Presentation

The presentation loaded alot of stress on me surprisingly. I have had experience giving presentations, talks, teaching, hosting before an audience before, but every single time I still get the jitters. Often I spent most of the time before any presentation calming myself down. I was talking to myself:”Calm down Kenneth, you have done before. So slow your words, mind the pronunication and take care to not blank out.” Honestly my greatest fear is to blank out before a crowd. Thankfully I passed the presentation with my mind still working through out.

Looking back, rehearsing with the team really gave me confidence to speak. I have to admit that presenting without any notes is difficult. I have tried it a dozen time, and I realised the common denominator for the confidence is knowing your stuff. Knowing what you are going to say and practising does wonders to calming the nerve. This was no exception. The time spent rehearsing with Chong Yew and Tammy paid off. I believed that was what made our presentation tick and flow smoothly. It was an added effort to help each other articulate our points and work together as presenters.

We tried our best to present our ideas in as clear a manner as possible. The key phrase was drummed in by Brad: you are the presentation and not the slides. To me, it showed. we kept out points concise and simple enough for the audience to understand. Perhaps the delivery of our individual parts could have transited better. If not overall, I think we did a good job.

However one matter caught my attention and that was the question and answer session. To every question that is posed to the team, there will be different answers formulated by every member. Obviously the answers would be different. The crucial element, that was missing from our team, was showing support to each other’s answers. Correcting or showing nonverbal cues that someone’s answer may be wrong might not be the best moment to showcase on stage.  The team should stick together and support each other no matter the slight disagreement in the answers.

Other than that, I was pleased the presentation carried on without any major hitch. The team did well from my point of view. I didn’t blank out so I guess I did alright as well. Please feel free to share your comments on how the team or I did. Thanks!