Editors Note: Yes, I know that my goal is in great jeopardy….going to need to write almost every day in August to make it.
I love presenting at workshops and conferences. As difficult as it is to write a new presentation, and as nervous as I get prior to the date, once I get going and interacting with the audience, I'm in heaven. It is the type of thrill that I haven't had since I was in the classroom.
Right now I have about 5 active presentations, and I'm working on 2 more. Three others have fallen out of date or have been overexposed. I have PowerPoints or Prezi's for each, and I have outline notes, but I never write out the entire presentation. I don't want to feel like I'm delivering from a piece of paper (I seldom look at my notes), and I want each presentation to change with the place, the time, and the people. I watch the audience carefully so I can know what to emphasize, what to explain, and what jokes are working.
The most gratifying thing is to receive further invitations at the conclusion of a talk. A few weeks ago I gave a talk and I had several inquiries about talks in the coming year. We'll see how many of these materialize (sometimes immediate ardor wears off during the trip home); but I had request that I hadn't heard before. A gentleman from Florida asked if I could present to a workshop in his diocese via Skype.
They say that the first rule of improv is to say, “Yes, and…” so immediately I said, “Sure, I'm sure that we could do something great for that.” However, once I returned to my room, I immediately started to ask, “What have I done?” How am I supposed to create the same experience for them (and for me) sitting at the desk in my office 3000 miles away?
So, I guess that is my question for the day for myself (and for you). How can I maximize the capabilities of Skype to give an audience I will only see in a small screen a worthwhile presentation? Clearly this has to be different from a live workshop, but I don't want it to be a movie of me presenting. I need to build some direct regular integrations with audience members to build a connection that I usually have when I walk down the aisle. The technology challenges are also daunting. For this to be at all effective, there needs to be a screen of me and another of the slides…this is partially their issue, but if it goes wrong it will be me who looks bad.
Finally, and most mercinarily, I don't want this to be a substitute for a live presentation because I want people to keep inviting “analog” me to their conferences. If I share my ideas too broadly (start doing webinars…ugh) I'll get used up too quickly, and this may end as quickly as it began.
As always, I welcome your comments.
Image Credit: 'Lassen Sie mich durch, ich bin Arzt.' http://www.flickr.com/photos/67715696@N00/462040233
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I think that I might pay even less attention to a skyping presenter. There is something special about being physically present with the presenter. I have seen the pope may times on TV and YouTube. But the one time I saw him in the 1980s at the Universal Amphitheatre (and I’m pretty darn sure he never saw me there) was and is my most important memory of the pope. Tele-pope just doesn’t make the same impact…