The Fun of Presenting
Cliff Williams CAMP CMRP MMP CRL AUTHOR
Principal Advisor - Asset Management, Maintenance and Reliability
In one of the Chat Articles on Linkedin the question 'What do you do if your public speaking flops turn into valuable lessons?' was asked. I started to reply and remembered an episode/flop/mishap that was great fun. Unfortunately I ran over the word limit and so I thought I'd post it here.
How do you know it was a mishap - is the expectation that you have everything scripted and you need to hit everything you intended for it to be success. The audience are really the judges - and they are far more forgiving - or unknowing - than you'd imagine!
Maybe you'd consider this as a mishap but I considered it a great but unintentional way to break the ice.
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I was doing an opening keynote at a major maintenance conference and my presentation started with three videos - they worked perfectly well the day before. Anyway I opened the first video - nothing! AV started running around trying to figure out what had gone wrong - turned out someone had changed mapping. While this was going on, I suggested that it was a good time to get to know one another so if they would turn to the right and introduce themselves it would be good - so everyone turned to the right and saw the back of the head of the person next to them who had also turned to the right! I admitted that it didn't work and luckily AV got the video going. When I tried the second video - nothing - same mapping issue - so I suggested that everyone turn to the left and introduce themselves - one or two did but most just smiled knowingly - they weren't going to be fooled twice! AV got the video working but video three had the same problems! I thought I'd give it one more try and suggested that everyone turn around and introduce themselves - almost all of the audience did - and laughed to find those behind them had also been caught out. By this time everyone in the room (approximately 800 people) was totally relaxed and felt part of the show - apart from AV! I got what was probably one of the best ovations I've had and people were waiting for me to come of stage to shake my hand and congratulate me on a unique way of starting a presentation - believing and commenting on how it was planned so well!
Senior Process Industry Advisor (Retired)
5 个月The very first time a made a presentation and public talk, was to a large audience of fellow UK PhD students in York nearly 40 years ago. I had been bricking it building up to it. All the props failed and I went off piste and my Irishness kicked in. I described in my own vernacular what I had intended to present and made up a story about it right out of my head. It was like Friday night at the Apollo. Probably the best presentation I ever made and it was the first ?? People thought it was part of the act..! (It was not).
Engineer and owner of UPTIME Consultant Ltd?
5 个月Coincidence or what... I've just presented a keynote to Jenny on the sofa for a conference this Tuesday, her feedback was invaluable... "slow down and forget the calculation, otherwise very good" A relaxed audience on a sofa always helps ?? I learnt about videos a few years ago, I never include any or complicated animations, it's often a worry as I work in iOS and everyone else is stuck with MS so I always test that beforehand ??
Author | Founder, Strategic Reliability Solutions Ltd | Co-Chair, LRVS
5 个月You are one of the best Cliff Williams CAMP CMRP MMP CRL AUTHOR!