Presenting brings with it all manner of pressure… Heart palpitations and sweaty palms are commonplace in meeting rooms and conference halls the world over, as presenters wrestle with the fear of stumbling over their words or completely losing the plot as they deliver their slides.
A statistic often dragged out and dusted down at this point is; that more people are terrified at the thought of standing up and presenting to an audience than they are of dying. This is typically followed up with the quip, “So they would rather it be their funeral than give the eulogy at someone elses”.
Funny…but the impact this fear can have on a presentation is deadly serious.
We have recently used our Presentation Optimisation methodology to develop a deck for a lovely customer who is presenting today at Buckingham Palace …to HRH Prince Andrew. Gulp! Now that is a high pressure pitch!
Both our Presentation Designer, Nicola, who worked on the deck and Consultant, Paul, who developed the messaging and drew up the initial storyboard are happy to boast that they have created slides for royalty. But, more importantly, we can take great pride in equipping our customer with a presentation that the presenter has complete confidence in. Once the confidence kicks in, the pressure ebbs away… our job is done.
So best of luck to our lovely customer and we eagerly await an update on how it all went. Perhaps we could get our Customer Champions to survey the Palace to get their view on it? Maybe not…
So, if you need some help dealing with those presentation nerves, start with the basics and get your content and story straight and build from there.
The EU has had a tough time of it over the last few years. Economies wobbling, internal squabbles among member states and the perennial debate over how bendy a banana should be (no, really – see here).
No fun for anyone…
However 2013 looks like all of this cross continent tension could be a thing of the past. The reason? EyefulPresentations.EU has landed.
You see, we have a sneaking suspicion that much of the recent turmoil is down to poor communication and a dearth of engaging visuals. Granted, this might be over simplifying the internal workings of one of the World’s most complex and powerful economic entities…but we feel it’s worth a punt.
Either way, we believe the launch of our new EU website is good news for all European businesses. With us supporting your business through our Presentation Optimisation methodology, you can at least tick of “clearly communicate with prospects and customers” off your to-do list.*
It’s been a while since I personally blogged (the high quality of the blogs for the last 9 months or so is testament to this!) but, having just returned from another fulfilling trip to Russia, I’m inspired to do so…
I was privileged to be asked over by our Eyeful Russia team to speak at a large seminar in Kaliningrad where the entire 4 hours were dedicated to presentations and the changes that are afoot in terms of technology, approach and technique.
This immediately struck a chord with me.
The Russian business community has grasped the importance of getting presentations right. They understand the issues thrown up day after day in the West as a result of The Presentation Paradox and Death by PowerPoint…and don’t want to fall into the same trap.
There were a series of media interviews afterwards and a common question from all was “how can we ensure Russia catches up with the West in terms of presentations?“. The simple answer is that they need not worry.
Whilst Russian presenters are focussing their energies on building compelling and engaging stories to support their message, the vast majority of their Western counterparts are wrestling with which whacky animation to build into their next huge PowerPoint deck.
Possibly the most inspiring fact I learned was that Russians do not yet have a phrase that conveys “Death by PowerPoint”. Long may this be the case.
Without wanting to sound too dramatic, the presentation revolution has started…and that’s great news for audiences across Russia.
Continuing our short sojourn through the ubiquitous nature of B2B video, we look at the ease of creating content.
The growth of video on the internet is a direct result of advances in mobile technology; almost anyone can film, upload and view videos with little technical expertise.
And there’s the rub – the use of video as a business tool requires a little more understanding and finesse.
Simply stated, video can be more engaging and compelling than other media – it is an easy way to present information with no reading required!
The benefits are numerous. Video combines pictures, sound, text and movement to create an impact far greater than each of these individual elements alone, and far more than a web page of text could ever provide. People tend to watch more than they read or listen.
Studies show that most people are visual learners, while other adult learning studies show that we remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, and a huge 50% of what we hear AND see.
With results like these, video can make a typical website up to 300% more effective for audience retention.
Great news so far…but here’s the bad news. It’s not easy.
Spend 5 minutes on YouTube and you’ll find all manner of ropey business videos. They lack content, visual style and any sense of engagement with their audience. Each viewing erodes your brand, reputation and opportunity to engage.
Think before you upload.
And don’t think for one moment it’s just about budget. Take the following high budget example:
Clever effects? Yep.
Nicely shot? Yep.
A positive message regarding the product? Um, nope.
Just as with your trusty presentation, Message –> Content –> Design (and not the other way around…no matter how excited the producer of your video gets!).
There has been so much going on in the tech world of late that we’ve decided to dedicate a couple of weeks of blogging to two of the biggest influences in our industry. This week we will be focussing on the iPad including a recent interview with Andy Zimmerman of SlideShark and our thoughts on the iPad mini.
Next week we’ll be shifting the focus to Microsoft and looking at what they’ve been up to recently.
Our peripatetic MD Simon Morton caught up with Andy Zimmerman from BrainShark at the Presentation Summit in Arizona recently. In the first part of this interview Andy tells us all about SlideShark and reveals his thoughts on the newly launched Eyeful / SlideShark partnership.
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Part two will be available on Wednesday 31st October.
Part three will be available on Friday 2nd November.
We’ve had the pleasure and privilege of working with the K+N team for many many years.*
As one of the World’s largest logistics companies, they have an insatiable appetite for new presentations as they pitch for new business, report on existing projects and position themselves as experts in a wide array of specialist markets. Add to this the fact that they are a great bunch to work with and you could say this is a marriage made in heaven…
But we’re bound to say that…so we thought we’d let K+N do the talking and tell us what it’s REALLY like working with Eyeful on their important presentations:
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* Eyeful fact fans might be interested to know that K+N were the very first customer to go through the Presentation Optimisation process way back in 2004 when it was little more than a good idea bouncing around MD Simon Morton’s head.
Customer Satisfaction means everything to us here at Eyeful. Heck, we even have a specialist ‘Customer Champion’ team whose job is simply to make sure that we’re doing our very best for every one of our customers.
Some of our customers are so thrilled with their presentations that they’re willing to share their experience with the world. Our friend David from Westend Travel is one of those customers – simply press play to hear what he and his team thinks of Eyeful Presentations.
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Many of us (myself included) are guilty of using ten words when one will do. Whilst this undoubtedly showcases our mastery of English vocabulary (and our familiarity with Roget’s finest work), there is a point where it becomes hard to see the wood for the trees.
At Eyeful we work with our customers to produce presentation slides that are crisp and to the point. Our presenter training encourages people to apply the same rules to their delivery.
Why is this so important?
Because choosing your words carefully can make the important difference between audience engagement and audience bemusement.
Over and above the petty language niggles that we all have (I personally believe that using the phrase ‘very/quite/totally unique’ should qualify you for a cruel and unusual punishment), we all need to remember that the point of talking is to be understood.
Words are very clever things they can amuse, misdirect, bamboozle and, if you’re really lucky, inform! If you don’t believe me, just check out the clip below.
We’re very excited to be strengthening our consultancy team once again as Stephen Newman joins the Eyeful family. Stephen is a specialist in sales performance with a real passion for message development. Sharing Eyeful’s love of customer service and constant frustration with the Presentation Paradox, Stephen already feels like a confirmed Eyefulite.
Stephen has, in his own words, a ‘lifetime of sales experience’ and cites his speciality as ‘sales performance enhancement’.
In answer to ‘Why Eyeful?’ Stephen says that he was initially drawn to our integrity and attention to detail before being fully suckered by the family atmosphere. With this in mind he is already making his mark on the internal email banter front, proving that he’s also in possession of an Eyeful sense of humour!
As a Miller Heiman accredited consultant Stephen also boasts an impressive pedigree – we’re truly thrilled that he has chosen to join us.
Whilst on one of his regular cyber trawls our MD Simon Morton has decided to pitch in to the Office for iPad debate. We’ve been keeping a keen eye on this for a while now as the story continues to unfold (or not) like a 1950’s espionage paperback. In fact, since Simons post the plot has thickened further still.
Whatever your view on the claims, counterclaims, rumour and denials the more cynical amongst us may be starting to whiff the very merest hint of an astonishing ‘treat ‘em mean and keep ‘em keen’ maketing ploy…..
The article that prompted Simon to contribute can be found through this link but in many ways his response speaks for itself.
As a company of presentation geeks, we’re watching this one with interest…here’s why:
When Apple released the iPad, there was a huge amount of hype and anticipation around how this new technology would revolutionise the way business people would present information to each other. In many people’s minds, gone were the days of Death by PowerPoint as we used this fancy new technology that would allow people to interact with the presentation in a non-linear fashion.
Then Apple released the Keynote app…
Nothing short of awful.
Yes, it was cheap but the lack of functionality coupled with dire integration with the most basic of PowerPoint files (which, despite protestations from the Apple crowd, remains the presentation weapon of choice for the vast majority of the corporate world) meant that the expensive toy with so much potential was left wanting.
Simple elements such as “custom shows” were not supported – the net result was many business people were simply moving Death by PowerPoint to a new, less flexible platform.
The failings of the Keynote on the app resulted in the release of a gazillion “PowerPoint readers” for the iPad. The vast majority of which are awful (trust us – we’ve tried them all…).
At this point, Microsoft have a choice:
1. They can snigger behind their hands and laugh at how their users are trying to escape them but keep getting foiled because Apple hasn’t created an app with the functionality they deserve to make the most out of the technology everyone has rushed out like lemmings to buy.
2. As Kit explains beautifully, they can wake up and see an opportunity to steal some of the thunder from their competitor by creating a series of apps that REALLY work for the business community. Who would own the customer’s heart & head then..? The hardware manufacturer or the app developer? My money’s on the latter.
Let’s hope they go for option 2 – we could then finally see the revolution in business presenting that has long been needed.
