Session 3 was held from 1:00pm - 1:45pm.
Four concurrent events were held during Session 3.
1. How to Engage Your Audience with Twitter. Olivia Mitchell (remotely from New Zealand)
2. Creation Myth: Brand Yourself or Your Organization. Terry Gault
Terry Gault outlined six key elements needed in developing a corporate Creation Myth. They are:
1. Memorable characters: Characters need names, because audiences have a hard time rooting for a nameless protagonist.
2. Vulnerability: the protagonist must show a vulnerable side, because it makes your character human, and your audience can relate to that.
3. High stakes: for a story to be truly compelling, stakes have to be very high. For example, if Cirque du Soleil failed in L.A., then what?
4. Details: Providing details that make it easier for your audience to visualize the story is key. In fact, details are far more powerful than adjectives.
5. Be Selective in Details: How do you know what details to put in and what details to leave out? The answer: If the details don’t enhance the scene or contribute to the myth, they should be left out.
6. Dialogue: In describing a scene, give the characters first-person dialogue. Instead of saying, he was panicking, demonstrate it with visual details. His hand shook as he held the phone. Sweat poured down his face.
http://www.kevinfergusonconsulting.com/speechwritingblog/the-creation-myth-%E2%80%93-brand-your-organization/
3. Social Games and the Alexander Technique. Olya
4. Sliduments: Slides, Documents or Both? Don Campbell
In this session we talked about how many presentations get "overloaded" by trying to be both a presentation and a document containing all of the details. We discussed the tradeoffs of presentations that are designed to be a tool for a presenter to make her point vs ones who are made to stand on their own.
- Presentations are all about intent, which should inform the delivery solution (big problem -- delivering presentation for the wrong purpose)
- importance of audience analysis at outset of creation/planning
- importance of establishing audience's trust that you will provide the info they need
- Danger of reliance on Powerpoint or other template structures / confines
- discussion within the group on idea of best practice re: notes, with many believing that if MUST deliver notes, should distribute as a separate document to attendees at conclusion / after [however, some felt could tackle this differently, such as by including an Executive Summary upfront within the presentation to provide audience comfort it's addressed.]
- tip: use of black (blank) screen as a simple technique to draw the audience's focus to the speaker (also helpful if there is audience chatter)
- tip: DotSub ( http://dotsub.com/ ) translates any video into any language via subtitles, leveraging a community of volunteers
- tip: need a hook to REIGNITE audience interest every 10 minutes or so
- helpful resources:
Also, Heyward mentioned that it's okay to be bolder / more expressive or animated than in your normal dealings. During a past training program, they emphasized going beyond your normal comfort zone and that it really is an extreme to cross into the "Bozo zone." Move around, project your voice!
