I watched The four-letter code to selling anything by Derek Thompson (Ted Talk) via
YouTube. The presentation was okay. He personalized it by telling a story and using names
that were familiar. He wore relaxing, inviting clothing as if you were sitting down talking to
a friend. The message was somewhat interesting, simple but also boring at times. He
allowed one person from the audience to ask a question. I think if the stage presentation was
more inviting and his tone had a bit more excitement in it then it would have retained my
attention more.The presenter can connect with the audience more by incorporating them to
participate in activities. Ask the audience questions that will get there mind stimulated about
the agenda that will be discussed. Organization and rehearsal will help presenters deliver a
good presentation. Learn about the audience that you will be presenting the message to also
helps with presentations. I have witnessed many monthly meetings at work that are not
planned and unorganized. We are handed the agenda and immediately everyone is focused
on what will be discussed and only pay attention to what pertains to their group. The
speakers are not prepared and no one properly introduces the next one. It's frustrating to
watch leaders be unorganized and give new information without properly researching the
facts. A big presentation that interests me and my co-workers is about stock and
cryptocurrencies. A lot of my co-workers are huge on it because of the opportunity to make
money on it, but it of course has a lot of negative outcomes to it. There are a lot of different
videos you can watch on site like YouTube that help you figure out which cryptos or stocks
to buy into to maximize your output, and lately stocks and cryptos have skyrocketed in
popularity with things like Doge coin coming out and sky rocketing in popularity. The
people that make these videos really engage the audience and make everyone have the idea
that they are going to make thousands by investing in these stocks. They do not really
explain a lot of the different things that go on with these stocks so some people end up
buying in a losing money by not doing enough research before doing it. I think the best way
a presenter can connect with the audience would be saying words like "you" and asking
questions that engage the audience to keep them interested. In discussing business
presentations, I believe it is important to find some common ground with other business
communications. Analyzing the situation and gathering information functions very much the
same for a business presentation as it does with other forms of business communication.
Let's consider analyzing the situation as our first step. In analyzing the situation for a
business presentation, it is important to understand your audience' expertise and their
potential state of mind before preparing your message. If it is likely that your audience will
be hostile or combative you would need to utilize a different approach than if your audience
is willing to except the information that you will be sharing. While watching my morning
dose of heavy economics and stock market changes on CNBC. A CEO was being
interviewed about the new changes in the companies approach to fitness. Peloton a well
known home fitness was on talking about how their company is exploring new plans for
business professionals returning back to work. The presentation was so intriguing that I
completely tuned out everything else going on at the time I was intrigued by the way he
started the message to consumers stating that we believe health and fitness should have no
barriers. That spoke to me and grabbed my attention, while listening to him talk I thought to
myself what barriers do I face as a fitness professional and what are some things that people
state as a reason they can't find time to workout either work or home life is too stressful. The
presenter talked briefly about their plans to provide memberships and equipment at
subsidized rates for companies with large numbers of employees returning to work in the
coming months. I thought to myself simple and brilliant the presenter didn't get into numbers
or statistics he just appealed to the need of the consumer to welcome the idea of returning to
work with more incentives. the way the presenter appealed to me was his call to the
audience giving hope and inspiring ideas in the world ahead. I love when a presenter makes
me ask myself a question that question usually determines how much research and what I
hope to retain from the message of the presenter. An effective presentation gives you insight
to the idea and also provides you with information needed make a clear decision on the
value and credibility of the information given. Last Wednesday I saw a business presentation
on crypto currency. The speaker presented everything in a clear understandable voice while
still making the information on screen easy to see. Its obvious that the speaker was very
knowledgeable on the subject but his dull tone made him sound bored which made it easy to
get distracted and lose interest. crypto currency is a topic that a lot of younger people are
trying to get into so when the speaker did a fantastic job of using his failures where he lost
money i was inspired to try again. crypto currency is the new wave of things and it
interesting to me because you can make a lot of money over time. some people even get
lucky and become millionaires just by investing into crypto currency. I've even seen on the
news that some places will let you buy things with your crypto currency , some people even
said it will be the new currency in the future. some ways the presenter can connect with the
audience during a presentation is by asking them questions to check their understandings,
and joking with them to keep the mood light. I chose to watch "The greatest TED Talk ever
sold" by an independent film producer Morgan Spurlock. If you don't know who Morgan
Spurlock is, he was the main caricature in the documentary "Super Size Me" where he ate
only McDonalds for 30 days.Spurlock started his presentation building credibility by going
over his past documentary's and describing some of the health and physical risks that he
encountered along the way. Spurlock was upbeat, funny, but also direct with his message.
He carefully planed out his presentation and built his message using the building block
message. He would start with a small fact and then build what he wanted to convey off of
that fact.
Spurlock effectively showed his failures in the process showing the audience that he could
overcome an objective. Overall the presentation was a success, Spurlock used comedy to
connect to his audience as well as real life fears. The structure of his presentation was what
kept my attention and how he showed his audience that he was a person just like the rest of
us, and did not use his fame to advance in his accomplishments. The most effective
presentations usually take the form of a conversation with the audience. Even if the audience
is not actively participating in a vocal manner, as they listen to the speaker, they find
themselves commenting and answering mentally. When the speaker develops this “give and
take” with the audience and establishes an effective rapport, the audience is attentive and
ready to absorb the information given in a critical manner which increases the likelihood of
retention. The importance of having the audience feel like an active participant cannot be
overstated. I actually watch business presentations every month at my job. Every month they
host a business presentation presenting the new loan rates, flyers, and etc. for the month. It
definitely is more effective because it keeps us up to date and help us inform members when
calling in about loans. It helps the company gain more members and keeps us informed on
what the board discuss. Ways that a presenter can connect with the audience during a
presentation by sharing personal experiences and also engaging the audience. I believe that
doing a quick Q & A keeps the audience engaged but I believe you shouldn't spend more
than 1-2 minutes answering each question and make sure you focus specifically on what the
question is. I also believe a business presentation shouldn't have too many words on a slide
because you don't want it to look cluttered and you don't want to distract the message of the
slide. Maintaining the audience attention is very important when presenting. I can say my
job does a great job at business presentations. One Tuesday of every month the bank I work
for has a business presentation/meeting. Today was actually our day for this monthly
presentation. During the presentation, our senior vise president of the bank walks us through
the changes that are coming, what we need to work on as a company, and the things we have
accomplished for the previous month. I think our senior vise president does an amazing job
at staying on topic, keeping eye contact, and getting his point across overall. I believe these
business presentations are very effective for the growth of our bank and company. I have
noticed that our senior vise president likes to include other bank officers that are not
prepared for the spotlight. When this happens, most officers either act like they have nothing
to contribute to the meeting and other officers like to crack jokes in the middle of the
meeting. I don't think the jokes affect the meetings in a negative way. I actually think they
give the meetings some light-heartedness or humor which can bring more people to pay
attention. I believe by adding more Q & A sessions with the employees instead of just
banking officers they could achieve more employee interest in the business presentations. I
actually just had to watch a business presentation with work yesterday, while watching it I
noticed a few things. One of the things I noticed was while our manager was making a
speech about an upcoming change within our company she was very fidgety, she fumbled
her words a lot and repeated the information a lot. I found myself getting lost and not really
receiving the message. I had to go back and review the recording and slides to obtain
information needed to do my job. She was very compassionate in her words however I feel
if she would have outlined a bit better and made the information more to the point then
making it an ongoing presentation the viewers would have stayed more in tuned. After the
third time of hearing the same thing my mind went into a complete different direction. With
that being said she did do well on putting the slides together and having them designed to
grab the attention of the audience, the intro was warm and welcoming she gave appreciation
for the job we are doing and the direction the company is going. From my perspective, these
are some of the common problems I see
Error #1: The presenter does not do a good job presenting the information. Perhaps they did
not rehearse? But when the presenter fumbles his or her part, it distracts from the content of
the presentation, no matter how good the slides are.
Error #2: The presenter did not review the presentation slides to ensure the audience would
be able to see all the words and figures on the charts. For example, some of them might be
so small that the audience literally cannot read them.When these types of errors occur, it is
almost impossible for the presenter to get his or her main points across to the audience.
