On poor presentations and some solutions

(specifics are intentionally withheld)

I went to a presentation not too long ago on campus that was quite bad. I was sitting near the back and I was very tempted to leave by about twenty minutes in. At that point we were still in the introduction and hadn't gotten to the body of the presentation.

I decided that it would be rude to leave early and that I should set a good example (several students did choose to leave early). I stayed for the entire hour and a half presentation, which turned out to be quite the feat. I had to fight myself to stay attentive and to stay in my seat. I contented myself by deciding to blog about it later and hopefully offer some constructive ideas to avoid some of these presentation mistakes.

The introduction did in fact take longer than twenty minutes. Someone was there to introduce the presenter, and that lasted approximately fifteen seconds. The presenter then took the time to tell us all about himself, his credentials in the field of his presentation, the people he was dedicating his presentation to, and the sources of his presentation. Let me just reiterate that he had not made a point until more than twenty minutes into the presentation.

So, some constructive things: keep it short and to the point! That applies to the actual content as well, but an introduction should be very short. In fact, a lot of presentations don't even need an introduction! Going straight into the content tends to hold people's attention much better.

That brings up another point: holding people's attention is essential. You can have a fantastic presentation content-wise that will have absolutely not impact on those listening if you do not hold their attention. Length is a key aspect of this, people lose interest quickly. In fact, in a presentation to college students it is ideal to keep it to under half an hour. It's not always possible to do so, but it is something to strive for. As for this particular talk, the presentation lasted for about eighty minutes followed by five to ten minutes of Q & A.

Visuals are important in presentation. You don't always have to have visual aids, but you should have something for people to look at. You can be your own visual aid if you walk around and talk animatedly. It's fine if you are the kind of person who is nervous enough to need a podium to stand behind, but if so you should have some sort of electronic visual component. In this case the presenter had powerpoint slides of his outline projected during the talk. Powerpoint can work, but an outline is a lackluster visual aid. Putting up just key words and phrases is better. Another option is prezi, which is what the wifey uses when she gives a presentation. Even just a simple outline can be visually stimulating when using prezi.

The presenter did have a few videos to use as audio/visual aids, but the videos did not happen until after an hour of presentation. At that point it was a welcome addition, but there were some problems there as well. The videos were presented without the presenter telling us WHY we were watching the videos. They clearly did fit in the presentation, but more explanation was necessary as to what point was being made with the videos. Also, it would have been better to space the videos out rather than speaking for an hour and then watching some videos.

A final critique: presentations must have a point. This presentation had an interesting title that didn't make any claims or points (which is fine), so I was interested to find out what points the presenter was going to make. I left the presentation and still didn't know what points were trying to be made. It was very haphazard with bits and pieces of things but no main point. Because there was no main point there was very little for me to grab ahold of as a takeaway. When I'm running a meeting (or in one) I try to reiterate the takeaways I want my subordinates to have so that action can come from the meeting. In this case I did not retain much of anything due to a lack of things to grab onto.


It was a frustrating experience, hence the post. A few people occasionally mention to me that I should do more than complain about problems in my blogging. Point taken, but my counter-point is that problems are wonderful things. Problems show us the opportunities to do things better. If you are never shown the negative side of things you will never achieve excellence. I hope that in this post I was able to actually give you some takeaways or positive ideas as to how to present better. While I am no great presenter myself, I certainly have the critic's ability to see problems with presentation. I will endeavor in the future to point out the opportunities corresponding to the problems I blog about.

The segregation of information

The advent of modern communications technology has brought an incredible availability of information to your average American. If you want to know about something, you google it. If you have a particular interest in something you can join any number of communities on the internet that support that interest. I myself am a member of boardgamegeek.com, the best resource (and community) out there for board gaming.

In addition to interests, the internet makes it easy to surround yourself with similar opinions. People generally do not like to be challenged in their opinions, so they become friends with those who hold similar beliefs. Social media is a prime example of this, in that you choose who you "follow", and therefore the information you receive.

Now, some people do choose to follow and pay attention to people and organizations that they do not agree with, but these people are in the minority. Most of us only really like to pay attention to those who agree with us. It's far more comfortable to only talk to and listen to people who agree with you. You don't have to have your opinions challenged.

Despite the people and organizations you affiliate yourself with, there always do crop up a few ideas that you disagree with. I feel that most people do not actually take the time to consider ideas that they disagree with. Far more often people simply read things just to disagree with them, like waiting for a break in a conversation so you can tell someone how wrong they are. Reading the comments section on most websites is like walking through a minefield of hatefulness.

I'm not claiming that we should all just hold hands and sing around the campfire and forget about our differences, but what we should do is actually give respect to other people's opinions and beliefs. No one person has perfect knowledge. We all have many opinions on various issues, and statistically speaking some of our opinions are uninformed. Some of my current beliefs will be simplistic or ridiculous to my future self. That's part of growing older, becoming more informed. This process does not happen on its own, it requires actual effort. You must read, you must learn, you must understand different sides to issues. To not seek out new information is to allow your mind to become stagnant.

Take some time to consider different viewpoints. Truth is outside of yourself.

Why blog? Why not?

I'm not up on the blogosphere much. I don't follow any blogs. Occasionally someone will link to a blog post on facebook and I'll read it, but that's about it.

So why blog? And why now?

I see the world being compressed more and more into bite-sized nuggets of information. The advances in communications technology mean that everyone has access to just about all information. As such, our attention spans are getting shorter as we jump from interesting thing to interesting thing (to cat video). Our interpersonal communications follow the same trend. A prime example of this is twitter and tumblr (and other sites that I have never tried). It seems we are taking facebook and compressing it into just the news feed and even further into just 140 characters.

I believe we are losing an important piece of the beauty of the internet: that we can learn from each other and grow through exposure to other ideas.

We generally only "follow" those who we know or those who we agree with. If we do "follow" someone we don't agree with it is often only to argue with them, to bicker in 140-character snippets that don't offer real insight into our positions. No hearts and minds are changed, no mutual understanding is reached, and very little respect is given to those who have different opinions.

Is blogging the answer to this problem? Possibly. Currently I have decided to make a go of it being MY answer to this problem. I have tried twitter and tumblr; I don't see the appeal. Entertaining, yes, but not as entertaining as a good book, movie, or video game (certainly not as entertaining as a good board game!). I have become disillusioned with facebook. Somewhat useful, but it seems to be increasingly rare that I am actually connecting with people instead of just voyeuristically enjoying their lives.

There are other reasons I am starting a blog now, which I don't believe I will go into at the moment. It is enough for you to know that I see good reasons for blogging, one of which is the reason I outlined above. I hope you gain some benefit from reading this blog, though what that is I don't quite know. Some of my reasons for doing this are more for my own benefit, I may go into that later on. Meanwhile, thank you for reading!