Presentations make me drowsy

A good way of putting an audience to sleep is to read out loud instead of talking.

Photo by Gabriela Camerotti Flickr CC

Reading is dangerous

Recently I took part in a conference where the keynote speaker read his talk. It made me lose interest and start to write this post. This is a double danger: First I lost what was an important message, secondly I could well have shared my frustration via Twitter or posted to the blog in real time, which would not have been fair to the speaker.

Presenting is a dialogue

Even if presenting to a large conference might be unidirectional, there must be a feeling of involvement and exchange of ideas. All the classical rules of non-verbal communication apply. If there is no eye contact, probably there is none at all. If there is no expression of emotion, the audience will not be touched.

All that is remembered is the emotion

The day after the speech, all the audience will remember is the feeling. If. The feeling is strong, then from that starting point we are able to recall the rest. As I write a new speaker has taken to the floor, the slides are just as life-less but the voice is more modulated and he is looking at the audience, much better!

The way forward

Some time back, at another conference, the speaker gave his speech a Twitter hashtag and kept reading comments from the audience - suddenly there was dialogue! The investment was zero, the audience used their cell phones to Twitter, all it took was the application of an existing technology. As of yet, I've not been at a conference with comments via Facebook, but it should be interesting, does anyone have any experience to share?

Comments

[lederm]

Thanks for you share it!!!!!!!