I Flopped Badly At The National Finals!(How Not To Prepare For/Deliver An Important Presentation) |
The lessons I share in this article are based mainly on a true-life experience I had about 9 years ago(1997) while delivering a management research paper at the National Finals of a high profile competition. I provide graphic details of how my inexperience made me take certain important preparatory steps for granted - which eventually led to a botched presentation that caused me considerable embarrassment, and a 5th place position that I would have bettered on a good day. Ironically, the "equivalent benefit" of that adverse experience came to my rescue about 5 years later(in 2002) - during my first year in self-employment as a Self-Development/Performance Enhancement Specialist. Then I used the lessons from my failed presentation to deliver a successful presentation at the Center for Management Development(CMD), despite being told midway through my presentation to finish in one(1) instead of two(2) hours, and in spite of the fact that a power cut occurred that forced me to fall back on my printed speaker notes to finish my presentation. Read this article - It provides a comprehensive summary of useful learning points, and also offers very practical ideas about what can go wrong, and how you can improvise to STILL deliver a successful presentation.
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