With a single speech today, I can reach millions of people. An enormous potential for those who have something to say, who can present authentically and with a certain competence.
Chris Anderson, curator of the TED Talks, names the number of over 1 000 speakers who have already succeeded in doing so by 2016. The 25 most popular TED Talks alone generate a reach of 16 to 56 million clicks each. On YouTube, TED and TEDx Talks now have 30 million subscribers with 4.4 billion clicks.
Do you have the impression that your audience is following your moderation? Can you build tension with short stories and anecdotes so that the group listens to you with enthusiasm? How do you as a presenter manage to provide special added value? And what can you do while moderating workshops or debates, leading a project […]
What do speakers need for a high-class presentation? The “Presentation Rocket Day” is promising some valuable answers – and delivers!
The event is aimed at people who want to present more effectively. In addition to classical rhetorical skills and the confident, convincing stage effect, the aim is to convey information in an interesting way and to make optimum use of media.
Of course, successful presentations offer much more than just the mentioned aspects. Hermann Scherer speaks plainly in the first presentation: Read more
Do you present your project in English for an international audience? Do you adapt your presentations to people with different cultural backgrounds? Are you ready to take the next step delivering even more professional speeches? Here are some highlights on how you will succeed with your presentation.
The German way of thinking is said to be very precise. In short, their highly functional language can be traced back to numerous wars and subsequent reconstruction efforts. UN interpreter and author Susanne Kilian attributes this to Germany’s central geographic location in Europe. In fact, many German presenters introduce technical concepts full of details while also including numerous technical terms.
What do 18 students, three supervisors and two organizers from eleven countries and four continents do when they get to know water use in Iran on site within nine days? The answer is clear: they present their own knowledge to each other and draw on the practical experience of local experts. They discuss scientific facts and their practical implementation with the experts. They exchange open questions on historical and current water management, desertification and energy use in Iran. For the practical demonstration on site, they charter a friendly local bus driver who will reliably steer them 1 200 kilometers through villages and metropolises, the dry steppe and to salt lakes. A challenge that everyone is happy to accept.
A source of good and often inspiring lectures are certainly the TED Talks and their independent TEDx Talks. One of the speeches that has inspired me in recent years is the talk “How great leaders inspire action” by Simon Sinek. Of course, we can discuss whether his performance could be further optimized: There are only a few laughs in the audience, the eye contact between speaker and audience is not optimal and the speaker often takes his glasses (exactly 22 times) – to name just three examples.
Nevertheless, why is his 2009 TEDx talk the third most seen of about 3 000 TED talks worldwide? Why has his presentation, which he held live in front of just 50 listeners, been clicked more than 42 million times on ted.com and a good 15 million times on YouTube to date? So what did Simon Sinek do right?
Just now, while you are performing on stage, the beamer breaks down! How can you save the presentation so that your audience will remember you well? I will get to that in a moment.
Are you familiar with your equipment? Have you considered all eventualities? Are you well prepared and equipped for your performance? Then you can deal more confidently with situations such as a broken beamer, power outage or other unexpected disturbances. You can avoid a large part of these problems through targeted preparation.
You are attending a seminar and are suddenly addressed directly by the speaker: “What is your opinion?” There is no time for long reflection. How do you react now? Do you have a suitable answer ready?
Honestly, this situation rarely occurs in the presentation. In a seminar such a direct question is not common either. More often than not you come into this situation in small talk or in conversation with other colleagues. However, it is common during or after a presentation in which you speak to an audience yourself. If only you could answer spontaneously and quick-witted! What can you do for it?
Poster presentations are an integral part of science conferences since the 1960s (Rowe, 2017). Google spits out millions of tips about how to design posters and in terms of content. But how do you present yourself during the poster session? How do you maximize attention? How do you position yourself as an expert in your field? The online tips are so far – well, very modest. This blog post is meant to change that. Read more
“Sometime they’ll give a presentation and nobody will come.” I experienced that again and again while I was a student and researcher. There are conference sessions in which just three people sit in the audience listening to a presentation that is at most mediocre. Only three, because the topic is extremely special and because many presentations recite a bunch of numbers, data and facts.
As students, we can learn a lot of undoubtedly interesting stuff – otherwise we would not have decided to study a particular subject. But most professors do not give much thought to how this material is taught. No wonder with the continuous pressure of publications, project proposals and the day-to-day administrative stuff. The unloved teaching is only the odd one out. But without preparation and training only natural talents may succeed with both instructive and exciting lectures. Unfortunately, this happens far too rarely.
Get in touch
Dr. Stephen Wagner
Hausdorffstr. 114
53129 Bonn, Germany
Mobile +49 (0)1577 1918067
Events
03. + 10.09. Live & Online: Excellent International Presentations in Science
04.09. Live: Storytelling and Pitching
05.-06.09. Inhouse Online: Innovative International Presentations
17. + 24.09. Live & Online: Presenting at International Conferences
20.09. Wissenschaftskommunikation: Science Pitch Präsentationstraining
26.-27.09. Live: Presenting at International Conferences
07. + 14.11. Live & Online: Presenting at International Conferences
19.-20.11. Inhouse Online: Innovative International Presentations
26.11. + 03.12. Live & Online: Presenting at International Conferences
29.11. + 06.12. Live & Online: Excellent International Presentations in Science
05. + 12.12. Live & Online: Presenting at International Conferences
09. + 16.12. Live & Online: Presenting at International Conferences
