Week 6 - Round 2 Presentations

As has already been said we were again treated to four fantastic presentations. Things that stood out for me were:

CMS and Google Analytics

- the CMS presenter was assisted by a colleague who answered the text questions. We haven't seen this support role in action before and the value of the role was really clear. All the text questions were answered quickly leaving the presenter to concentrate on the presentation. It was very effective and for anyone considering client presentations it's likely to produce a smooth and professional session.

- if the CMS and Google Analytics had been delivered in a training room I would have been the participant who grabbed the presenter during the break to pick their brains and find out more. In this case we were constrained by time as we had four presentations to complete within an hour and half, so I guess people were aware of this and asked fewer questions. Maybe in this context the virtual conference room is a place to give people a taste of something to see if there is interest, and then if there is, either a face to face meeting or a series of online sessions could be arranged.


Vibrant Hair Colour

- this presenter was a natural. She looked as if she was one of those TV presenters who sits very comfortably on the lounge and speaks without rehearsing! The headset she wore sits around the back of the head (rather than the Biggles look - on the top of he head with the massive earphones which I have!) and I think this really adds to the look of the presenter - the headset is barely visible so you can more easily forget the technology and focus on what is being said. The other comment I would make about the visual impression is that there was no clutter behind the presenter which again keeps your focus on the subject.

WebEX

- this was a presentation with a twist - a presentation about one conferencing software package from within another conferencing software package! This was a also a confident presentation which focussed on why some business' might choose WebEx over other software It wasn't a sales pitch but it was an example of how you could present a product in this manner. The strategies used were: to point out the benefits of the product; and to draw comparisons with other high-end and expensive technical solutions. It worked very well, in fact so well, that an additional session has been planned within WebEx.


So these are my observations. What I don't know is how much time and effort went into preparing for these presentations, how that compares to preparing for a face to face meeting, or how presenters feel about the feedback they receive in the room - is it sufficient? Do they know that they have been understood? This will be our Google Groups discussion topic for the week.