The Power Of The Demonstration
The impact of your presentation can be greatly increased with the use of a demonstration.
In his presentation at TED in February this year, Bill Gates talked about the solutions required for the problems today, and he demonstrated this by showing a glass jar of Fireflies. (around 8 minutes in to the presentation) Whilst in my humble opinion this demonstration did not illustrate his point particularly well, what it did do was to keep his audience interested, and created a more natural and ‘live’ feel to the presentation.
When Jamie Oliver did his TED talk this year, he powerfully demonstrated the amount of sugar kids in school consume each year with a wheelbarrow full of sugar. This demonstration was powerful and clearly demonstrated the point he was making.
Simon Raybould on the Presentation Skills Blog – “Telling People” says:
“Don’t tell me what you think… or what will happen if… or what you found when you… or what it’s like in the country of…. show me. Forget the words, forget the bullet-points; abandon the lists; throw out the dry stuff.
If you want to connect with me, to change me, to have an effect, to make me remember, show me something.
- Don’t tell me the Namib desert is dry – show me a picture of the sands.
- Don’t tell me the cash-flow forcast is bad – show me a graph
- Don’t tell me various ways you got funding – show me a pie chart
- Don’t tell me how fast the new computer is – show me a comparison (live if you can!)”
The power of the demonstration is awesome, and it can help you when you have to present in English. Quite often, our native language is not compatible with English, and to explain something competently and clearly in English is sometimes almost impossible. It is here where the use of a demonstration can get our message across in the best possible way.
So next time you are planning a presentation, give some time to thinking about possibly using a demonstration.