TKS Session 3: The Next Big Thing
Third week in, and things got real. My intention for this session was to put myself outside my comfort zone and take on the challenges that are presented to me in the session. (I write my intentions before the session for that day starts, so I absolutely have no idea what I’m getting into).
Today’s session was branded as creating a presentation on what you think will be the next big thing, whether it be in science, tech, etc. We saw a variety of ideas on what people think the next big thing will be, from the variety of AI applications, stem cells, to IoT (Internet of Things) and connecting everything, space exploration, and DNA computing.
Our group’s idea for the next big thing was connectomics (which I just finished an explore module on), which is the science of mapping out the brain and all its connections. Knowing the different parts of the brain and what is responsible for different things helps us understand what kind of personalized medicine will need to be created for different diseases (depression, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, etc.). It can also help by preventing the amount of unwanted side effects people get after brain surgeries (like tumour removal), because some crucial parts of the brain can get damaged during operations. Some examples include leaving you paralyzed, depressed, memory loss, etc.
But, after everyone presented their ideas, we quickly learned that today’s session wasn’t to talk about the next big thing, but rather something completely different. This session was about our presenting skills and learning how to create professional, real-world presentation decks.
Everyone’s presentations included many elements that ruined the presentation itself or caused distractions. We created a dead list and a do list consisting of everything presentation related. There are three things I want to highlight from my dead list:
Standardized Templates: Standardized templates are used over and over again and are so similar to each other. Instead, choose to create your own template from scratch, with your own photos, to stand out from the crowd and make an impact. Also, a pleasing presentation that is out of the ordinary from countless template presentations will make the audience more engaged. They may think “Wow, this looks different.”
Having text on presentation is iffy in school. Teachers tell you to put it into bullet points or small sentences. But in real-world, professional presentations, text is basically a no. Your slides are there to complement you and what you are saying, not repeating the same things in word form. Text can be heavy, distracting, and take away from your important information that you are communicating. You can use text to emphasize a quote, a number, or some data. The rest of your presentation should be visual, because you can replace words with your speech.
Que cards/notes are recommended when doing school presentations. Your teachers want you to communicate all the information the most accurately and clearly by using your typed up, super technical script. But, when presenting and trying to make a pitch, having a script will be undermining you. It will be distracting, for starters. It will also make you seem like you aren’t fully confident in talking about your idea or proposal, making people doubt you. Make sure you know your presentation inside out and be able to speak about it confidently.
Bonus: These two are simple and are presenting 101 (basically they should be on everyone’s dead list for presenting): Speaking Quietly and Not Facing Your Audience. Both of these close off the audience from being able to understand what your are speaking on and to be engaged with your presentation.
I now want to get into my do list. There are three things I want to highlight from my do list.
Presentation Structure
Intro team/hook: tell a story that relates to the problem, get to the point in max 30 seconds
Problem: why should people care about this, what’s the point
Issues of current way: keep explaining why they should care and show what’s wrong with the way things are done now, gets them thinking
Solution: this is the better way, this will fix the problem
How does it work: how does this fix the problem, why is this better
What’s next: why should we care about this anyway, what’s the point, where will this go from here, finish off strong and leave an impression
Images
I learned so much about images today that I need to make this a section. Images are what replace words. Use words for a phrase, a specific title slide, a number, or to put emphasis on a piece of data. These should be small pieces of info that support you and add to your presentation. The rest of it should be made up of visuals, graphs/diagrams, or images. Use your slides as things to refer to and talk about. Your presentation shouldn’t take away from you.
Images need to be relevant and tell a story. Stock photos don’t help you stand out, clip art isn’t professional and doesn’t relate to the real world, and too many photos can be as damaging as too many words. Having one photo, maybe a visual as well, and relevant words (if even necessary) help the presentation look good and keep everyone engaged with what you’re saying.
Feel free to also split up these slides and make sure each slide highlights one topic, to keep things from being heavy and busy. Use as many slides as you need.
Level Of Technicality
Sometimes it’s good to be technical in your presentation (while avoiding text on your slides), but it’s also good to know when it’s ok to put a pin in the logistics. When you are getting technical and using advanced terms, be sure to define it. When the audience doesn’t know what you’re saying, then they lose interest.
But make sure that you don’t get too technical that it’s past your audience’s knowledge level, because then they will also end up losing interest. Main thing is: know your audience.
I actually had so much to say about this, that I decided to put it into a Medium article. If you want to hear more about the dead list and do list, you can find more info here.
Now, I could just be repeating everything that I heard from this session today and be talking about it here hypothetically. But I’ll admit, today I found out firsthand what it’s like to have a bad set of slides ruin your entire presentation. Once I realized how unorganized my slides were, and how they didn’t fit a proper order, then everything got out of balance while presenting, and normally I present better than I did today. But when I recognized the issue, it was hard to look past it. I will definitely keep these two lists in my mind as a checklist when making future presentations or pitch decks.
Today’s mindset was high standards. That means to think that you can do better than what you’ve done, to look past that bar that was set for you. If you are constantly setting these high standards for yourself and trying to improve, then you will adapt high standards and recognize it. You need to know that high standards are domain specific (a high standards swimmer will struggle in marketing) and they are learnable. Once you recognize high standards, then you will be a high standards person.
These are the kind of learning experiences and challenges I am looking for in TKS. After this 1 session, 3 hours, I feel like I learned so much and have new high standards for myself when it comes to these upcoming challenges, like creating presentations. I would say that I am a high standards person, but in this domain, in TKS, I am developing that and leveling myself up. This will be the worst I’ve ever been, because I only get better the more I try new things and keep practicing.
I can’t wait for more opportunities to learn, improve, and apply my new, developing skills!
Image credit goes to Ben Reamico!
