Reflection on Oral Presentation

EDIT: Last Tuesday, I gave a sales pitch to the class together with Sai, Shi Ying and Sumea. Through our presentation, we hoped to convince our classmates and our instructor about the severity of the problem we identified and the merits of our proposed solution.  It was a chance for us to give voice to our type-written proposal, which we had painstakingly prepared a week earlier, and to showcase what we learned from our respective peer-teaching sessions about a month ago.

My most immediate impression about my oral presentation was that I had a great time. I felt in control, and the immediate feedback from my classmates was very encouraging.

I was very confident content-wise. The entire team was intimately familiar with the content of the presentation before preparations for the presentation even began; after all, we crafted the entire proposal from scratch. Being the authors of the presented content definitely helped. It hastened our preparations, boosted our confidence and made the presentation that much smoother. Our experience from the ‘elevator pitch’ lesson and mock presentation session helped to boil our proposal down to its most essential and convincing elements, allowing us to have a clear and logical structure that we can easily organize our content around and effectively present. This brings me to our use of visual cues, because we understood that Prezi, however impressive, was just the medium for our message. If the original message was muddled, a tool by itself could not carry the presentation, and would only hinder, not help.

It was my first time using Prezi, and I was excited to explore the new tool. It took a lot of careful thought, but our parts were carefully structured so that the content was memorable, the flow was logical and the visual cues were clean and efficient. I felt proud and vindicated when my classmates responded positively to the group’s use of Prezi. With this experience, I am confident of using Prezi proficiently in future presentations.

Subsequently, I revisited Garr Reynolds’ website to more objectively and holistically self-assess my presentation against his list of presentation tips. Reading through the articles brought me back to Earth. I realized that my presentation still had ample room for improvement.
I should engage my audience further with a personal anecdote instead of plainly narrating all the benefits like a grocery list. While my original approach is tidy and logical, it lacks the panache, enthusiasm and charm that can infect an audience, that can turn a good presentation into an awesome one. I think this will come about more naturally if I let my enthusiasm for my topic run freely. This is something I still need to work on, as I am very used to projecting neutral emotions, and speaking in a monotonous and slow-paced fashion. I used to think that this was always the professional thing to do, but now I understand that different times call for different measures. A sales pitch is not a normal presentation, and should convey more raw urge.

I remember distinctly my instructor's comment during my mock presentation, that I would be a perfect fit for Singapore's corporate environment. I know he meant it as praise, but I take it as a backhanded compliment. I dislike the stifled corporate style in Singapore and I am trying my best to break that mold, to exude a unique personal charm that, I think, Singapore workers generally lack. I am trying to break off from my current style of presenting, but his comment shows me that I still have a long way to go before reaching my ultimate aim.

To conclude, I feel that while I did give a polished delivery, I fell short of my ultimate long-term goal and I still have lots of room for improvement. Nonetheless, I must thank my group mates, Sai, Shi Ying and Sumea for all the hard work, the long meetings and the sleepless nights. Also, many thanks to our classmates, who gave us so much useful peer feedback during the mock presentation and the elevator pitch. Thanks for reading!

EDIT: After replaying my presentation a few times, I just realized that I use "alright" and "right" very frequently, to conveniently link phrases and sentences. This is something I will have to work on.