| 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 
