Wired Presentations

Many presenters have problems with time management. Some have not rehearsed sufficiently and don’t really know how long their topic takes. Others, they have not mastered the art of the merciless edit. You simply cannot tell them everything that you know; there is not enough time. As a speaker, you must prioritize. Besides, if you tell them everything they don’t need to do come back for more. Still others, and there are a lot of these people, are narcissists. These are the people who are told to speak for 4 minutes and are still going strong after 20. They love the sound of their own voice.

But what about PowerPoint? Does it contribute to this? I believe that it does. Here is the scenario.

When you use bullet points, the tendency is to list everything you know about “something.” Your audience can see all of the bullet points. They are right there on the screen. If you run short of time your audience can see all those bullet points you are skipping; they can see every single on of them. There is a great incentive for the speaker to feel compelled to cover ALL the points. In this case, the presentation software is the master, controlling the lives of the speaker and the audience.

Picture the alternative. You have killer slides each of them pertinent to your topic. They don’t detail everything that you are going to say. That provides you with an opportunity to “catch up.” You catch up and your audience is none the wiser.

Next step: Minimize the use of bullet points and you can master time.

I assure you that your audience will appreciate it.

It is very easy to write something that is impossible to say out loud!

I learned this by writing and recording scripts for video presentations (Camtasia). The presentations that I do have narration over slides and software demos. It’s not TV.

Here is how I handle it. First, just write the script for each slide. I use the notes section in PowerPoint for this. You do use the notes section in PowerPoint don’t you? If not, you should.

The next thing I do is read it out loud. If you read it silently you won’t know how hard it is to say it. Edit the dialog for that particular slide until you are satisfied. Move onto the next slide and repeat.

You would think that that would be enough, but it isn’t. Once you have all your slides and scripts ready you need to fire-up your recording tool. Load your slides and record your script. Hitting that record button makes it real. If you have trouble reading portions of the script then rewrite. Repeat this until you make it through your presentation.

Listen to the recording

Here is the hard part: now you need to listen to the recording. Expect to do a lot of starting, stopping and rewinding. As you find dialog that you don’t like rewrite it. The pause button is your friend.

Once you are satisified that it is passable have a friend, someone who will tell you the truth, listen to it and give you feedback.

Listen to the feed back. Take notes. Listen to the recording again with those comments in mind. If you need to make changes then make them and repeat the recording process.

The trick is to sound like you are carrying on a conversation and not reading a script. It is harder than it sounds. Pretend that you are an actor. Use your voice to convey emotion. This applies even if you are talking about Teradata;) In fact, your voice is really important. Learn to use it well.

If you are interested in giving this a try you can download the recording software the Internet. At work we use Camtasia. I like it a lot but it does cost $299 (you can get a 30 demo license for free).

For you Toastmasters out there — one day spent doing this will teach you a great deal about using your voice and pausing. I bet you learn more in two days than you will in 20 club speeches. Give it a shot and let me know if I am wrong.

PS: Why do I write out exactly what I am going to say? Two reasons.

One: It makes the recording task easier and I can really focus on how I say things.

Two: The videos that I do are sold and must have exact transcripts. This is to comply with federal handicap access laws. I find it easier to do the transcripts before I record.

I am not going to cover all of Mehrabian’s Rule here. If you want to read about it Wikipedia has a great page on it. I will cover some misconceptions.

The rule only applies to communication regarding feelings and attitudes.

The research only covers words (7%), tone of voice (38%) and body language (55%). That’s right, body language is the only visual component studied.

You will hear people say, “words only count for 7% of the information delivered during a presentation.” Unfortunately, these folks don’t know what they are talking about. You see, the percentages only come into play when words, voice or body language don’t pass along the same message. They are incongruent.

For example:

If I scream “I love you” at the top of my lungs and hit my wife chances are she won’t believe what I say. She will, because she is smart, choose to believe the non-verbal message.

If I am slumped in a chair in front of an audience and mumble “I am so excited to be here…” then chances are they won’t believe me either. Like my wife, they aren’t stupid. They will believe what they see and the tone I use.

You get the idea. Dr. Mehrabian’s research is applied, incorrectly, to the use of slides as well. One day you will hear someone say, “it doesn’t matter what you say — it is the slides that are important.

When that happens just back away and please don’t believe them!

I must admit that I love whiteboards (aka. dry erase boards). They are useful for many different things: planning presentations, designing presentations, outlining, Mind Mapping, brainstorming and — wait for it — delivering presentations. This past week I delivered a lot of presentations. There were no whiteboards for us to use so I brought one with me. It is small and fits in my computer bag.

One-on-one discussions after your presentation: At 11 x 14 inches my whiteboard looks too small for any presentation application but it is not. After presenting our paper at a conference we had some folks follow us out in to the hall. One of the gentlemen asked us a fairly complicated question. Out came the whiteboard. I hadn’t planned to use it for this but as I said, “I love whiteboards.” It turns out that the small whiteboard was perfect for this. Using the whiteboard for diagrams helped us to effectively answer the question. We all know that diagrams really make getting your point across much easier.

Presentations on the demo floor: I spent a great deal of time doing software demonstrations on the demo floor at the conference. The “little whiteboard that could” was very useful for this. If you ask me a question that calls for a diagram I am going to whip out the whiteboard. Using it saves you time and helps you get the point across. Don’t forget that in the one-on-one environment you can let anyone draw the diagram;)

I am sure that there are other applications for the tiny whiteboard. The only thing limiting you is your imagination. I would love to hear your ideas. Be sure to add them to the comments.