Episode 319: Nerd Presenter Errors In Japan

I am sitting there with a crowd of people attending a presentation on blockchain technology. Some are very technical people active in the crypto currency area, some run their own tech businesses. Our presenter has amazing experience in this area, having worked for some very big names in the industry. He also has his own company to promote as well as himself as a leader in this field. He has some recommendations for us based on where he sees the industry moving over the next couple of years.

The coverage of his subject was logical and easy to follow. It was clear he really knew what he was talking about. The slides by the way, overall, were excellent. Very professionally done by a designer and they reinforced the credibility of his company. Very clear, for the most part, with not too much information on each slide and plenty of white space. Some fonts were a bit smallish and if you were seated at a distance, probably rather impenetrable. Apart from that quibble though, they were well done.

I was astounded though, by the way he presented his material. I calculated that during the entire presentation, including both the Q&A as well as the main body of the talk, he had eye contact with his audience for about 1% of the time. Where was he looking? He interspersed his eye contact between looking at the floor and behind him at the monitor he was using to show the slides. In fact, it was almost like some extremely primitive tribe living in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea, encountering a high spec, large form TV monitor, showing amazing scenes for the first time. They would be amazed by what they were seeing and their eyes would be glued to the screen. This describes our modern, urban, high tech presenter to a tee. He seemed hypnotised by the screen and just kept looking at it the whole time.

Mercifully, he wasn’t reading the content to us, line by line, like some other dim presenters I have had the misfortune to encounter. He was transfixed though on the screen and just totally ignored his audience. Occasionally he would break free from the siren call of the monitor and amble around the front of the room, wandering to and fro, staring down at the carpet tiles.

He did have good energy, was obviously expert in this area and had some passion for his subject. Unfortunately, he preferred to speak in a monotone, where every single word gets the exact some strength treatment and there was no vocal variety. I liked his gestures, although they tended to be held a bit low. It would have been better to get his hands up higher around shoulder height, so they would be more visible.

He didn’t seem to be lacking in confidence. I spoke with him briefly before we started when I exchanged business cards. He didn’t come across as some nerdy, painfully shy techie, who wants to avoid contact with human kind as much as possible. What was going on here?

I put this dismal display down to a lack of knowledge. He knows a lot about the tech but knows close to zero about how to explain it to an audience. He didn’t seem to understand that in order to convince an audience of your point of view, you need to engage them. Like a lot of technical people, he must have believed that by just putting the data and information up on the screen, the goodness and sanctity of the content would carry the day. He must have imagined that his personal part in the process was not relevant. Even during the Q&A, he completely ignored the source of the questions – the rows of people seated in front of him. He just continued to stare at the screen. By the way, the words up on the screen at that point were “Thank You”, so not a lot to look at.

The basic rule of presenting is to use all the tools at your disposal. Eye contact with your audience is so powerful as a persuader. We wrap that up with our vocal variety, pauses, gestures and body language.

Hold the gaze of one individual in your audience for six seconds. Longer than that it becomes too intrusive. Speak to one person, on a point while holding their gaze, then switch your gaze to another person. Don’t do it in any predictable order, because people will anticipate what you are doing and switch off , because they know their turn is not coming yet.

Rather divide the room up into six sections. Front to the left, middle and right and the same for the rear half of the room. Then at random move your gaze around picking up people, making eye contact with them and converting them to your point of view on the subject.

Our presenter missed a big opportunity to persuade his audience to use his firm. He failed to sway us with his point of view, because he under powered the persuasion bit. The quality of your content may be the best on the planet, but that does not remove your role in explaining it. Back up what you are saying with knowledge of presenting as well and unlike our speaker, become the total package.