Archive for the ‘Presentations’ Category

This is a transcript of an audio program located in the membership area of EffectivelySpeaking.Com. To get access to this audio program, as well as many other materials, you can sign up for a free membership at
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Hi this is David Mudie and I would like talk to you about technical presentations.

I want to take a personal experience of mine as an illustration for technical presentations. As many of you know one of my first public speaking engagements was before a large audience at a software conference. Now I did not want to speak at this software conference – but I did want to make business contacts there. I could not afford the admission price – it was $3000 US, and my company was going out of business. Speakers however, got in for free – so as much as I did not like speaking, I did not like being unemployed more.

The topic of the presentation was a security methodology I had developed, and a piece of software I had written that would support this methodology.

I was accepted for the presentation and I had about five months between receiving acceptance and having to deliver the presentation.

I slowly started working away at the presentation, procrastinating a little bit, because I really didn’t want to do it - but for the most part getting on with it because I realized that I really wanted to get there.

I made a very technical presentation. At the same time I was learning as much as I could about public speaking. It was during this time that I came across a little tidbit of wisdom that I found to be incredibly valuable.

The individual said, “Don’t try to impress your audience with how smart you are… impress your audience with how smart they are.”

I took this piece of advice to heart and realized that the presentation I had been composing was for somebody with my background, my understanding.

It wasn’t going to be useful to the majority of the audience – and so I threw it out. I took my presentation and I boiled it down to two clear, concise points. Points that anybody could understand – even somebody who had never used the software that I was supporting.

The points were:
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I have pointed out that one of the leading causes of stress in our society is being held accountable for an outcome without having control of the situation. In business situations this is commonly caused by office politics. An employee is expected to deliver a particular result, but not allowed to make the changes that would allow such a result.

Another cause of this situation occurs when an individual is held accountable for performing a task – without the proper tools or training.

I can think of a couple of situations where this happened to me.

As silly as that sounds, it doesn’t compare to the second example.

The feeling I had is not unfamiliar to those who have the responsibility of a presentation thrust upon them.

You have no presentation skills, but we expect you to do the job anyway. We’re not going to give you training – or even explain what would make your presentation successful. We just expect you to do it.
All of a sudden you are being judged – that is being held accountable – for something you have no control over. You have no control over the success or failure of your presentation because you don’t have any presentation skills.

An Easy Source of Presentation Skills

I created EffectivelySpeaking.Com to provide people with the information they need to overcome the fear and go on to excel at speaking in public. With that in mind, I have created this section to hold a number of articles about delivering an effective presentation – I will be adding more over time.

A Free Course on Presentation Skills

In addition, if you are in a situation that is similar to the one I described, then I would encourage you to take my S.C.P. presentation course. It will only take you a few minutes each day for six days, and then about 45 minutes on the seventh. By the time you’re done, you will have a solid understanding of what goes into preparing and delivering an effective presentation. Best of all, I have made the course available for free to Effectively Speaking Members.

If you want to experience the same relief that I described, then head on over to EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com and sign up. You’ll find a whole lot more “relief generating” information – and best of all, you can sign up for free.

A few years ago I was asked to give a motivational speech at a local community center. It was their annual general meeting and the director asked me if I would speak about the importance of community involvement. I eagerly accepted the engagement.

I composed and practiced the speech using the skills that I have shared with you. When it came to the presentation however, I ran right into a brick wall. During the actual presentation I discovered that no one in the audience was interested in my speech…

Well that’s not entirely true – there were some people who were interested, but a large portion weren’t. The director had combined the annual general meeting and the children’s Christmas party. A large number of the people there were “just tolerating” the meeting while they waited so that their children could visit with Santa.

Now you might expect such an audience to be at least polite and wait quietly even if they weren’t interested. Such was not the case. Many of the audience members took it as an opportunity to catch up with their neighbors. They made no effort to hide the fact that they were indifferent towards the meeting and especially me – they were totally wrapped up in their own conversations.

I will tell you right now, it’s extremely disconcerting to have this happen.

At first I tried to engage these people. I projected as much energy and enthusiasm as I could towards them. It didn’t take long to determine that wasn’t going to work.

I then realized that I was focusing on the wrong people. There was a group of people right in front who were hanging on every word (at least that’s what I told myself). They nodded in agreement with my points, they laughed at my humor – in short, they were an attentive audience. Here I was short changing them by directing all my attention to those who had no interest.

Once I had realized this the answer was obvious. Focus my attention on the people who were interested in what I had to say – don’t worry about those who weren’t. I decided that not only should I re-focus my attention, but that I should direct just as much energy and enthusiasm towards them as I had directed towards those who were not paying attention. After all, shouldn’t I put at least as much energy into my speech for those who were being courteous as I chose to for those who were being rude.

The result was fairly predictable. After the meeting those who ignored me continued to do so – after all they were there for Santa (and I could hardly compete with him, could I?).

Many of those who were paying attention came up to me after and gave my positive feedback. I certainly appreciated it – however the best feedback arrived recently. I was talking with a lady I had met and she mentioned being involved with this particular community center. I mentioned that I had spoken there three years earlier. She immediately said, “Oh, I remember you” and went on to describe the points that I had made.

Wow – after three years she remembered my speech. I guess in the end I made the right choice of whom to direct my enthusiasm towards.

As a speaker you can certainly be affected by your audience. Your audience’s response can boost you up just as much as it can bring you down. One strategy is to seek out those in your audience who will give your emotions a boost, and speak to them. As you engage them you will find others are being pulled in as well. Gradually you will reach more and more of your audience. In the end, if you are going to expend some energy on your audience, make sure you invest it in those who will give you the positive feedback you need in order to make it an interactive and dynamic presentation.