Technical Presentations

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How to plan, practise, and deliver a great technical presentation

 

What is ‘the curse of knowledge’ and how do I get over it?

Friday, November 6th, 2009

I’m going to start this post with an exercise I sometimes do with my students.

Ever tried to get someone to ‘hear’ a tune by humming it? This almost always works okay because there’s enough information about he tune, rhythm, and pitch. However, if you try tapping out the beat with a pencil, its another story entirely. It almost never works. The tapper focuses only on the beat, and cannot convey anything about the melody, pitch, and atmosphere. The listeners are confused and almost never guess the tune being tapped.

When the tapper hums the tune, the listener suddenly hears the connection between the tapping and the melody. They cannot believe that it was ever difficult to hear.

As you gain more knowledge about a subject your ability to communicate goes down. This concept is important for anyone involved in doing a specialized presentation. There is an important balancing act here – you need enough content to be credible but too much might turn the audience off. How do you get a good balance?

A strategy that I use with students on the presentation training course is conversation. The presenter puts up their key slide and get their peers to ask them questions on it. I encourage students to ask any questions – even ones that even feel a little stupid. Often concepts get explained much more clearly than during the presentation run.

I then ask ‘Were you surprised by any of the questions?’ and ‘Did you expect the audience to know more?’. Usually students say that they overestimated how much background knowledge the audience hard in relation to their subject.

Secondly, I always remind students to explain what a graph is showing. For example, ‘One the x axis is the day of the week and on the y axis is how much I sleep’. The line shows how much I sleep over the course of a week.’. I found that so many student did not say what the graph shows before discussing what they think the results mean.

Finally, see if you can find a way to personalize the content. You can tell a short story, ask the audience a question, and even use an interesting image. I’ll post more about these strategies in later!
For more information on ‘the curse of knowledge’ check out

The curse of knowledge

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Don’t fake sincerity

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Can you pretend to be enthusiastic?

A recent technical presentation training session with a group of university students recently made me realize the gap between the theory I teach and getting students to demonstrate it. We always tell people is to ‘be enthusiastic’ and ‘relate to your audience’, but getting someone to do that is extremely difficult. You cannot make someone be enthusiastic about their subject because enthusiasm is an emotion and cannot be faked.

The energy and connection that seems to show when a speaker makes eye contact, gestures naturally, and smiles is what makes a presentation great. However, you cannot fake the feeling!

This time I did the training I spent less time talking about the importance of eye contact, gesture, and smiling. Instead, I gave the students some questions:

What got you interested in this subject?
What do you know now that you did not know before?
Where might your work lead in the future?
What aspect of your work are you proud of?

Students who take the time to reflect on and connect with what interests them can share their enthusiasm more effectively. This is because they are speaking personally. I also commented that successful presenters often show a quiet confidence. You do not need to be an extrovert or entertainer to do a good presentation. However, you do need to be able to explain why you are interested in your subject. It could be a dramatic trigger from a specific day. A friend who changed his major from Oceanography to Soil Science said that he was lying in a field one day and started to be filled with interest in what made the soil its unique color. Other people have a slower steadier interest in a subject; I heard from one student that a question about their subject bugged them during their undergraduate course, so she decided to pursue it at post-graduate level. One person from Hokkaido University said that when he was a child he used to walk past fields filled with machines picking grapes. He thought they were too slow, so he decided to design and build a robot to do the job faster.

The story of your interest is not incidental, it’s a major part of your intellectual journey. You need to be aware of what makes you tick and sustains your interest. Once you connect to the source of your interest, you’ll bring a kind of confidence to your presentation that cannot be faked. You’ll have something that allows you to be yourself and connect to the audience really effectively.

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What I learned about international exchange from Hokkaido University

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

As a follow up to the presentation training at Hokkaido University, I thought I’d mention what a vibrant international place it is. Many people’s first association with the Hokkaido is great food (Genghis Khan barbecue, fish, dairy), the Yuki Matsuri snow festival, and perhaps Ashikawa Zoo, but the international side to the university surprised me. I found that the university has 1002 students from outside Japan: 826 from Asia, 52 from Europe, 46 from Africa, 31 from South Africa, 20 from North America, and from the 16 Middle East.

This must make the university a very exciting place to study, especially if you get to enjoy the delicious edibles served by hundred students at a food festival that takes place each summer in the university grounds. Here, Japanese staples like takoyaki competed with spicy Chinese stir fry, fragrant Moroccan stews, and comforting garlicky falafels. Japanese and foreign students worked together to produce authentic food, dress in national costume, and decorate their stands. One innovative group even had a Mongolian yurt. The International Student center provides a forum for Japanese and foreign students to interact and share conversation and culture at events that celebrate both Japanese culture and that of the students. It’s no accident that the activities that are popular revolve around food and drink; beside the summer food festivals there are other events such as tea ceremonies, a Halal Food Lunch introducing Islamic culture, and cooking classes.

Food, like laughter, is often ‘the shortest distance between two people’. I realize that being able to talk about food in another language gives a real sense of closeness. If you can make someone imagine the food you love, then they know something important about you. As a Brit, I love Yorkshire pudding – a savory dish made of flour, egg, and milk and eaten with roast beef as a main course. I have to tell my Japanese friends that ‘pudding’ does not always mean something sweet. I talk about all the wonderful dishes from England to tell my Japanese friends there is more than “fish and chips”, just like Japanese food is much much more than sushi. If you are meeting a foreign person for the first time and you want an easy conversation topic to begin with, I can’t think of a better topic than your favorite Japanese food. Or, if that person lives in Japan, then why not ask them about what they recommend from their home country? Bon appetit!

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生徒さんの声

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

これは弊社のブログに載せる最初の日本語の記事です！

私がインストラクターをさせていただいた北海道大学のプレゼンテーションコースに参加された川崎さんのインタビューです。川崎さんは北大の大院生で、プレゼンコースを一生懸命頑張りました。彼のクラスを担当することができたことも、今回のブログのためにインタビューすることができたのも、私にとってとてもいい勉強になりました。

ルイス：英語を話したり、プレゼンテーションをする機会はありますか？

川崎　この夏にアメリカの大学に行くことになっています。そのために、英語に興味があるので、このコースに参加しました。

ルイス：アメリカのどこですか？

川崎：    Rice大学にいます。

ルイス; 頑張ってください！さて、このコースで、一番役に立つことは何ですか。

川崎：プレゼンテーションを行う上で、やっぱり、日本語の場合と英語でやる場合、その態度や、やりかたなど、大きく違う点を学べたことは大きいですね。

ルイス：たとえば、どんなことですか？

川崎：例えば、最初に挨拶をするときに、そのスライドの最初に書かれている名前やタイトルを指しながら、読む必要はないとか。

ルイス：ビデオ撮影については、どう思いますか？

川崎：　客観的に自分のプレゼンテーションを見ることは、すごい重要なことだと思います。　最近、携帯で内容を録音して、後で聞きましたが、すごい、ためになると思います。

ルイス：他の学生さんに、何かアドバイスがありますか？

川崎：そうですね。　プレゼンテーションは、慣れが重要ですから、英語のプレゼンテーションはぜひやってほしいと思います。

翻訳：高見沢至

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Presentation training at Hokkaido University

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Recording a practice presentation

Exhibitionists, performance artists, and newscasters aside, most people feel some embarrassment at watching themselves on video. A few months ago Arnold helped me prepare for a Toastmasters speech contest by videoing my speech and then analyzing it with me, and I spent most of the time cringing in embarrassment. It was painfully hard to watch how I gesture, move, and talk in such unflinching detail. For example, every time I pressed the remote control to change the slide, I seemed to be brandishing it like I was Harry Potter casting a spell!

I therefore have enormous respect for the students from the Center for Education Engineering Development, Hokkaido University who bravely let Michael Bayne and I film them doing presentations. Not only were they presenting on difficult technical subjects, they were also doing this in their non-native language.

The format of the classes was simple: students were filmed doing a presentation and then handling question and answers. We then played back the presentations, and discussed their strengths and weaknesses. My approach was to skip to the most interesting (painful!) parts of the presentation, advise them on how to improve, and then do a ‘take two!’ of the tricky areas. The idea was the Japanese kaizen (改善) approach: do, evaluate, and redo. Each class had two consecutive Saturday classes, which allowed for them to review the video at their own pace and figure out what to do to improve.

An unexpected surprise for the students came when they also saw themselves looking very professional. We all noticed that the best ‘performances’ typically came at the question and answer session. There was smiling, gesturing, great eye contact, and enthusiasm as the students wrestled with questions from their peers. The biggest smiles came at the very end.

‘Why do you wait to show such confidence until the very end?’ I asked over and over.

And the answer came back…’I’m happy because it’s over!’ and ‘I’m relieved!’.

Does this mean that you have to wait until the end of your presentation before you can start to enjoy it? If so, what a waste!　もったいない!

My advice is to prepare and practice as hard as you can in advance. The students at Hokkaido all noticed an improvement in the second performance in terms of fluency, confidence, and interaction with the audience.

Watching themselves on video showed them two things. One was when they did not communicate with the audience because they were struggling with the language or their nerves. This is good information about where to spend more time practicing. The second thing they saw was how great they looked when they just relaxed and enjoyed the chance to communicate their work. Even if they only smiled at the very end, I hope they’ll see how good they can look!

Watching yourself on video may not be a comfortable experience, but it is certainly educational. And if it spurs you to practice harder, it’s a valuable trigger too!

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Seven tips on how to prepare for a presentation in another language.

Monday, July 20th, 2009

プレゼンテーション資料･スピーチを外国語で準備する際のヒント７つ

Many people, including myself, feel very self-conscious when they speak another language. While you cannot get rid of this anxiety, you can learn how to handle it through effective practice.

1. Know how quickly you speak.
2. Plan points where the pressure is off you and on the audience.
3. Use simple, everyday words whenever possible.
4. Practice with someone.
5. Practice all the way through.
6. Practice the hard parts obsessively.
7. Learn the opening and closing by heart.

1. Know how quickly you speak

Your speaking speed in another language is probably going to be much slower than in your native language. This can be a source of frustration for speakers such as The Coffee Addict. Rather than try to match your native speed, focus on getting a steady rhythm and varying your speaking speed.

2. Plan points where the pressure is off you

A common error is to focus so hard on saying the words correctly that you lose touch with the audience. To avoid this, plan some points where you take the pressure off yourself. For example, ask the audience a rhetorical question or show an interesting slide.

3. Use simple everyday words whenever possible

This helps you put your energy into the delivery, rather than on getting out difficult words. A common error is to try to write words that sound very serious or impressive and failing to pronounce them properly. Most people in the audience prefer to listen to a speaker who wants to tell them something useful, rather than someone who seems to want to show off their vocabulary.

4. Practice with someone

Having another person listen to you also gives you a sense of how the audience might respond. Once, when I was practicing in front of my Japanese teacher, he spent a good part of the time inserting a lead into his pencil! I realized I needed to look away from my notes and focus on my ‘audience’ more. Practicing with someone lets you know when you might lose the audience’s attention.

5. Practice all the way through

People sometimes run out of enthusiasm half way through a presentation. Doing a presentation is physically and mentally tiring. Think of doing a complete run through as ‘stamina training’, and save the solo practice for the really hard parts (Tip 6).

6. Practice the hard parts obsessively

Even after a good edit, you need to identify the sections that are still tough. Practice reading them until you feel comfortable. If you are as bad as me, this will be at least ten times! Try to identify the problem. Are breathing in the wrong place? Are you trying to say too much too quickly? Are you not confident with a particular combination of sounds? Do you really understand the meaning of what you are saying?

7. Learn the opening and closing by heart

People tend to remember the first and last things that they hear, so it’s important that you are able to put all your energy into focusing on the audience, not your script at this point. If you are confident at the beginning, that confidence tends to carry over to the rest of the presentation too. The ending should be powerful and memorable. Reinforce your key message to the audience so that they retain it long after your presentation. Learning these sections by heart means that you can start and finish with confidence.

Is there anything I have forgotten? If you have any other tips for preparing a great presentation in another language, please let me know.

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