Comments on: Presentation traps 2 – Forced Audience Interaction http://scientific-presentations.com/2010/01/25/forced-audience-interaction/ Resources for the presenter scientist Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:50:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Jean-Luc http://scientific-presentations.com/2010/01/25/forced-audience-interaction/comment-page-1/#comment-240 Jean-Luc Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:47:45 +0000 http://scientific-presentations.com/?p=479#comment-240 Yes Angela. I agree that a positive comment is a better way to go. The trap that I mention may not apply to all. It just turns out that I am one of these "shy", or let's say "reserved" people who hate being asked questions before they have some familiarity with the person addressing them. I am not an exception - just one of them. Given that your audience may include such people, would you be willing to take the risk to indispose the likes of me? I remember attending a talk organized by my bank. The first question of the speaker was"Who wants to get rich? Now that is a positive question, isn't it? But I'll tell you no-one in the room raised a hand! Some laughed. Others, like me, felt like leaving the room.... food for thought. Yes Angela. I agree that a positive comment is a better way to go. The trap that I mention may not apply to all. It just turns out that I am one of these “shy”, or let’s say “reserved” people who hate being asked questions before they have some familiarity with the person addressing them. I am not an exception – just one of them. Given that your audience may include such people, would you be willing to take the risk to indispose the likes of me?
I remember attending a talk organized by my bank. The first question of the speaker was”Who wants to get rich? Now that is a positive question, isn’t it? But I’ll tell you no-one in the room raised a hand! Some laughed. Others, like me, felt like leaving the room….

food for thought.

]]> By: Angela http://scientific-presentations.com/2010/01/25/forced-audience-interaction/comment-page-1/#comment-239 Angela Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:49:45 +0000 http://scientific-presentations.com/?p=479#comment-239 Yes, that's an obvious question to start with. But anybody can see that it begins the evening on a negative note. It's a constant problem with any speech. To engage the audience you must pose a problem - and then a solution. You always have keep looking for the positives. A positive message. A positive word. A positive question. It's much easier to deal with the distant past. For example, We all had eight grandparents. How many of you had grandparents ... Survival rates are much higher today. How many people remember that cancer was more of a taboo (twenty) years ago? (Depending on age of audience.) We come back to the speech title. What is the message? Possible cures for cancer? Conquering Cancer? I won a ribbon at Toastmasters for a talk on cancer and started with just such a question. I think I asked how many people knew somebody who had had treatment for cancer and survived five years or more. I then went on to talk about the most survivable forms of cancer and where you can get more statistical information. To my amazement afterwards close friends and acquaintances afterwards came up and confided, 'I had cancer ....' But my relative was still alive at the begining of treatment. You have to make a question which does not focus on the words death and family member. Perhaps ask about Even with a small group and a happy topic and a young audience you run this risk that somebody in the audience has a recent bad experience. I was a young student teacher and asked my class of schoolgirls to write about their mother. One girl's mother had been murdered by the stepfather the previous week. So what is the solution? Look for a positive words? Happy memories of my mother? Yes, that’s an obvious question to start with. But anybody can see that it begins the evening on a negative note. It’s a constant problem with any speech. To engage the audience you must pose a problem – and then a solution. You always have keep looking for the positives. A positive message. A positive word. A positive question.
It’s much easier to deal with the distant past. For example, We all had eight grandparents. How many of you had grandparents … Survival rates are much higher today. How many people remember that cancer was more of a taboo (twenty) years ago? (Depending on age of audience.)
We come back to the speech title. What is the message? Possible cures for cancer? Conquering Cancer?
I won a ribbon at Toastmasters for a talk on cancer and started with just such a question. I think I asked how many people knew somebody who had had treatment for cancer and survived five years or more. I then went on to talk about the most survivable forms of cancer and where you can get more statistical information. To my amazement afterwards close friends and acquaintances afterwards came up and confided, ‘I had cancer ….’
But my relative was still alive at the begining of treatment. You have to make a question which does not focus on the words death and family member. Perhaps ask about

Even with a small group and a happy topic and a young audience you run this risk that somebody in the audience has a recent bad experience. I was a young student teacher and asked my class of schoolgirls to write about their mother. One girl’s mother had been murdered by the stepfather the previous week. So what is the solution? Look for a positive words? Happy memories of my mother?

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