Just got back from a homecoming party organized by the NUS Overseas College. As usual, there were a lot of presentations being made by the returning batches and I could not help but to evaluate them. Yes, it’s an occupational hazard… forgive me.

This was a 10 mins presentation where the speaker shares about what his department does. (I think it was NUS Entrepreneurship Centre) However, what has fishes, a robotic car and what I think are cells got to do with his department and the Q&A session?

What he could have done was to remove all the images and replace it with black background and white text that says “Questions?” Firstly, the slide won’t be introducing anything new or odd that will confuse us. Secondly, the slide keeps us focused on asking questions.

This speaker attempted to share his experiences in Silicon Valley by showing us pictures that were taken there. Good move, because pictures are engaging. They give the speaker an opportunity to share stories or ideas that will be more much more memorable for the audience.

However in this case, it worked against him. For a couple of reasons.

1. His friend (see picture below) was still in the midst of logging into the photo album as he tried to engage his audience. And since we are easily distracted - especially by moving objects - almost all the audience weren’t listening to him. He even had to ask us to pay attention, which I thought was very embarassing for both of us.

What he could have done was to either get it prepared earlier, or his friend could have blank the screen while he prepared the photos.

2. He wasn’t prepared. There were 200 over photos and he was glossing over them randomly. There was no structure and the pictures do not link. One moment he was sharing about how beautiful Yosemite was and the next moment he was showing us pictures taken at Halloween. Of course, he did not have much choice since the person behind the computer was simply clicking on photos.

What he could have done in future was to pick up some pictures in advance that are either very interesting or pictures that will help him anchor the stories he want to tell. Rehearsing with his friend behind the computer will help tremendously as well.

3. The pictures are so small… (as you can see from the picture above). After a while, we quit squinting and went on with our side conversations. Can’t blame us for that.

What he could have done was to enlarge the selected pictures so that we can all see. This is a really simple move but it will be one that will make a lot of difference.

But in his defense, I like his style of speaking. Very conversational yet confident. Way to go, dude (not sure what’s his name)

The guy in yellow was randomly clicking on pictures, which distracted the audience from listening to the speaker.

This is one of the slides by Professor Teo (known to be extremely long winded… his “few words” usually last for 30 mins long, at least). However to his credit, I thought today’s presentation was delivered rather well. It was shorter!

And… his slides were much more impactful. Like the one above. He used this slide - with a comic - to illustrate the importance of adventuring. It’s fresh and highly memorable. So the next time, you have an important point to make, take a moment to think about how you can communicate your point with a prop, a cartoon, a story, a quote, a demonstration, a video etc. Remember this - sameness is boring.

Oh and check out this really nice coffee design.

Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach

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