege – especially when the people attending have invested time and often cash to fill a room and hear us speak.
The least we can do is deliver a message that is so relevant and useful that it beggars a response – moves them – makes them want to tweet your message to their followers all over the globe. And if that’s a problem, surely that’s the kind of problem every great presenter always wants, isn’t it?
Your leading thoughts…
As a leader who reads this blog, your opinion, experience and contribution to this conversation is highly valued.
- What’s your response when you hear a presentation that is remarkable?
- How do you think ‘social’ technologies such as Twitter can be used collaboratively in presentations to improve outcomes?
- What’s the most remarkable presentation you’ve ever seen? What was your response?
9 Responses to this post
January 12, 2010 at 11:30 pm |
Hi Robin, Having delivered speeches from audiences that were half asleep to ones that hung on every word, I think any speaker should take it as a compliment when listeners frenetically tweet their ideas to their networks. To answer your questions:
1. I am always thankful when I hear a valuable, interesting presentation, because they aren’t all that common. I appreciate the speaker’s work ethic in preparing a great experience.
2. I enjoy it when speakers field questions sent in via Twitter, etc. You see this done on TV and radio a lot these days.
3. The most remarkable presentation I’ve ever seen happened decades ago when I was in college. One of my fraternity brothers was to speak to our pledge class on the topic of brotherhood. He got up in front of the entire group – about 50 of us in all – and made just a few opening remarks about how well he’d gotten to know all his fraternity brothers as a result of their shared experience. To prove his point, he asked each pledge to give him the name of an active member. When he heard the name, he told a very moving story about that person and himself. He repeated this about 15 times – 20 moving stories. It was astonishing how he was able to recall all these events and tell them so movingly. I thought it took a lot of courage for him to take a chance like that – looking back, perhaps it wasn’t as extemporaneous as it seemed. He may have worked out those stories for all 30+ members in advance. Anyway, I still remember it all these years later.
January 13, 2010 at 10:23 pm |
Thanks, Brad. That’s an incredibly moving story of connection, which is how a truly great presentation succeeds. I would like to see you present one day. I bet you’ve got some great stories to tell.
Thank you for you generous input – it’s a valuable lesson you share.
Best, Robin
January 13, 2010 at 7:31 am |
When I hear a remarkable presentation, I am on the edge of my seat. Simple.
Twitter, etc. It’s similar to the discipline of writings things down to remember them. The act of writing, or tweeting, serves to embed the thought in your memory. Still, there are questions here. There is too much noise. Hence, I’m working hard on this issue with Like Minds:
1 – do I ask that people don’t use phones? The ones that are diehard will, of course – which is fine.
2 – I will have realtime curators taking the best content for the website – so that those attending virtually don’t have to sift through the crap
Most remarkable presentation? It’s in Church every Sunday. Why? It’s relevant, it’s real, it’s remarkable.
As a preacher, I was taught that when you’re preaching, if you aren’t putting your life on the line to save the lives of those present, you are not really preaching. I agree.
I think go all the way. Give the people something they will never forget.
January 13, 2010 at 10:26 pm |
I’ll bet you do, Scott. You certainly deliver that every time we speak one-to-one. Thanks for your leading input. You’ve added some excellent points to the discussion. As with Brad, I would love to see you present. Promise to turn my phone off.
Best, Robin
January 13, 2010 at 8:07 am |
Having given presentations where the audience was both interactive and comatose, I personally would take it as a compliment.
January 13, 2010 at 10:28 pm |
Thanks, Greg. Like you, I’ve had the full range of audiences, and for me ANY response or sign of life is a good thing.
Thanks for dropping by.
Best wishes, Robin
January 14, 2010 at 4:34 pm |
Robin,
I like to make my presentations interactive so that I know that I’m engaging my audience. I think it also makes their takeaway more vivid and memorable. So, when reading this, I, at first, felt that someone tweeting would indicate a lack of attention and some degree of failure on my part. Then I received this post by Olivia Zlinsky: http://bit.ly/5jh1eq. It was interesting to read that those who doodle during phone conversations retain 29% more than those who don’t. Impressive isn’t it? And maybe, like she says, tweeting, etc. are just a digital form of doodling.
At the other extreme is the disastrous experience of a (not-so-prepared) Microsoft representative specializing in social media and youth culture. This made the rounds of presentation blogs when it happened and probably should be considered a word to the wise: http://bit.ly/6vwki1
All in all, I think that, for me, the takeaway is what you’ve said: it’s an honor to have a room filled with people to listen to us. And, secondly, prepare, prepare, prepare, including for tweets!
Best,
Kristina
January 14, 2010 at 4:55 pm |
Thanks, Kristina. Wise counsel indeed. Those are very useful links, thank you.
You make a great point.
For me at school, it was always. “Robin Dickinson, please stop drawing and pay attention!”.
The trouble was, I WAS paying attention. Drawing and doodling – visual processing – was and still is my primary vehicle for understanding information. It’s how I think (just in-case you hadn’t noticed!).
For me, tweeting – or the next post-tweet technological incarnation – is just another variation on this theme.
That said, there have certainly been many times in presentations when I’ve been riveted to the speaker and so mesmerized that any form of doodle-tweeting was impossible.
Thanks, Kristina. Top shelf feedback from your kind self.
Appreciatively, Robin
Trackbacks