Presentation Tips

It has been a terrific few weeks preparing for the presentation with the grand finale being the last few days in US. It was an interesting experience the last month or so working on this presentation. There were a few lessons learned during this time, that I thought might be of some help - probably just to myself. :-)

1) Begin with a theme. This will be the foundation for your presentation. Make sure your theme will be of interest to your audience. Try to identify a challenge that your audience will be facing currently to form your theme. Establish a reason why they need to be listening to you for the next 1 hour (or so). If you lose your audience here, whatever else you do later in the presentation will be of little or no use.

2) Build a story line around your theme. Start with a challenge / problem that would be relevant to the audience and go about solving them with a coherent and logical flow. 

3) Do not have your entire script on your presentation. Keep it crisp. We have an habit of pouring our mind in PPT as if it is some legal document. NO. A PPT file is just that - a PPT file supposed to help you and your audience to stay in course with the story. Not to be used as reading material.

4) Remove bullets as much as possible. Bullets are for documents - not for presentations. Have more meaningful images instead. Try not to have more 3-4 points in a single slide. This will help maintain their attention throughout. Cluttered information will easily put people to sleep.

5) Use animations effectively. Got to watch out for those unwanted and out of order boxes appearing out of no where.

6) Rehearse the script. Especially if you are co-presenting, co-ordinate transition points with your co-presenter.

7) Know the geography of where you are presenting. Do sufficient research on which room you are going to be presenting. Make sure it has all the infrastructure necessary. The last thing you want is a room with no projector and you have exotic animations all through your presentation.Have your backup or Plan B available if in case you do not have the expected infrastucture.

8) Time your presentation. Prepare cue cards in advance to notify you of available time. Be prepared to adapt your presentation when you don't have sufficient time.

9) Have Fun!! A presentation will be more effective if you can be casual and collected.

Enjoy...

Trip to India - USA - July-August 2011 - Part 2

This last week has been the most craziest week in a long long time. Starting the day in Australian time zone and ending the day in IST is definitely not fun. However it has been a very interesting week as well. Got to meet all my team members and colleagues in Gurgaon. Some of them for the first time. We had a great team party at a club called Jolly Rogers. This time in Gurgaon there was the "Kavarias" (SIC) (pronounce kavadias) yatra going on. It's about Shiva devotees carrying the Kawar - which we call as Kavadi in Tamil Nadu. 

Every airline check-in brings in a bit of a twist. This time I was carrying a whole bunch of boxes as mementos to be given to customers. I was expecting to be charged for overweight. At the counter the lady offered 2 options - one cheaper and one more expensive. That was a pleasant surprise. Checked in my hand luggage as well for a charge. Worked out just fine because I could just carry along my laptop bag. Met with Anand (my VP) post immigration and had a good time chatting with him. 

I flew Lufthansa for the first time - clearly they are ages behind Singapore airlines even with a Boeing 747 aircraft. Boarding was done like a herd of sheep getting into the aircraft - no seat number wise boarding. There was no individual monitors available in the aircraft. Guess I got too spoilt by the A380 in SQ. Frankfurt - wow - what an airport!!!! For the first time I saw people had to queue up to go to the restroom. It was so small and cramped. Germany - you disappointed me.

This seems to be the longest week as well spanning multiple time zones, so I get 1 extra day. :-) The hotel in Denver was quite comfortable. It was the Embassy Suites part of the Hilton group. Had a decent spread for the morning breakfast buffet. The few days in Denver zoomed past pretty quick as well. We had a team bowling party. Did a few strikes in 2 games. Not bad for bowling every other year or so. Jetlag was awful. I was confused between Aussie, Indian and Denver time zones. Caught up with whatever sleep I could. Managed to eat most of my american favourites which I've been missing in Sydney. The highlight being - Clam Chowder. I had been to Red Lobster with a client. He was a food lover as well so we had a lot in common to talk about other than work. Caught up with a old friend of mine (Naveen) whom I probably met after almost 12 years - Thanks to Facebook.

The Denver airport had a cool feature in the underground train shuttle which takes passengers between terminals. They had installed tiny fans along the tunnel which rotates as the train passes by in full speed. I am guessing that it could be to generate some wind energy. The flight to Atlanta was quite uneventful. Met up with the rest of the team at Atlanta airport. It was good timing since one group flew from Kansas City and we were able to pile up together on the trip to the hotel.

The hotel in Atlanta was quite spacious probably the same size as our apartment or maybe even larger. However it was not as nice as in Embassy suites. They had worn down sofas that went in completely as you plomp in. Even worse I had plumbing problems with the toilet. Being used to "manage" such issues before I was able to use it - didn't expect this in a hotel. I had an habit of not dressing up until after breakfast during this stay. It turned out to be a disaster when I did the same on the day of the presentation. Everybody else were suited and booted at the breakfast table and I was there in my t-shirts and shorts. Everybody asked if I was actually presenting that day. What an embarassment!!! My first impression with a senior management person in the company would've gone down the drain. Oh well...

The presentation went on well (I suppose!!). Of course there were some lessons learnt along the way. More on that in a separate post. It was more than a month of preparation with at least 10 versions before we could get to the final version. So much for talking for 15 minutes!! :-)  Atlanta - it was about 90% populated by people who had originated from the African continent. I had a tough time communicating with some of them when I had to ask for directions to take the right bus or train. You mix up the African American with the Southern (US) accent - you've got a killer there. ;-) Caught up with Murali in the evening. He was staying downtown Atlanta. Had to take a bus and a train to get there. Had great Chinese food at one of his regular spots. They even remembered his favourite table. The weather was just like in Chennai. 90 deg+ and as humid as it can be. 

Left back for Delhi on Friday afternoon. Good Bye America - for now!!. USA - it was interesting to observe as a visitor. Every suburb is like a template. It had to have the same elements in the type of shops. Everything looked the same including the structure within the office  even the cafeteria. Everything looked so similar to how it used to be in Phoenix. The flight back from Atlanta was a very pleasant surprise. It was a A340 aircraft and seems like Lufthansa has some decent aircrafts too. ;-) It was very much like A380 in terms of the entertainment features available. Finally I travelled without ordering for "special" meals and ate like a "commoner" in the flight. We had an interesting announcement to shut down the window on night fall. The captain said it will be a very short night tonight, so please close the window before you sleep so you don't disturb other passengers. I just had dinner but it is breakfast in Australia. To sleep or not to sleep has been the biggest question.

The 4+ hour wait in  Frankfurt was a quite boring. Frankfurt airport doesn't have much to offer except for one big BAYER sign revolving. However the terminal I had to board the Delhi flight was definitely much better than where I boarded for the US flight earlier last week. At least this terminal had WIDE toilets and didn't have to queue up outside. Travelled a window seat after a long time. Not by choice but by a request from a fellow traveller whose wife get's sick near the window. Interestingly there was another European traveller who said "Are you travelling alone - my LIFE (wife) is sitting there and I would like to sit next to her." I am pretty sure he didn't mean life but couldn't say wife. :-) Am beginning to hate Boeings. Frankfurt - Delhi was a Boeing 747 and it didn't have the individual TV. :-( Ended up listening to some old hindi songs and a hindi movie in the overhead monitor (without hearing the dialogues).