Smartphones in the Audience?

Have you ever been giving a talk and watched – insulted, helpless, and wondering what to do – as the smartphones start popping out in the audience? Pretty discouraging, isn’t it? Or is it? How can anyone be paying attention while they’re clicking away on their phone? Or can they?

The old school of thought was anything that wasn’t pen to paper on a lined pad with focused eye contact was a distracted audience. However, padfolios are giving way to smartphones and tablets; it’s inevitable, so embrace it. Worst case scenario, the smartphones are coming out because the audience member is checking messages, that’s the worst case. But what if they’re taking notes? Or tweeting the point you just made? It’s really no different from the pad and pen days. Maybe they were taking notes on the pad, or maybe they were drafting a memo they forgot to write the day before. You don’t know what people are doing with their smartphones and tablets, but you really never knew what they were doing with their pads and pens either.

Bottom line is don’t be insulted, don’t feel helpless and, most of all, don’t admonish your audience! Instead, use it to your advantage. The whole reason you are giving a talk is to propagate your ideas, right? So hash-tag it. Give them permission to take it beyond the boardroom or conference room; make them work for you. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. All of them allow you to spread your ideas. So embrace the devices that help do that. And welcome to the 21^st Century.

More on TMI

It seems I’m always railing against information and pushing instead for messages. It’s not that I don’t like information, or that I don’t appreciate its usefulness, it’s just that some people use too much of it. And too often they do that at the expense of their messages, which are the key points that provide the packaging for information.

Presentations that contain data dumps, brain dumps, or simply TMI are tedious, hard to follow, and certainly not memorable. But more important, consider this … information is so widely and quickly available these days that perhaps more focus should be placed on the message anyway. Creating context is more urgent. Conveying value is more urgent. Building connections and relationships are more urgent. Information alone is not urgent. It’s a commodity.

Information plays an important role in a presentation, but it’s a supporting role. If time runs out, your messages – or key points – have the starring role and can save the show!

Lessons from Carlos Danger

At a recent press conference, Anthony Weiner lost all control of reporters and resorted to begging them to listen to him. His 800-pound gorilla was off its leash and it started smashing everything in sight. Anthony just stood there helpless, losing complete control.

Running for mayor of New York, there is no doubt that Weiner has important issues he would like to talk about. Reform that would benefit the middle class, budgets, and maybe even new subway schedules, all were ignored. All because of a gorilla that has twice been national headlines and the butt of late night TV jokes.

Sure he had held a press conference to deal directly with the gorilla already, but like anyone who has poured cream into coffee, you can’t just separate things that easily once they’ve been mixed.

The press wanted to get comments on the more recent exploits of Carlos Danger, Weiner wanted to talk about the issues of his campaign. He was getting more and more agitated with every question, the press loved it. The more the press poked at the 800-pound gorilla, the crazier the whole scene became.

All Weiner had to do was acknowledge the gorilla, be willing to deal with it right up front, so he could then, and only then, redirect the reporters to what he wanted to talk about. Instead, Weiner tried to ignore the 800-pound gorilla, the reporters could see only the 800-pound gorilla, and, in the mess and frustration of all that, the 800-pound gorilla took center stage once again. Not exactly Anthony’s desired result.

If you have a distraction – a well-known issue, an obvious troubling situation, a persistent question – deal with it. First. Upfront. Right off the bat. If you don’t, the gorilla will get loose and destroy everything.

Every Second Counts

NPR recently did a study of how quickly people lose interest in a video if it takes more than a few seconds to load. “What we found was that people were pretty patient for up to two seconds,” said Ramesh Sitaraman, science professor at the University of Massachusetts.

The research showed that viewers begin to abandon video if it does not start up within two seconds. And, as if that weren’t bad enough, each additional second of delay resulted in a 5.8 percent increase in the abandonment rate. In other words, by 10 seconds, half of the viewers had already bolted.

So, what’s our takeaway from this? You’re not the latest season of “Arrested Development” or the music video someone needs to see from their favorite band. You have about two seconds to convince your audience that the content is going to be there.

Tell them right up front what’s coming and why they should pay attention. Let them know it’s going to be worth sitting tight for 15 minutes. Be incredibly clear and deliberate in your opening, and you will have your audience with you the whole time.          

The Black Screen

Ugh … PowerPoint. It isn’t my favorite presentation tool. Apart from the usual complaints about PowerPoint, it’s the use of technology that, for me, can bring with it too many risks. There is one thing that makes it better for me, though – a black screen.

We’ve all waited while a speaker or presenter boots up their PowerPoint right in front of us, right? And we stare at their desktop while we wait. Sometimes it’s a picture of family, or a car, or a random field in Iowa. Desktops can be a window into the soul. Or sometimes they’re just a window into the speaker’s dirty laundry … yuck.

My antidote? I color in an all-black slide and make it Slide #1 for my presentations. That way the projector can be on, the PowerPoint ready to go, but it looks like I haven’t plugged in or booted up yet. I was recently told this is a “brilliant idea” … by the very same woman who “did me a favor” and deleted my black slide.

The backstory is that I recently presented to a group in San Francisco and had sent them my slides ahead of time. However, when I arrived in the room, my logo slide – Slide #2 – was up, and Slide #1 was nowhere to be found. I was calm, but I worried about my slide deck because I knew it wasn’t what I sent over (the logo as an opening slide makes it look like it’s all about me – cardinal sin! – and I would never open that way). Long story short, the woman responsible for the event had assumed the black slide was some sort of mistake and she deleted it for me! We had a good laugh after I explained the method behind my madness …

Bottom line:  You have less than 10 seconds to grab an audience’s attention when you get up to speak or present. Yes, audiences decide in less than 10 seconds if you’re worth listening to, or if you’re going to be just the usual. Don’t squander those precious seconds by fiddling with technology!

Short, Sweet, Simple

Did you know that the Toyota car company was founded by a man with the last name of Toyoda? Why the change? Simplicity. They changed the name because it took fewer brush strokes to render the version that translates to the T.

People like simple things. Colloquialisms not jargon. Short is better than long. Business does better when supply lines are short and simple. Speeches do better when they are easy to understand and to the point.

That’s it, short and to the point.

Today’s Teacher: Comics

You're thinking, "How could comics teach me anything about making a presentation?"

Well, what are comics? I know, there’s a bit of a stigma attached. Kids’ stuff. Or socially awkward guys crowded into small, obscure shops in desolate strip malls. But there actually is a lot in those thin tomes. Comics are stories. They are images with limited text. And, almost magically, they are exactly what their audience wants.

Stories. People read comics because they tell a story that readers can relate to, laugh at, or just ponder. You can do the same thing by using a story; a short, simple, and to-the-point story speaks volumes. Think about how your story fits in with the bigger point or goal of your talk. Hmmm, sort of how one volume of a comic fits in the scheme of the series.

Images. A picture is worth a thousand words. Comics are full of pictures. The author can say less when you can see more. You can reinforce your message by showing them a picture; hand something out, draw on a white board ... PowerPoint if you're desperate.

Audience. This is the most important one. Some people like Spider-Man and his average Joe roots. Some prefer Batman for fighting on behalf of what he is not: average. There are as many reasons to read comics as there are volumes. But every one of those reasons is ultimately because they relate to their specific audience. Knowing your audience will help you tell the right story.

So maybe it is time to think about comics. How does your story drive the message? How do your visuals make your story come alive? And most importantly, who is your audience and what grabs them?