| How to make a conference presentation work for you |
| |
|
| | ... continued from page
11
Step three: This
says, “But it doesn’t
have to be like this”.
Get your audience to
work their imaginations.
Ask, “Suppose this or
that was to happen, what
difference would it
make?” If you can get
some audience
interaction going, that
is all to the good, but
only do so if you are
very sure of the answers
you will get. This is
where your early
research comes in handy.
If you have tried the
question on your guinea
pigs, you can propose
different outcomes with
confidence, and it will
be in the words of your
target audience, as
opposed to your own.
There are two
elements in step three;
you need to describe not
only the benefit or
payoff from the change,
but also the changed
circumstances that will
give rise to it. Very
often, people will not
accept the benefit as
being real until they
have played in their
mind’s eye the scene in
which it will occur.
Step four: You
reinforce the idea that
given the possibility of
a positive outcome, it
is really worth
exploring a solution
that might lead to it.
“What”, you ask, “would
such a solution look
like?” This is where you
enumerate the features
that an effective
solution would need. In
other words you are | |
|
| | building up a
specification that any
credible solution would
have to match.
Step five: At
this point, you might be
tempted to pull your
solution out of the
proverbial hat and
present it with a ‘Ta
Da!’ Don’t. This is your
opportunity to present
your painstaking search
for a solution (even if
the reality was that it
all came to you in a
flash while you were
taking a bath). If it
did seem to be the
result of effortless
inspiration, on no
account say so. Nobody
likes a smartass. Once
James Dyson tells you
that he painstakingly
made 5,000 cardboard
prototypes of his
bag-less vacuum cleaner
in his shed before he
could launch the
product, it is much
harder to resent the
standard of living to
which one assumes he has
become accustomed.
You want the people
who will supply your
route to market to
realise that if they try
to go it alone, by the
time they have
successfully reinvented
your wheel you will have
found another partner
and have gained a head
start on them.
Step six: You
show how your solution
matched the criteria you
have just set out. It
really helps if you can
quote an evaluation from
an authority that will
carry weight with your
target audience. What | |
|
| | you say here will depend
on whether you are
launching a proven
prototype solution, or
looking for partners to
help you set up trials
and future reference
sites.
Step seven – is
your call to action.
What do you want your
target audience to do?
Step seven may be
nothing stronger than
saying you are currently
talking to people who
have expressed an
interest, but this is at
an early stage and you
are still open to
preliminary discussions.
But give them permission
to approach you. Make it
clear that you are
interested. If you
really want to be
devious (and successful)
arrange for a friend in
the audience to go up
and exchange business
cards with you in as
public a way as
possible.
My final suggestion
is that you write the
first draft of your
presentation backwards,
starting with step
seven. This will help
you identify the members
of the audience you want
to target for your
research, and what you
are looking for when you
meet them.
Once you have got an
angle that will command
attention, go back and
rewrite your next draft
in sequence from steps
one to seven. Good luck!
| |
| |
| |
|
Previous Page 
