Friday, May 04, 2007
Advice From The Internet : Presentations
Here's a great little write-up about putting on great presentations. Worth a read for everyone, because everyone needs to do this kind of thing sometimes.
I personally never really have much of a problem actually doing presentations. These tips will certainly make my next presentation better.
I would include in this list, however, something about questions. The questions people ask after presentations are usually no good.
Either :
I think it's sheepish and it makes it seem like you've been defeated. You KNOW you're never really going to "get back" to them. It's especially bad because what you really wanted to say was something like "THAT HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT YOU F-ING MORON!!" while you strangle him/her to death in front of everyone.
I think it's much more classy to say something along the lines of "I didn't look into that at all." possibly adding an uncaring/shrugging "Sorry".
If it's not too off topic, and you don't think the questioner is just a jack-ass trying to throw you off (ie: their question is genuine) (or if they /are/ a jack-ass but you're happy with your connection to the audience and you think you can embarrass him with your wit) then you might add a little "If I had to guess..." action, but make sure everyone knows you're talking out of your ass and try to make a joke about that.
It can help, at this point, to add something like "... but that doesn't really have anything to do with my talk.".
Most importantly, if someone asks you a question that you really and truly should know the answer to, but DON'T for whatever reason, don't try to make it up or bluff your way through it or resort to the aforementioned "I'll get back to you" tactic. Fess up to not knowing. As bad as it looks that you don't know something that you should, I think it looks worse if you try to hide it. It will really save your ass if you know of a publication that discusses the issue at hand that you can recommend. It's okay to admit what a good question it is, just try not to seem sneaky about not knowing the answer. Good jokes/wit will save your ass here too, but it's pretty tough for most people to rely on their wit, so stick with honesty.
Just my two cents!
I personally never really have much of a problem actually doing presentations. These tips will certainly make my next presentation better.
I would include in this list, however, something about questions. The questions people ask after presentations are usually no good.
Either :
- they're asking something vaguely peripheral that they already know the answer to, in order to try to show you up
- or they ask about something you explicitly addressed in the presentation and you know for a fact that they were pulling lint out of their belly-button while you talked about it
- or they ask about something completely unrelated that doesn't have any business being discussed in the context of your talk
- the list goes on and on
I think it's sheepish and it makes it seem like you've been defeated. You KNOW you're never really going to "get back" to them. It's especially bad because what you really wanted to say was something like "THAT HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT YOU F-ING MORON!!" while you strangle him/her to death in front of everyone.
I think it's much more classy to say something along the lines of "I didn't look into that at all." possibly adding an uncaring/shrugging "Sorry".
If it's not too off topic, and you don't think the questioner is just a jack-ass trying to throw you off (ie: their question is genuine) (or if they /are/ a jack-ass but you're happy with your connection to the audience and you think you can embarrass him with your wit) then you might add a little "If I had to guess..." action, but make sure everyone knows you're talking out of your ass and try to make a joke about that.
It can help, at this point, to add something like "... but that doesn't really have anything to do with my talk.".
Most importantly, if someone asks you a question that you really and truly should know the answer to, but DON'T for whatever reason, don't try to make it up or bluff your way through it or resort to the aforementioned "I'll get back to you" tactic. Fess up to not knowing. As bad as it looks that you don't know something that you should, I think it looks worse if you try to hide it. It will really save your ass if you know of a publication that discusses the issue at hand that you can recommend. It's okay to admit what a good question it is, just try not to seem sneaky about not knowing the answer. Good jokes/wit will save your ass here too, but it's pretty tough for most people to rely on their wit, so stick with honesty.
Just my two cents!
