Our team decided to adopt a more Zen approach by attempting to talk more and show less. However, we learnt that by doing so, we would need to cramp a huge chunk of information in our head and risk missing out on some points. This could have been very fatal as during the Q&A, items that were not explained in detail was questioned heavily.
In addition to that, I feel that we elaborated too much on the reasons of why we chose conservation. Our group should have cut down on that area and perhaps elaborated on why communication skills are important in conservation. The methodologies were also overly explained. If these two areas were reduced, we should have been able to prevent ourselves from boring the audience.
For my personal reflection, I feel that I was very nervous during the presentation. To tell the truth, I have never been that nervous during a presentation (even for my personal FYP presentation). After some thinking, I concluded that the nervousness was due to the fear of forgetting the large amount of information that I was to deliver. A second point was that as this was a very serious presentation, thus I was unable to draw strength from the humorous side of me. From the many presentations that I have done, making the crowd laugh or smile actually made me less tense. In this presentation with a serious note, not being able to find ways to inject humour into my presentation actually worked greatly against me.
I would like to end off with this quote which I bet most of us would agree with (and which Diana has used in her post).
"There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave."
-- Dale Carnegie
In addition to that, as a gift to all of you reading/commenting my blog, here are 2 videos that will aid you in your future presentations.
A must watch before all presentations:
How to present like Steve Jobs:
Hi Kun Lin
ReplyDeleteYes i agree that the fear of forgetting information will actually cause nervousness. Perhaps reducing the amount of information you need to memorize by summarizing will help. Just another point I noticed, your slight nervousness actually caused you to be speaking in parts, which might cause your main idea to be hard to get and absorb for the audience. I think that speaking slower will also help as you will have more time to process your thoughts.
After reading the article on the link Brad sent us last week on overcoming stage fright, I got a couple of major takeaway points which I felt are really helpful:
1) Remember that nothing has gone wrong yet, so prevent yourself from thinking that something might go wrong.
2) Remember that the audience is on your side and that they want you to succeed.
Dear Kun Lin,
ReplyDeleteI liked your post a lot. As always, it is clear and concise.
The feedback I had noted down for your presentation is the following -
1) Great start - 'blow your minds off'. I loved the start.
2) Felt memorized when you had two very long pauses
3) Module finale slide - looked skewed. Seemed like no alignment was done (As I had written it then, I am unsure of the exact look of the slide
4) Environment spelt wrong on a slide
While I agree with you about missing the humor, I am not sure if I agree with the comment about formal presentations lacking humor. In my very limited experience, the best presentations are those who weave in humor into the presentation itself.
For example, If I did spot a spelling mistake on the slide, it would be a nice opportunity to say - 'How many of you spotted this spelling mistake?.. I put it in there to make sure you are awake!'
Small quips often go a long way. Just my 2 cents however.
All the best! :)
Cheers
Rohan
Hello Kun Lin,
ReplyDeleteYou were really calm and steady. There were times that it felt memorized but overall I thought it was alright.
I was sort of expecting some humor and maybe a little more energy from your presentation. You gave a very lively and enthusiastic performance during the peer teaching but it was absent in the oral presentation. As Rohan has mentioned in his comment, if you were able to skillfully inject some humor into your presentation, you might have been able to give a much better presentation.
Good Job!
Hope your FYP presentation went well!
~nicole
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteKun Lin,
ReplyDeleteThe way you started your presentation with a bang caught my full attention. I liked the way you came in and followed up from the previous speaker with so much confidence and enthusiasm, albeit it would be great if you could maintain consistency in your performance. As you spoke and as time lapsed I realised you started to lose a little of that 'bang' and exceptional composure at the beginning. Consistency is one suggestion from me to you.
The other one concerns fragmented sentences. I don't know if that's attributed by the nervousness you were feeling on stage. I feel you had quite a couple of fragmented sentences throughout which sounded like there were many inappropriate pauses at unnecessary junctures. When this happens it actually makes the content a little hard to digest for the audience. Pauses will help you if used at appropriate junctures but are more of a bane than a boon if they serve to break up your sentences. That is the second thing you might want to keep a lookout for as you speak.
Otherwise, that delivery was good - typically the good Kun Lin that I expected to see.
Hey people! Thanks for all your kind comments! I am also pretty disappointed with myself, but I will take it as a learning process and gain some precious experience out of it. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Kun lin,
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Nicole, that we are sort of expecting some humour and a little bit more energy coming from you.
I always like the way you present, be it in peer teaching or any class discussion. You never fail to make the audience feel relaxed, happy and liven up the atmosphere.
I do agree with you that you were nervous during the presentation. Somehow, at certain parts of your presentation, it made me feel that you were trying to regurgitate what you had memorized, for you started to speak in parts and there was long pause within your sentence.
I feel that you still can inject your sense of humor in any serious presentation. At lest you can make the situation less tense for you, and also grasp the audience's attention by keeping them awake with your joke. However, there is a limitation to the amount of humor you can inject into a serious presentation. If not, your future bosses or audience will have the impression that you are taking things lightly.
Overall, good job for you and your team!
Hi Kun lin,
ReplyDeleteI thought generally, you sounded relaxed but confident, hence making me feel very comfortable listening to your presentation. Basically, the other things that I had wanted to comment on, have already been covered by our other classmates. One point to add though, is that I felt you were unconsciously turning your head towards the slides, while elaborating on your points, too often. This was despite the fact that your points were not on the slides and hence no reference had to be made. After a while, it had become quite distracting. Perhaps your nervousness contributed to it, but taking a mental note of that the next time round could help?
Nevertheless, your presentation was clear on the whole, so don't be so disappointed!
All the best!
Hi Kun Lin, I really enjoyed your presentation. I thought you were very enthusiastic and your start was very good. You had some really attention capturing phrases. However, along the way, I think you had a lapse of concentration and you had some pauses which made the presentation feel a little unnatural unlike your start. One method which I use to try to reduce this is to speak more slowly to enable me to have more time to think of my next sentences. Overall I feel you are always able to create an atmosphere whenever you present and it definitely is an asset for you.
ReplyDeleteA job well done!