Communications Pro Blog

Just back from a professional meeting of trainers in the Greater Philadelphia area. The speaker, who was billed as a public speaking expert, failed to deliver on so many fronts. Her topic was Web 2.0. So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when their were two screens set up with projectors aimed at each screen. But what I wasn’t expecting were animations coming at me left and right. My head still hurts.

The lights were fully dimmed at the front of the room, so she was not able to make eye contact with her audience. The lights to the rear of the room were full blast and shining down on the audience, forcing us to strip layer upon layer of clothing off. It was not pretty.

There was no attention getting opening. There was no personal story. There was little to know gesturing or vocal variety. There was no connection with 97 percent of her audience. The 3 percent who tuned into her were geeks who stole her show.

Forty minutes into the presentation I stopped taking notes and shutdown. I wrote a note to a colleague who drove into the city with me that my head hurt and I would meet him in the lobby when he had had enough. He was through too. Just as we made the decision to bolt, the fire alarm went off. Saved by the bell and we were out the door before the announcement came on that it was a false alarm.

Usually I would try to stay through the presentation and give the speaker the benefit of the doubt. However, this was a classic case of knowing when to fold.