Oral Presentation Reflections

On the whole, this project has taught me many things, especially about presentation skills. Oscar Wilde once said “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes”. As we learn to recognize our mistakes and take home learning points from them, I am convinced that we will be better off than not having made that mistake at all.

In this presentation, my chief disappointment was my lack of time management – not surprisingly the biggest culprit. In my rehearsal at home and with the team, I had timed myself to be around 4min30secs to about 5min on the dot. However, on presentation day itself, I overshot the time limit by almost a minute. Perhaps it was presentation day jitters, or maybe too much banter but the lesson learnt here is, never leave too short a buffer in presentation time during rehearsals. Excess time can be easily filled up constructively, but a lack of time cannot be dealt with. In addition to that, apportioning of presentation content is of utmost importance. In my case, the amount I had to cover was too much for 5min and it forced me to squeeze the content, which brings me to my next point.

Another area which could be improved would be the pace of my presentation. Due to the amount of content I had to cover, time became a limiting factor and I had to rush the delivery of the presentation, which was not idea. Perhaps the content could have been covered slightly more comprehensively had I redistribute the presentation content more appropriately.

Finally, as a group, I think we could have prepared better for the question and answer segment. As questions were being thrown out, we were uncertain of who would be answering the question. Because of this, there was either an awkward silence after the question or we were perceived to be fighting to answer the question. To avoid the awkward silence and not look unprepared, we had to ensure we ‘snap up’ the question quickly. One way to deal with this situation is to clearly assign subject matter experts (SME). The SMEs would answer questions pertaining to their area of specialization. One person can also be assigned to answer questions that straddle different specializations.

On a positive note, I felt that my presentation was clear and confident – although the butterflies were raging in my stomach, the trick is always not to show it. Pronunciation was clear and audible. I think the use of visuals like the floor plan of the LERM system more probably helped the audience to understand the solution better.

The summary slide was also useful in helping to wrap up the presentation. It was short, sharp and captured the essence of the entire presentation in three points. Overall, my answering of the questions posted was to the point and satisfied the questioner. My ending of the Q&A session was, in other’s opinion, witty although I felt it could be slightly less abrupt.

This presentation experience was like none I’ve ever had and the take home points will definitely help me do better for subsequent presentations. All the best to T-ACES! (: