Presentation Zen

First thing I want to note in this presentation was how much shorter it actually was than when I was practicing it.  I had a solid run of 5 to 6 minutes while practicing and was surprised to not hear the knock at the 4:30 mark since I finished around 4:15.  While I was presenting on my last slide, I realized David did not knock yet, hence my horrible finish ("That's it").  Perhaps, I ought to include a few more slides next time and practice pacing myself more.  I could have used one additional slide just to explain "the art of being completely present" instead of using the first/title slide to do so.  Brian and others stated in the feedback that I probably could have used more prep time.  I was really disappointed to having such a poor finish after having such a strong start.  My introductory question/start was engaging and surprised the audience as to who the man in the slide was.  Shame it wasn't Ashton Kutcher. 

Unfortunately, I still retained some of the quirks from my baseline speech.  I realize just how violent or quick my arm moves after using the clicker.  I should use a more relaxed approach and movement to using the clicker and not let that control me.  In addition, it was mentioned in my grade report that I should get a better understanding of how to use it.  I feel as though I make it look so much more difficult to use it than it actually is.  I did, however, cut down a lot on my usage of "pretty much."  There were still some "um"s here and there.

Moreover, I should use index cards with pictures of the slides on them instead of folding up a looseleaf  sheet.  As Mo mentioned in the feedback, it definitely does make a lot of noise and is distracting.  Also, there were times especially towards the end in which I felt I was reading off the sheet more and letting that outline my presentation.  It should be a supplemental aid, not an outline.

A positive aspect to mention can be the slides I used.  "Presentation Zen" definitely restructured my view of looking at a PowerPoint presentation.  While preparing for the slideshow, I did not use the default template that was provided with the title textbox and the textbox with bullet points.  I managed to get a good grasp of the concepts of the types of slides to use as mentioned in Reynolds' book.

I'll have to admit that it was pretty ironic that I wasn't completely present in the second half of my presentation (after the 3 F's).  Again, this just probably goes back to practicing more and more.

The main things to take away from watching this video are to practice more, be more confident, use better notecards, and relax more.