How to effectively present in English in the 21st Century

As everyone now knows, Pyeongchang, South Korea won the bid to hold the 2018 Winter Olympics. In order to win the final vote all candidate cities had to deliver a final presentation.

For South Korea two people stood out for me: President Lee Myung Park (이명박) and Olympic Champion Skater Yuna Kim (김연아) and I want to take this opportunity to show you why these two people really helped to put Pyeongchang at the top of the voting list.

First let us take a look at President Lee Myung Park’s presentation.

President Lee had a shaky start, he was nervous and he started out speaking a little too fast. But after about 45 seconds you can see he is into a nice rhythm and his speech has slowed down.

The words he used were wonderfully inspirational and he tells the story of South Korea’s first entry into the Winter Olympics with three skaters and one coach. The story is wonderfully inspiring and really gets your attention.

His body language is perfect for such an important presentation. His eyes are on his audience and he is looking around at the whole audience not just a few in the middle. He is smiling (almost) and you can’t help but be charmed by this speech.

I accept his pronunciation is not perfect, but once he had slowed down, his words were clear and very easy to follow.

It was a very good presentation.

On a personal note I was impressed by this quote from the Korean Times Newspaper

“During a 17-hour flight from Seoul, Lee said he practiced his English-language presentation so diligently his throat ached. From Sunday through Tuesday, Lee attended two dress rehearsals for the presentation and “sliced up his 24 hours” to meet as many IOC members as possible”

It really does take that kind of dedication and determination to achieve something like this and I take my hat off to President Lee Myung Park

Now, let us take a look at Yuna Kim’s presentation.

Yuna Kim’s English is very good. Her pronunciation and confidence when speaking here really comes across. She looks relaxed even though she really must have been nervous and she is smiling, looking at the audience and her natural charisma, charm and showmanship really comes through.

One of the best things about this presentation is the way she tells her story, how it inspired her, and how it can inspire future generations. She uses images from her own life to make the presentation much more personal and to touch the emotions of the IOC members. It worked and was truly inspiring to anyone who watching and listening to it.

If I have any criticism at all about her presentation is was that it sounded just a little too well prepared. There were no “umm’s” or “errr’s” which could have helped to make it sound a little more natural. But that maybe just me being a little too critical.

I know the final presentation was not about just these two people, but these two people really shone in my eyes. All the presenters for the Pyeongchang bid were excellent. They spoke in English and they clearly practiced very well. It is something that all Korean people can be very proud of.

It really does show that stories in presentations can help you to achieve great things, in this case winning an Olympic bid, but they can also help you and your company to achieve great things also. Make the stories personal – like Yuna Kim – or about your company (or country like President Lee) but make sure you put those stories into your presentation.

Always remember to smile, look at your audience (not bury your head into your notes or script), make your audience love you and if it really means a lot to you, practice like you have never practiced before.

Congratulations to everyone involved in the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic bid, you were great.

Like most people here in Korea I was enamoured with the amazing skating of Yuna Kim at the Vancouver Olympics. She truly was fantastic. But this got me thinking. What is it that makes her so much better than everyone else. And can we learn anything from this when we do our next presentation.

First, I want you to take a look at Yuna Kim’s performance. This is the short programme that Yuna did last Wednesday:

The first thing that came to my mind was the almost perfect transitions between the beat of the music. It was seamless. Yuna Kim moves from one part to the next part in complete synchronisation with the music. And from this we can learn that when we present we need to move from one slide to the next seamlessly, not looking around at the screen and making sure the slide has changed, but have the confidence to know that the slide has changed. (alternatively, you can use the ‘presenter mode’ on your computer to check so that you do not need to look around)

The next thing you should notice is that Yuna has an amazing ability to tell a story in her skating. The music and her moves tell the story of romance and drama and even without words she conveys the story so that the audience is in no doubt where she is in her routine. When we present we need to make sure that the story within our presentation flows, it should inform our audience where they are in the presentation at any time and it should be relevant to your theme. In Yuna’s case the theme is James Bond, and she ably told the story of romance and action, we also need to make sure our theme tells the whole story.

Here’s something you will notice – the whole routine lasts a little under four minutes, but when you watch it, it feels much less (to me it felt more like two minutes) Because the whole routine was so smooth and flowing as well as entertaining and exciting time seemed irrelevant. When we present we are always up against the feeling from our audience that this is going to be yet another boring presentation. By presenting a flowing and entertaining, as well as relevant presentation your audience will feel they have been in the room with you much less that they really have. This should always be a goal. Your audience must leave the room wanting more, make your presentation flow with relevance, excitement and theme and you too can achieve this.

Yuna Kim really enjoys every moment of her routine and this clearly shows on her face. Because she is so well rehearsed, she does not even have to think about what is coming next, she knows. This leaves her with the opportunity to get out there and really enjoy her performance. When I saw a few of the other skaters the concentration on their faces was intense. They looked like they were thinking about what was coming next, and because of this they did not look like they were enjoying the performance. Yuna’s facial expressions and movement clearly shows she was loving every minute of her performance. If you know you presentation thoroughly, you know what is coming next, you too can enjoy your presentation.

Finally, what really makes Yuna Kim so good is her work ethic. Yuna Kim practices and practices and practices every little move until she is happy that it is perfect. This is one area that most people presenting today neglect and it shows. Without practice you will be an amateur and your audience will know this. To really make a presentation great you need to practice, practice and practice. Practice every emphasis on a sentence, practice even where you will move when you say a certain sentence. Make this your number one priority.

So design your routine (your slideshow) then practice and practice every slide. By doing this you will not need to look round at your screen to remember where you are. You will know, and you will really enjoy delivering your next presentation.