I was tortured today.
I sat through an entire presentation that was so boring, I wasn’t sure if I could make it through the whole thing without getting up and walking out. I sat through it – like a prisoner doing time, mentally marking off the minutes until I would be set free.
I teach Visual Communications. I am used to stopping students when I see that they are making a blunder. I can halt a painful process and show them the forces involved in what they are doing and bring their attention to the process. I can take an otherwise diasterous moment and flip it around into a learning situation. Here, in this presentation, given to a group of professionals, by a professional, I was trapped.
You will find in my resources page a new link. It is to the website and blog, presentation zen. In this blog, author Garr Reynolds discusses the forces that go into creating effective presentations. I felt it was important to tell you (dear reader) – just in case you need to hear it from me and not your audience slipping out the back of the room. You know who you are.