My introduction-in-verse won the Slideshare Best Presentation Contest Category for "About Me"! Which probably means that at some point, I brought a smile to the illustrious panel of judges: Guy Kawasaki, Nancy Duarte, Garr Reynolds, and Bert Decker.

I'm sure I'll put the iPod Touch to all sorts of good use!

I had a lot of fun making the presentation on my Nintendo DS. I've since then given to my mom so that she can do yoga, but I upgraded to the Cintiq 12WX and it's really fun to sketch on. Still, I feel very much like a fledgling artist:

As promised, I'll be sending some of my favorite presentation books to one of the lucky people who voted for me. Hello, Randell! I'm looking forward to sharing Presentation Zen and Back of the Napkin with you. =D

Squee!

Technorati Tags: slideshare

I get that imposter feeling as much as anyone else. I wonder what I know and why people are interested. I worry that the next presentation, the next article is when I'll be unmasked as just another newbie. Sometimes I think that my enthusiasm is the main reason why people listen, because they already know everything I'm saying. I hate wasting time by not adding anything new.

You might recognize these things as reasons that stop you from standing up and speaking. Before you can think of improving your presentation skills or even becoming comfortable in front of the crowd, you need to find your _why_–your reason to speak, something worth talking about.

I struggle with this every time I see a call for participation or come across a conference I want to attend. These questions are helpful:

• Who will be at the event, and who do I want to get into my session? This gives me an idea of the audience.
• What do they care about that I also care about? If I can't find something that I'm passionate about and the audience is probably interested in, then it's not worth presenting. I'd like to avoid presenting on things I don't particularly care about, and no one's going to listen if I'm passionate about something and I can't show people what's in it for them. If I can find something we all care about, though, then it's easy to go forward.
• How can I help them? What can I do to save them time or help them work more effectively? If I spent a lot of time learning about something, I can save lots of people time by summarizing what I've learned, pointing out good ways to do things, and helping people avoid the pitfalls.
• What do I want to learn more about? Teaching helps me learn something new or deepen my knowledge of something I've learned. Every presentation should stretch me at least a little, even if it covers similar ground as a previous presentation. Each presentation is a good excuse to learn. I'll often submit stretch presentations where I know maybe half of the material, and this helps me learn even more in the process of preparing the presentation.

The next time an opportunity to share comes up–a call for participation, an educational community meeting–ask yourself:

• Who will be at the event?
• What do they care about that you also care about?
• How can you help them?
• What do you want to learn more about?

Chances are that you'll find something you want to share. Good luck and have fun!

One of the best ways to keep yourself enthusiastic and engaged when you're presenting a topic that you've talked about a number of times before is to keep changing it, whether it's by tweaking the content of your presentation or opening it up for more discussion. For my four GBS Learning Week sessions on "The Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools Every IBM Consultant Should Try" (available on the IBM intranet on Pass It Along), I decided to vary the structure. The first two times I presented it, I added a new tool to the list and consolidated two other items. For the third and fourth times, I presented it as a survey or quiz instead of a straight list of recommendations.

The third and fourth times felt a lot more effective for me because the new structure made it easier for people to reflect on their current practices and see the potential benefits of these new tools and new ways of working. I made sure that the session feedback for the third and fourth sessions were kept separately, so I could look for any differences.

Then it was time to put on my (very small) stats geek hat. The quantitative feedback didn't show any statistically significant differences, which I didn't mind because my average satisfaction rating was around 3.5 out of 4 (midway between "satisfied" and "very satisfied").

How satisfied were you with this session? (4 - very satisfied, satisfied, neutral, dissatisfied - 1)

I got practically the same ratings for the question: How relevant was this topic to your current role and/or interest for your career development?

The comments were:

• Well done, Sacha!
• Very enthusiastic. Well done!
• Partly about saving time, partly about filling your day 24/7 with work stuff–what about downtime?
• Great job, Sacha!
• So much good stuff presented in such a short period of time! Wish we could have had a little more time to see a short practical demo of each of the 10 tools. Very well presented.
• Pretty good list of tools.
• Excellent presentation by Sacha
• Good session
• Sacha made this dull topic interesting with practical examples. Thanks.
• Very informative.
• Very informative and good info on how to find and use some great tools. Instructor made topics interesting and had a good pace (not too slow)
• Good delivery, very enthusiastic
• Enthusiastic presenter, passionate about her subject. Good approach by question and answer.
• High energy! well done
• Sacha is very enthusiastic! Great job!!! Super tips!!!
• Fantastic–Sacha is a very engaging speaker!
• Super presenter - perfect length

I also changed the follow-up strategy for the third and fourth sessions, promising to e-mail people afterwards instead of just directing them to where they can download the presentation. We'll see how well that works. I might yet see significant differences in adoption and retention. =)

Speaking of session feedback, I've been meaning to post my speech feedback from the Technical Leadership Exchange session I gave on I.B.Millennials: The Net Generation and Those Who Recruit, Hire, Manage, Work With, and Sell to Us.

NSI Rating Scale:

Excellent: 85 - 100
Good: 75 - 84
Fair: 65 - 74
Poor: 55 - 64
Severe Problem: below 55

The value of the content       
Total Responses: 43    NSI Rating: 87.21 (Excellent)   Ranking: 64 of 317
The speaker’s ability to deliver the material       
Total Responses: 42    NSI Rating: 92.86 (Excellent)   Ranking: 47 of 317
Your ability to apply what you learned       
Total Responses: 43    NSI Rating: 70.93 (Fair)   Ranking: 115 of 317
This session will help me achieve my business goals       
Total Responses: 43    NSI Rating: 63.37 (Poor)   Ranking: 164 of 317

Comments were:

• Good background of case study. Questionable general recommendations may have missed pluses and minuses.
  more statistics, Study references?
  Quite interesting for an older generation and I think more info to get and retain employees should go out to IBMers
  Sacha is a fabulous presenter and handled everything thrown at her wonderfully.
  Very touched.
  Very well spoken, excellent presenter. Great energy.
  Great dynamic speaker, interesting topic. Will check out her  blog I am sure it will be interesting and informative.

I've got the "interesting and engaging overview" part down pat, and it would be even more effective if I can directly link it to people's next actions and business goals. That particular presentation was more about talking about issues and setting the stage for a discussion rather than helping people make immediate changes in terms of recruiting/hiring/managing/collaborating with/selling to Generation Y, though, so that's understandable. Presentations like "Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools ___ Should Try" are much more focused on next actions, and those seem to be okay.

So what's the next step from here? On the "building on your strengths" side, I'm working on more visual communication. You can check out my attempts on my Slideshare page. Three of my six public presentations have been featured on Slideshare Presentation of the Day, so I must be on to something here. =) On the "shoring up your weaknesses" side, I've been thinking about presentation topics that can lead to immediate next actions. I didn't feel that "Sowing Seeds: A Technology Evangelist's Guide to Grassroots Adoption" was as effective as it could've been. Reminds me of this:

Zander goes on to say "…if the eyes are not shining you have to ask yourself a question: who am I being that my player's eyes are not shining?" This goes for our children, students, audience members, and so on. For me that's the greatest takeaway question: who am I being when I am not seeing a connection in the eyes of others?

"Benjamin Zander: Who are we being?" Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen

Kaizen: relentless improvement. I want to learn how to help people's eyes shine with possibility.

I am so going to earn that massage.

I did the first set of presentations today. About thirty people attended the first session, and about fifteen people attended the second.

Back-to-back sessions are tough. I felt more comfortable with the first session because I could chat with the audience before starting. The second was a bit more difficult because I didn't want to wait too long, but that meant that people filtered in during the start of the presentation. Next time, I'm going to give myself more time between presentations so that I can grab a drink of water, chat with people, and reset myself.

Good stuff, though. I'm tempted to radically restructure the presentation as a story. Might be worth trying–and it'll be fun! I should ask the organizers if I can get the feedback forms from the first day separate from the feedback forms from the second day. After all, how many times will I get to test presentation styles with the same layout, same type of audience, same timeslot, and things like that? =)

Ooh, this will be fun.

The key thing I learned while preparing the presentation is that people can get by without paying special attention to social networking, but some effort can help people really transform their lives into extraordinary ones. I talked about the intersection of passion, knowledge and skills, and opportunities. If you learn more about what you're passionate about, you'll find or create or attract opportunities to learn more about and practice those passions or to use your knowledge and skills. The more you learn, the more you'll be able to appreciate your passions, and the more opportunities will be open to you. It's a beautiful cycle that makes things get better and better.

I also gave a number of quick tips on how to be more effective at social networking using events, conversations, notebooks, business cards, personal sites, blogs, articles, presentations, and other tools and opportunities. All these things can help you learn, reach out, and share what you're learning.

The key thing I learned while giving this presentation was that although people could quickly identify passions outside work, job-related passions didn't come to mind. I believe that it's possible to love your work. My dad taught me this. I know that even if there are difficult days and boring days and lost days, if there's that underlying passion, all those days will be worthwhile.

I'm glad to say that my work allows me to exercise some of my passions. So, what am I passionate about?

I'm passionate about helping people connect. I believe that interesting things happen when we bring different kinds of people together, and that's why I love how blogging and other forms of social media allow people to bump into people outside their teams. I not only get to help people connect and collaborate, I even get to help companies figure out how to help their people do so.

I'm passionate about helping new hires connect with the rest of the organization and vice versa. I believe that a good social network can not only help new hires learn what they need to learn but also get opportunities to discover and make the most of their passions. I want to help new hire networks challenge and catalyze people's growth in addition to providing basic social support. I want to help new hires get connected and share what they learn. Because I've been helping people connect using these new tools, new hire networks approach me to find out how I can help them. =)

I'm passionate about helping people share what they're learning. I believe that teaching as you learn helps you learn more effectively. I want to help people share the tidbits that they're learning and passing those tidbits along to others who are learning too. I not only get to lead by example, I also get to coach others.

I'm passionate about spreading enthusiasm, energy, and passion. I believe that people can be happy at work and in life. I want to learn from people who are happy and successful, I want to be an example to others, and I want to help others along the way. I not only get to share my passions with my coworkers and with other people outside the organization, I also get to encourage others when they need that extra burst of energy.

I'm passionate about communication skills, presentations, public speaking, and storytelling. I believe that presentations should be more than just bullet points and that communication should be more than just talking at people. I want to share what people are learning, inspire people to action, and help them inspire other people in turn. I not only get to learn more about communication skills and practice them by frequently giving presentations, I also get to share what I'm learning and influence the way other people communicate.

What are you passionate about? What knowledge or skills do you want to develop, and what opportunities would help you be even more effective?

Technorati Tags: passion

When I plan presentations, I always start by coming up with the key message based on the objectives and the expected audience. The key message needs to be something I can explain in at most 30 seconds, and it needs to answer the audience's question: "What's in it for me?" The key message also needs to give people a way to act on that message. (Yes, even FYI presentations.) If I can't explain what I want to say in 30 seconds, I mindmap and brainstorm and turn things over until I can.

There's no point in working on the rest of the presentation until you know what you want people to take away. If you can't say what you want to say in 30 seconds, think about the topic until you understand it well enough to say it in 30 seconds. When you figure out what your 30-second pitch is, you can use that as your abstract and you can use it in networking conversations at the conference/event/wherever. Very useful.

After I determine the key message, I pick three or so supporting points. This is also where I try to find a clever navigational structure or mnemonic to help me remember my points and to help the audience remember my points. Alliteration and acronyms are my favorite tools, but I occasionally come across a good metaphor, too. If I can't find anything that fits, I try to at least get the rhythm of the words to sound right. (No, I haven't given a presentation in iambic pentameter yet - but I'm tempted to! ). A thesaurus helps me find synonyms that fit, and a dictionary (I usually use a kid's dictionary) helps me spark the creative process with random associations and browsing. (Flip it open to a random page, pick a random word, and see if that's useful.)

Resist the temptation to cram lots of points into your presentation. Find the minimum that you need to support your key message, then get those across clearly.

So there's the 30-second pitch, the supporting points can be summarized over three minutes or so, and you can wrap it up and explain the next actions in another minute. When the presentation works as a 5-minute talk, it's time to flesh it out to a 15-minute to 30-minute talk. You can do that by adding stories to the supporting points, keeping the key message in mind. Stories can take varying levels of detail, so they're pretty flexible.

To take a talk from the 30-minute mark to the 60-minute mark, add more interaction and deeper stories. Good interaction tends to require a longer presentation slot because you need some time for people to shift into discussion mode (and you have to be comfortable with silences), and you don't want to cut discussions off too early. If you're doing interaction, don't make question-and-answer the end of your presentation. Move question-and-answer into your presentation, then take advantage of the opportunity to summarize both your presentation and the discussion with a strong ending, emphasizing the next steps.

Longer timeslots such as 1.5 hours or 4 hours or even days need to be broken up with more interaction and variety. From my university classes (both attending and teaching), I learned that attention tends to flag after about 20 minutes. Mix things up and give people time to process the information. (And to stretch!) Resist the temptation to structure your presentation as one loooong presentation. Break your presentation up into more presentations, because it's important for people to have review and closure.

In this approach, you're building up from the core message. As long as you can make that point, you don't have to worry about leaving material out. If you don't overload your slides, you can quietly trim material in order to accommodate a particularly good discussion (or a long rant about something else) and people won't feel cheated. =) If you find out that you have to talk for longer than expected (say, the next speaker is having technical difficulties), then add more detail or more stories or more interaction. If you find out that you have to talk for shorter than expected (say, the previous speaker had technical difficulties ), focus on the key message and the supporting points.

Try it out for your next presentation. Start with your 30-second pitch, then build on it. When you get used to adjusting the timing on the fly, you'll always be able to end on time.

I don't know exactly why I started telling stories instead of listing bullet points. Maybe it was because of the never-ending march of bullet-ridden presentations. Maybe it was because I kept skimming through business books that were all numbers or pithy sayings without anecdotes to make those statements come alive. Maybe it was because I watched terrific presentations highlighted on the Presentation Zen blog. Maybe it was because of the books I read about telling success stories to deepen your relationships with people, influencing change through story-telling, and telling effective stories. Whatever it was, I started collecting stories and sharing my own.

I'd taken up writing flash fiction (really short stories, typically 55 words long) in 2005, and that turned out to be surprisingly useful. Reading other people's flash fiction stories taught me that you could tell a story with conflict and character development in a paragraph or two, and that it was fun keeping an eye out for story material. I had originally gotten interested in flash fiction because it felt like a code optimization challenge, and because the stories were short enough for me to write during lunch or a subway ride, on pieces of paper or even on my cellphone. I never felt particularly literary (and in fact had gotten Ds in my English classes in university for lack of effort), but finding and telling stories (or in this case, making them up!) turned out to be a lot of fun.

So when I came across the business applications of storytelling–from social networking to influencing technology adoption–and I saw how it dovetailed with my passions, I jumped right into it. I started collecting stories. For example, I started my master's research by collecting stories about how people used Dogear (an enterprise social bookmarking system by IBM) so that I could figure out how people were using it in their work and how they could use it even more effectively. I collected stories to help me not only convince people to try out new tools but also give them models to follow and people they could relate to. I also told stories about what I was doing and how I was doing it, and that helped me get to know a lot of people as well. Besides, I love "catching other people doing well"–telling other people's success stories, especially when they don't realize they're doing well.

The results? People act on what I share. They make my stories their own. Not only that, people also tell me that they enjoy my presentations and that my enthusiasm is contagious. Giving presentations - telling stories, having conversations - has become a lot more fun.

How do I find stories? I keep an eye out for things that happen in real life, like this conversation I had with J-. There's a seed of a story in there, and by telling part of the story, I make it easier to remember later on. I also enjoy reading people's blogs, because they tell stories from their experiences as well. I read a lot - it certainly helps to have a public library within walking distance. Whenever I come across a particularly good story in any of these sources, I write it down, I bookmark it, I add it to my notes. When I work on presentations, I've got a general idea of relevant stories that I've come across, and then I use my notes to look up the details.

For example, I was preparing a presentation about University Relations and the Net generation. I didn't want it to be a boring list of bullet points or advice. I could've rehashed the presentation I gave at the Technical Leadership Exchange, but I wanted to make the most of my opportunity to speak with a group that could really make the most of Web 2.0. I remembered that some months ago, I had come across a terrific internal blog post about how a demonstration of IBM's internal social tools got an audience of university students really interested. I had bookmarked it as a story about Web 2.0 and recruiting, knowing that it would be useful someday. Well, that someday had come! I checked my bookmarks, went back to the blog post, refreshed my memory, and added it to my presentation. I'm sure that the story will make my point more effectively than a list of bullet points.

How can you get started with storytelling? Keep an eye out for story material. Develop a system for filing those stories so that you can find them again when you need them. Tell stories. I've linked to some of my favorite books in this post - check them out for more tips. Storytelling is effective and fun. Enjoy!

Here are a couple of stories from the presentation.

Oooh, shiny

With only thirty minutes on the clock, the presentation was going to be fast-paced, and I had to have some way to keep track of what slide I was on. I considered standing near my laptop, but I nixed that because I'd have an even tougher time connecting with people behind such a massive podium. I didn't want to constantly look behind and up at the two projected screens a few feet above my head. Running through the slides in my head, I walked to the center of the stage. As my eyes drifted upwards, I caught a glimpse of something shiny.

Oooh, shiny.

The control room at the back of the amphitheatre was separated from the auditorium by a large one-way mirror, which was reflecting all that light. The mirror just the correct angle for me to see it–and was that a backwards image of my slides?

I hadn't noticed that the last time I gave a speech in the same amphitheatre. Nifty.

Thanks to a childhood spent reading everything and everywhere I could, I had picked up the ability to quickly read backwards. My slides were easy to distinguish even when flipped horizontally. I grinned and returned to my seat in the audience, looking forward to giving my totally small-scale "confidence monitor" a try.

After Julie Waterhouse introduced me, I launched into a whirlwind tour of the top 10 Web 2.0 tools the audience should try. I found it easy to make eye contact while avoiding the microphone feedback zones and occasionally glancing at the reflection to make sure I was flipping to the right page. It was like my keynote segment to 700 people using the Hilton Toronto's snazzy audio/visual setup. No, this amphitheatre was better. The Hilton's LCD panel had been in the lower left corner of my vision, and I had caught myself glancing to the side to see it. Here, the mirror was in the center of the back wall of the amphitheatre, slightly above the audience's heads, and visible anywhere I looked.

Now I'm wondering how I can set up a mirror like that in less-equipped rooms. A full-length mirror wouldn't be portable, but maybe a small mirror set up at the appropriate distance would work. I'm not talking about a double-mirror clamped to the podium, though–I really don't like standing behind podiums! Maybe a convex mirror like those car rear-view mirrors? Will the image be too distorted? Maybe I can make a totally small-scale confidence monitor. Hmm…

Reaching the Back Row

I wasn't quite sure if I had effectively reached people today. I felt that I was cramming too many words into too short a time. (If I'm going to do this again in 30 minutes, I'll probably focus on just 5 tools!) I made a few jokes, got a few chuckles, got plenty of nods of recognitions at the problems and pain points I described… but I didn't have time to turn it into the kind of open, interactive presentation I love. When I gave a similar presentation at another conference, the other tools that people shared during the discussion gave me plenty of material for follow-up posts. Due to today's time constraints, I didn't get to open it up, so I ended up doing all the talking. (Pity! I would've loved to find out what was on people's shortlists of tools.)

But people enjoyed it, and I think I convinced a few people to give some of those tools a try. =) I wish I could've stayed for the networking events, but I needed to hitch a ride back home for some other stuff. When I got home and reconnected to the intranet, I noticed that a manager had left a comment on my presentation. He mentioned that he had sat in the back row and that he really enjoyed my presentation and my contagious enthusiasm. If I can reach someone in the back row with my passion, I must be doing something right! =)

1. Chat with people before the presentation starts so that you can make personal connections and find out what people are interested in.

2. Always treat it as a dialogue.

3. Turn your presentation into a conversation and learn something new from your audience.

Stage fright - everybody has it

I had one hour left before my presentation at the IBM Regional Technical Exchange in Markham. I couldn't shake off my anxiety. The words felt heavy in my mouth, and my voice felt strained. The new stories I wanted to add didn't quite blend in with everything else. My phrasing was off. My energy was off, too–I was having a hard time making the shift from the morning's introverted-programming mode to the high-energy presentation mode I needed for the afternoon.

I headed over to the refreshments table to make myself a cup of mint tea, snagging a couple of chocolate-macadamia cookies along the way. I was savoring the chewy chocolate cookie when another IBMer walked up to me. She asked if I was anxious about my upcoming talk, and she said that she could never eat when she was nervous. I told her that a couple of cookies are remarkably effective at reducing stress. After my headless chicken impression at the IBM Web 2.0 Summit, I went so far as to pour milk into a glass and dunk cookies into it. (That worked. It's important to know what works for you.) We chatted briefly about the talk and about some other matters, and she wished me luck on the presentation. I felt my mood start to lift.

By the time I finished my tea and munched through the second cookie, I was ready to set up the room. I plugged in my power supply, fiddled with the video settings, and tested the color scheme (no reds) and all the slides (legible). These little routines help me get into presentation mode.

(Yes, everyone gets stage fright. I think mine comes from the idea that so many people are trusting me with their time! Mine goes away when I start sharing my energy with people and people give it right back (in a good way). Neither my level of preparation nor the aesthetics of my slides matter, although having slides that make me happy helps. Nope, my stage fright depends on whether people in the audience are getting a good deal for their time. =) )

Chat with people

One of the key things that helped me tap presentation energy was chatting with the people waiting for the presentation to start. I really appreciated how people came up to me and wished me luck, or let me engage them in conversation–that helped me calm my stage fright. I made sure to ask a number of people throughout the room what they were interested in. I figured that if I could make those people happy, then I'd probably stand a good chance of making most people in the room happy. If people were interested in the session, then by golly, I was interested in it too! Hearing what a few people were interested in allowed me to see the hundred-something people as individuals and to talk about things in a way that felt (to me, at least) as if I was having a regular conversation (in which I'd feel comfortable making all these side comments). Establishing that initial contact with people throughout the room helped me remember to make eye contact and to talk about different perspectives. After all, you can't talk to only the front row after you've met some people in the back row who are curious about what you want to say. And did I mention that talking to people helped me handle my stage fright?

So the next time you give a presentation, get your setup time out of the way, and spend the rest of the time talking to people who have made an effort to be there early. They'll give you plenty of ideas, encouragement, and energy, and if you can engage them, you can spread that energy to other people.

Always treat it as a dialogue

Interaction is what makes an real-time presentation different from a recording. The presentation starts off with the energy you bring and the curiosity that people in the audience bring, and it takes shape as people interact with it. When people take the time to attend your presentation in person, give back to them by involving them in it. When you have the ability to see people's reactions or even engage them in conversation, listen to those people throughout your presentation. You are always in a dialogue, even if you're doing most of the talking.

How do you do this? You can use the same skills and instincts you use when talking to people one on one. You know how you can tell when someone's interested or someone's losing focus, even if they aren't saying anything? If you focus on presenting to one person at a time, you can listen and adapt just as instinctively, and you'll talk more naturally too. Just remember that there are lots of other people in the room, so talk to them too. If you're facing a big audience and you can't see people, you'll have to imagine them. Talk to people before your presentation so that you can go into your presentation with a sense of real people in the audience.

Turn your presentation into a conversation

Another thing that makes me excited about presentations is that I know I'm going to learn something new. I love including a lot of discussion in my presentations, and I'm always amazed by what people share. For example, terrific issues and insights came from the audience today. (I've got to retell some of those stories!) So I'm not an expert passing on knowledge, but rather as a facilitator who sets the stage and gets the conversation going. When I give larger, less interactive presentations (like that blue horizon 2008 keynote to around seven hundred people!), I like thinking about the internal dialogue people are having with me, even if they can't raise their hands and share what they're thinking with everyone else.

Next time you plan a presentation, try adding more dialogue. You need energy and openness in the room to get this going. People need to want to add something, see that they have something to add, and feel that you're open to it (and you'll manage the time and the rest of the discussion as necessary). It really helps to have some friendly faces who will take pity on you and jumpstart the conversation if needed. =) Have some backup questions based on what other people might ask you, and feel free to ask the audience questions as well. Most speakers are unnerved by silence (trust me, three seconds of quiet feels like an awfully long time!), but you need to give people time to understand what you've said and to think about what they want to say. A teaching tip I picked up before is to count to seven (silently) instead of moving on after just a few seconds. That seven-second gap helps people shift from listening mode to interacting mode, and if you can get people to share, your presentation will really sparkle.

So here are those quick tips again:

1. Chat with people before the presentation starts so that you can make personal connections and find out what people are interested in.

2. You're always in a dialogue. Listen.

3. Turn your presentation into a conversation and learn something new from your audience.

And don't forget to have fun! =)

Here's what I learned because I did it well:

• Energy and excitement really helps. I focused on topics I was passionate about, picked highlights that I wanted to share, and told myself not to be intimidated by the collective IQ in an audience I couldn't see.
• Standing up is good. It makes it easier to project more energy and pretend to be giving an actual presentation. This also makes it easier to gesture.
• If you need to use the handset, use your hand to hold it against your ear instead of scrunching your neck. This not only saves you from a sore neck, but also allows you to improve your breathing. If you have a noise-cancelling headset, use that instead. I don't have one of those yet.
• If you're running out of preparation time, practice your opening and closing, run through middle parts quickly, then go back and practice enough of your opening to give you a confident start. It's important to make a good first impression. Not only does the primacy effect mean that people will remember the beginning of your presentation more than the following parts, but a strong start will give you confidence and make the rest of the presentation flow. A strong close that recaps important points and energizes people is also very helpful. Things in the middle will come to you once you get into the flow.
• Upload the presentation to Sametime Unyte instead of sharing your screen. Not only will this be faster for your audience, but you'll also be less worried about random things popping up. (It's still a good idea to set Sametime to Do-Not-Disturb or something similar, though.)
• Call in and start recording the Unyte presentation at least ten minutes before the start of your session. Things get really hectic right before the presentation. It's easier to spend 10 minutes just waiting on the phone than to try to remember to set up all of your recording while the organizer's announcing you.
• Check your social network for resources. Cattail was really handy. =) Also, thanks go to Stephen Perelgut for links and de-stressing!

Here's what I can do to make things even better:

• Bring a glass of water. No stage doesn't mean no stage fright.
• Create an activity template to make sure I remember to do everything. I'm starting to believe in Activities - I used it as a last-minute checklist for myself.
• Make sure I get a quick brief from the organizer as early as possible. I went down the wrong path with my first draft. Fortunately, the client rep briefed me last Tuesday, so I spent the rest of the day (and the night) hurriedly revising the presentation. It came out nicely.
• Reserve a room. I hadn't reserved a room because I was planning to take one of the smaller non-bookable rooms, but all of those rooms were full. Moving to the "think bar" near the windows didn't help. I should book a conference room. Even if the room is more space than I need, using that space is better than distracting more than six people. This will also minimize distractions from people asking me to quiet down.
• Keep a library of materials. I need a good system for organizing slides, images, stories, and so on.

Happy! =D

1. The Law of the Lid
2. The Law of Influence
3. The Law of Process
4. The Law of Navigation
5. The Law of E.F. Hutton
6. The Law of Solid Ground
7. The Law of Respect
8. The Law of Intuition
9. The Law of Magnetism
10. The Law of Connection
11. The Law of the Inner Circle
12. The Law of Empowerment
13. The Law of Reproduction
14. The Law of Buy-In
15. The Law of Victory
16. The Law of Big Mo [Momentum]
17. The Law of Priorities
18. The Law of Sacrifice
19. The Law of Timing
20. The Law of Explosive Growth
21. The Law of Legacy

I mentioned this to another colleague who got in touch with me about an internal conference. I had put this presentation down as one of the sessions I could volunteer to present if no one else stepped up, although I admitted I had my misgivings about how to deliver the presentation well. I told him how I felt the long list of concepts made the presentation less effective than it could have been, and that a mnemonic device or a navigational aid would make this presentation better. He was amused by the idea of a mnemonic–a 21-letter acronym, perhaps?–and said he'd pass on my feedback for some presentation coaching. Hearing that, I volunteered to give the speaker feedback myself. That would be better than second-hand feedback, I thought, and I might as well stand behind my words and learn even more in the process. =)

This challenged me to think about the presentation more. If I were presenting this, what would I do? How could it be organized to present all that rich content in some more easily digested and applied form?

I reviewed every slide in the original presentation, writing down keywords on a piece of scratch paper. I thought about questions the speaker could ask people to help them think about the topic before the explanation of the law. After the fourth or fifth law, I found myself categorizing things based on questions, using Who-What-When-Where-How-Why as my original framework. My first pass through the list gave me these categories: "who is a leader", "where you go", "how you get there", and "what you do". I created a spreadsheet organizing the topics into those categories. As I moved things around, I ended up refining the categories to these five:

Who can be a leader?
2. Influence
5. E.F. Hutton

How do you become a leader?
10. Connection
3. Process
7. Respect
6. Solid ground
14. Buy-in

What can hold you back or move you forward?
1. The lid
17. Priorities
19. Timing
11. Inner Circle
18. Sacrifice

What do you do as a leader?
8. Intuition
4. Navigation
9. Magnetism
16. Big Mo [Momentum]
15. Victory
20. Explosive growth

Where do you go next?
12. Empowerment
13. Reproduction
21. Legacy

Some of the topics can be moved around. "12. Empowerment" belongs in both "What do you do as a leader" and "Where do you go next", and it could also go into the earlier entries. I don't have a good feel for whether "1. The lid" should be in "What can hold you back or move you forward?", or "How do you get there?". If I spent more time revising this, I'm sure things would settle down.

What I like about this structure is that it has a certain cohesion about it. Similar laws are together, allowing the speaker to illustrate them with a single well-chosen story or use several stories to build upon a point. There are guide questions that prompt people to reflect as they're listening to the presentation, and these guide questions are followed by advice and examples from leaders who have taken on those challenges. There's a chronological flow that matches the leadership journey as well. Each category flows smoothly into the next, and within each category, each law leads into the next. You tell a story.

Structure is good for speakers and listeners, too. This arrangement gives you a structure that scales: you can cover the entire thing in less than ten minutes, or you can talk for hours. And because it's broken down into chunks, it's easier for you remember, whether you're presenting it or listening to it. You could probably give a speech on this from memory, and people can leave the session with a feeling of understanding the whole thing, not just the first and last chunk.

Now I'm tempted to look for John C. Maxwell's e-mail address and send a link to this blog post. It feels weird giving feedback to an author who's written leadership bestsellers, and maybe there's a higher reason why he organized those topics that way. But maybe the author hadn't taken a step back and seen things click into place… If so, then maybe he'll like this suggestion and use it to help others in a second edition of the book!

—

What would you call what I did? I really enjoyed poking inside that presentation and bringing everything together into a structure, a story. I would love to do more of that in the future. It's quite far from my official IBM role (although the presentation and communication practice will help me as an evangelist), but maybe I can bring aspects of that into my life sometime. Maybe one of my careers will be as a presentation coach… =) I'd love to learn and share more about effective communication!

When I grow up, I'm going to present like Steve Jobs.

What did I do well?

• Revision: I stayed up until 4:00 that morning, revising my presentation to improve the flow and include some of the ideas I got from conversations with people from all over IBM.
• Energy: Because I stayed up so late, I was tired on Tuesday. I didn't want to do a lackluster performance, so I napped during the session slot immediately before mine, and I had some tea afterwards. I reasoned that I could always listen to the playback of the session I had wanted to attend, but I wouldn't have another opportunity to redo my session.
• Presentation structure: After much thinking, I managed to find a good structure that made the presentation flow well. I used the power of three and alliteration throughout the presentation in order to make the presentation more coherent and memorable. I structured the characteristics as "changing childhoods, changing technologies, and changing workplaces". I listed the challenges as "recruiting and hiring Millennials", "working with and managing Millennials", and "selling to Millennials". Each challenge had three parts: "reach", "ramp up", and "retain". Because of that structure, I hardly needed to glance at my slides to remember where I was, and I didn't feel the urge to overload my slides with detail.
• 30-second summary: I put in a 30-second summary at the beginning and end as a courtesy to people who wanted to attend several presentations or review the slides afterwards. This proved to be handy when some people dropped by to say hi and offer encouragement before my session, as I could give them the gist of my talk before they went to a different session. I think it's a good practice.
• Presenter remote: I used Jonathan Young's Kensington presenter remote during my blogging talk at the Best Practices. I liked being able to step away from the podium, and I didn't need to refer to my speaker's notes. I also liked how the Kensington presenter fit my hand neatly. I found the same model at the Airport Wireless store in Newark, along with several other presenter remotes. I chose the Logitech presenter remote because it had a built-in timer with vibration alerts at 5 and 2 minutes, which is great in rooms without clocks. I bought it for $75 or so. If you want to buy it now, Amazon.com has it for $37.24 thanks to a mail-in rebate that ends on Monday, April 14. It looks like there are frequent rebate offers, so you should be able to find it on sale somewhere.
• Stock images: Several people asked me where I got my illustrations. I got some free ones from Stock Exchange, and I got the rest of the images from Stockxpert.com. The Stockxpert.com images typically cost $1 for a presentation-sized image.
• Discussion: I knew that I didn't have the historical perspective or the global perspective to give people the complete picture of Millennials, so I invited people to join the discussion by asking and answering questions. I had chatted with a number of people before the session started, so I knew that people had a lot to contribute. They freely shared their concerns, experiences, and insights. This resulted in a session that was not only more interactive than the jam sessions I attended, but also a lot more educational for all of us–myself included. I think this is a terrific way to do a session, as the speaker gets to learn a lot as well. There, Jim de Piante - I asked for help and I got it! =)

What can I do better?

• More microphones: It seems my presentation style is highly interactive. Next time, I should request additional microphones so that people can be easily heard and recorded.
• Better summaries: I need to get better at listening to what people say and quickly summarizing the key points for these recorded presentations.
• Video recording: I want to save up for a high-definition video camera and a tripod so that I can share the material and improve my presentation skills. Jonathan Young's setup was pretty good. He aimed the video camera's LCD forward so that he could make sure he was in frame. Alternatively, I could ask a friend to take care of video recording.
• Picture: I really should take pictures of my audience so that I can get a better count and so that I can recognize and thank people. Maybe I can ask someone to help me with that next time, so that I'm free to prepare other things I need for my presentation.
• Audio and screen recording: I have Camtasia on my system, and there's no reason why I can't use it to record my non-TLE presentations. Next time!

That was a terrific experience. I'm looking forward to the next presentation!

(PDF, OpenOffice.org 2.0)

On Technorati: presentation, talks, speech

UPDATE: Clair wrote:

I have seen some courses aside from the one you showed me. :) It looks very interesting. Very similar to what librarians do! *laugh* I really must take a break and re-assess my life.

冗談を言うほど賢いコンピューターがありえるだろうか。 Can there be a computer intelligent enough to tell a joke?

On Technorati: presentation, plans

• Rule #1: Don’t give PowerPoint center stage.
• Rule #2: Create a logical flow to your presentation. Better yet, tell a story.
• Rule #3: Make your presentation readable.
• Rule #4: Remember, less is more.
• Rule #5: Distribute a handout.

According to my students, my most memorable presentation was the one I did on computer history.

Right. Computer history.

I had one thought per slide. One line. Sometimes not even a line, just a picture.

The pictures were visual aids for the story I told about operating systems. I couldn't stand the bullet lists that all the other teachers were using, so I made something very sparse but fun.

One of my students said it felt like a TV ad. <laugh>

Slides are a tool, not a crutch.

Working Smart - My Favorite Powerpoint Resources is a treasure-trove of links on presentation skills. Here are some nifty ones from that list:

• Masterviews - more tips on presentations
• Powerpointers - more tips on presentations
• Presenters University
• Tony Ramos' Presentation Weblog - hey, he's Pinoy!

UPDATE: Clair wrote:

*laugh!* Unix humor ;) But it is true. Gah! I hate presentations that rely on the dratted slides... I avoid doing that as well. But I still haven't gotten the hang of it. However, stories are something i enjoy telling and listening to. HMmmm. I guess that is why I enjoyed my archival science electives! :) My prof used to tell stories more often than lectures. I seem to absorb more that way. My classmates don't get it though. But that style works for me. Hmmmm. When I do get to teach, I will remember this! ;)

今日この番組でハッカーの問題をクローズアップするんだって。 This program is going to focus on computer hacking issues today.

On Technorati: presentation

I misplaced Vahid's index card, but I know he's a Ma. IT student at USC. I should write to him about repartitioning.

Chatted with Lawrence and Justin over dinner. Turns out they're both into Stephenson and other SF stuff. (Thanks to Baryon for introducing me to those books!) I think I convinced Justin to try out Emacs.

It was tons of fun geeking out and swapping stories. Lawrence is a treasure-trove of business experience and geek stories. =)

Tired from a long but absolutely fun day. Good night!

On Technorati: conference, mytalks, presentation, opensource

On Technorati: presentation, mytalks

Hi Sacha! UA&P usually hosts a lot of such talks, ranging from business writing to power dressing. I'm sure they'd have seminars on public speaking / giving presentations. I'll inform you when I receive such a memo. ^_^

I'd like to share this as well: when I was in undergrad I was a member of a laboratory where each of us had to deliver a seminar or two about certain papers related to our research. I thought that that was such a great training, since we not only get to practice public speaking on a regular basis, we also got to watch others do it so we knew how a good (or a bad) presentation looked like.

Amen. I still wince when I watch other people read off the slides. Students hate it when their teachers do that, but they don't get exposed to enough good presentations to learn how to deliver them. Presentations in other departments are pretty good—I always looked forward to the Comm presentation during Faculty Day—but people in the sciences often miss out on presentation skills...

E-Mail from Richi's server

On Technorati: business, presentation

Does your job entail a lot of writing? Do you panic when confronted with a writing assignment? Does preparing a business report or a business proposal send shivers up and down your spine? Are you unsure of what words to use? If so, then this workshop on effective business writing is for you. Peppered with exercises and easy-to-grasp, practical tips for better business writing, this workshop is designed for Executives like you who regularly compose their own correspondence. You'll benefit from on-the-spot mentoring and participating in discussions that identify and address your own particular writing challenges.Plus, you'll take a look at what works and what won't in writing:

• Cover Letters
• Sales Letters
• E-Mail Messages
• Memos
• Business Reports
• Business Proposals
• Responses to Complaints

Maybe later, when I think I'll be doing a lot more writing. Right now, I'd love more classes on presentation and public speaking. Actually, scratch that—I know the _theory_, but I want to see it in _practice._ I want to listen to good speakers, people who aren't dependent on random Microsoft Powerpoint transitions or pretty clip-art, people who don't read off the slides, people who can hold an entire hall captive with just voice and a few visual aids. I want to meet masters.

That's what I picked up from Ranulf's talk at La Salle. He and Niel Dagondon talked about game development in the Philippines, but what _really_ struck me was their presentation styles. Ranulf was a typical geek; sincere, informative, but with halting delivery and not much audience connection. Niel—Niel knew how to work the crowd. He got them to laugh. He made them feel special. My (paper) notebook was full of notes on his speaking style. Niel's not perfect, but he's better than Ranulf, and he's more at ease with the crowd than I am. I have much to learn.

I'm a strange kind of geek. I devour books on public speaking, negotiation, sales, even marketing—all of these things that most geeks don't think necessary. I _like_ presentations. I enjoy getting up there and sharing what I've learned. Yes, my knees get weak and I get annoyed with myself when I can't figure out a good way to explain something, but it's _fun._ Scary, but fun.

I like explaining things. I like exciting people, making them curious, helping them get started. I twitch whenever I see a nifty idea obscured by poor presentation skills. I hate it when people think computer science is boring or difficult, because it can be so much more fun than that. I want to learn how to sell ideas, how to set people on fire.

E-Mail to Harvey Chua

On Technorati: writing, presentation