Language : English Archives - Denis Francois Gravel | PRESENTability https://presentability.com/category/language-english/ Continuously enhance individual & organization presentation ability. Wed, 02 Apr 2025 20:49:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Repeat questions before answering them. Especially if the room is big. https://presentability.com/repeat-questions-before-answering-them/ Fri, 01 Jun 2018 01:33:17 +0000 https://presentability.com/?p=5914 Denis Francois GravelDenis François Gravel aide les organisations à performer en contexte de présentation pour que leurs prestations donnent les résultats souhaités. Il les accompagne dans l’acquisition de meilleures pratiques et dans le développement des habiletés de leur équipe. Il est le fondateur de PRÉSENTabilité, le cofondateur de TEDxQuébec et a été l’hôte de PechaKucha Québec. (2) […]

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Repeat questions before answering them. Especially if the room is big.

Repeating the question allows all participants to hear the question (especially if you are using a microphone). Remember that the participant who asked the question was projecting his voice towards you. So, it is likely that some participants did not hear the question. It will be difficult for them to understand what your answer relates to.

Repeat or rather rephrase the question in your words. This allows you to check your understanding and it allows the person who asked you the question to check whether you have understood correctly.

Repeating the question gives you a few seconds to think and prepare your answer.

Convinced? Will you repeat the questions in your next presentations?

Good presentation

Credit: Oberazzi (Flickr Member)

 

 

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]]> Avoid text-heavy slides https://presentability.com/avoid-text-heavy-slides/ Mon, 09 Apr 2018 01:57:17 +0000 https://presentability.com/?p=5895 Avoid text-heavy slides. Simplify, simplify and simplify. Too much text forces the audience to invest a good share of their cognitive capacity to read, decipher, interpret, and understand your slides. As a result, he pays less attention to what you say. A good visual support your words rather than competing for the audience’s attention. Avoid […]

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Avoid text-heavy slides. Simplify, simplify and simplify.

Too much text forces the audience to invest a good share of their cognitive capacity to read, decipher, interpret, and understand your slides. As a result, he pays less attention to what you say.

A good visual support your words rather than competing for the audience’s attention. Avoid text-heavy slides.

Good presentation

P.S.: Thanks to Michele Thibeau whose illustration inspired me for today’s trick and who kindly accepted that I use it for my visual.

 

 

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]]> Surprise your audience as Toronto surprised me https://presentability.com/surprise-your-audience-as-toronto-surprised-me/ Wed, 28 Feb 2018 21:10:39 +0000 https://presentability.com/?p=5881 A visit to Toronto is the source of today’s presentation tip. A city? Who inspires a presentation tip? It sounds strange. But that’s exactly what happened. Here’s how. I went to Toronto last November to do a training course at Laurentian Bank. Since the training is in the afternoon, I plan a two-way trip in […]

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A visit to Toronto is the source of today’s presentation tip. A city? Who inspires a presentation tip? It sounds strange. But that’s exactly what happened. Here’s how.

I went to Toronto last November to do a training course at Laurentian Bank. Since the training is in the afternoon, I plan a two-way trip in the same day.

My flight lands at Billy Bishop Airport. This airport is unique in that it is located on an island in Lake Ontario about 150 metres from downtown Toronto.

I set foot on the ground around 8:30. Since my training is at 1:00 p.m., that the Laurentian Bank building is barely 3 km away and the sun is beautiful, I decide to walk. I like to walk.

I’ve been to Toronto before. But, always via the other airport which is located outside the city. I think I know the city. But this first landing at Billy Bishop will change my vision.

Coming out of the tunnel under the lake that connects the airport and the city, I turn right to follow the waterfront and possibly find a coffee shop. Working in a coffee shop in a city I visit is a pleasure that I enjoy.

As I walk, I admire the landscape that offers itself to me. And that’s when I had the revelation.

When we think of Toronto, we think of skyscrapers, a dense downtown and, above all, the CN tower and the Rogers Center. As a matter of fact, this is the vision I used to announce my first conference in Toronto a few years ago.

Photo du paysage urbain de Toronto

But on this autumn morning, Toronto turned out to be a bucolic place that I had never imagined. Toronto is bordered by Lake Ontario. And the view of the lake is magnificent, aquatic, maritime. It has nothing to do with the urban landscape that comes to mind when you think of Toronto. Seduced by this landscape, I took the picture below.

Voilier au port de Toronto - Denis François Gravel

Suddenly I feel like Toronto is a seaside city. I feel like I’m in a port on the Atlantic coast. I know, I know. It’s a lake. It’s not the ocean. But I have that ocean feeling.

In front of me is the maritime landscape and behind me are the skyscrapers. It’s a strange feeling.

This new vision of Toronto makes me curious, opens up my senses and makes me want to be even more attentive to what I see and what I might discover.

For my happiness, right next to the sailboat, there is a café where I sit down to work and think about what I have just felt on the dock. I sip my coffee and admire the view of the sailboat alongside the wharf.

I thought I knew Toronto, and Toronto surprised me. It incited me to come out of my bubble, to open up my senses and to be receptive.

Our challenge as presenters is similar. We must urge people to come out of their bubbles, their heads, their concerns and be receptive to our message.

I knew that the surprise effect is a known and effective tool to achieve this goal and I use it regularly. The purple and orange balloons I use in my presentations and lectures are a good example. But the experience in Toronto reminded me of how powerful it was to provoke receptivity.

And now, sitting in that coffee shop, I’m wondering. How many times have I made presentations in which the audience could easily predict the outcome? How many times have I witnessed dull, predictable, unsurprising presentations in which my thoughts were elsewhere?

Conversely, how many times have I surprised my audience and provoked more intense attention? Whether it is with the use of my famous balloons, inspiring anecdotes or others? Did I take full advantage of the potential of this presentation tip?

The surprise effect had a special place in my toolbox. I believe that it will now have to occupy a prominent place.

What about you? What place does the surprise effect occupy in your presentation toolbox?

I invite you to share this post. Please give attribution and don’t modify.

 

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]]> Presentation links & news of the week (May 23, 2014) https://presentability.com/presentation-link-news-week/ Fri, 23 May 2014 14:58:48 +0000 https://presentability.com/liens-nouvelles-en-presentation-2014-05-23-2/ Links and news about presentation gathered in last week (May 23, 2014) | Denis François Gravel | PRESENTability.com

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Links and news about presentation gathered in last week (May 23, 2014)

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]]> Michael Bay after CES: Revenge of the Fallen https://presentability.com/michael-bay-after-ces-revenge-of-the-fallen/ Sun, 12 Jan 2014 15:39:44 +0000 https://presentability.com/?p=2315 Last week, Michael Bay, walked off stage at CES. What was the REAL cause of his meltdown and how he should bounce back from this.

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What was the REAL cause of Michael Bay meltdown on CES stage and how he should bounce back from this.

Last week, Michael Bay, movie director, walked on stage at CES. He was supposed to talk about the incredible new Samsumg TV. Instead, something went wrong with the prompter. He got lost. Totally lost. And left the stage after a few seconds.

What happened?

Like a plane accident, it’s usually a combination of different errors or bugs that cause this kind of catastrophe. Lack of preparation, wrong teleprompter manipulation, no backup solution, etc.

But the real, real, real reason behind this situation, is a decision made several days before. They decided to use a teleprompter!. Whoever take that decision is the first one that should be blamed.

 

The teleprompter is the problem

A presentation is a conversation between a speaker and a crowd. The use of a teleprompter restrains your communication ability. You are less natural. You’re not totally focus on the topic or the audience. You are concentrating too much on your reading.

Try to read a text to someone and have a discussion with that person at the same time. Very hard.

Also, people need lots and lots of practice before being able to sound natural while reading from a teleprompter. Even then, most of the time, we can feel the difference. Just listen to politicians and news readers.

Whoever believes that by using a teleprompter you make sure the speaker won’t go off track, think twice. The speaker WON’T be on track at all. To be on track, you need to focus on the people and connect with them.

 

How Michael Bay should bounce back

Mr Bay, has you said on a TV interview, you have done hundreds of talks before. Don’t let this one stop you. We all have bad experiences. We have to learn from them.

The lesson here:

no teleprompter.
Know you stuff inside out.
Rehearse a lot.
Be ready for surprises. Murphy’s always around the corner.
The show must go on. You can’t yell « cut! ».
Don’t let those beautiful images of Quebec City distract you again (more detail further in this post)

 

Conclusion

Unless being trained, don’t use a teleprompter. Natural is better. Nobody listens to boring presenters reading stuff.

Falling is human and it’s not a weakness. Raising back is what distinguishes the strong one!

 

On the lite side :

Thanks to Samsung for the beautiful images of my home town Quebec City that were displayed on the TV.

 

Those gorgeous images are from Dominique Boudreault.

 

Seeing those images on the Samsung TV, Quebec City Tourism Office jumped on board and invited Mr. Bay to a free trip in Quebec.

*Personnal message to Mr. Bay. If you accept the Tourism Office offer, I’ll be glad to throw in a couple of hours of coaching for you 🙂

 

Posted by Denis François Gravel

P.-S. I invite you to read Jezra Kaye’s analysis of Michael Bay speech: How to learn from Michael Bay’s Public Speaking Panic Attack

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