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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Denis Francois Gravel

Denis 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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