Reflections on the first presentation

January 31, 2021

Since I was one of the leaders in this class, I had the advantage of seeing everyone else presenting and catching on their strategies. It seemed that all presenters were very comfortable on presenting and they rarely showed any sign on nervousness.

The most challenging aspect of these presentations was using meaningful multimedia. It could also be very challenging when we have a lot to share but do not know how to properly deliver the message in a logical order. While watching the recordings of these presentations, I was able to identify that this challenge was evident although presenters tried to hide it as they were speaking. The most surprising aspect of their speech was that they effectively used their slides to support their message and doing it remotely. This might have always been an easy thing, but because of Covid-19 it might have been a little harder for presenters, so it is a great aspect. Some of them could have done better in certain areas such as volume and speech rate, but I believe that they gave a good overall impression, most when it was a speech delivered remotely.

I believe that for all groups the first presentation was effective and kept the audience interested. There is more room to improve upon the introduction and conclusion such as engaging the audience in an opening question: Have you ever thought about you in the next five years? Such questions are always a good way to start the speech as it keeps the audience interested. I also think that due to time management constraints, group 2 could have done a better job on the conclusion such as ending the speech with more concise words about what we learned. This would give a better impression.

I believe that for all groups the delivery was generally clear and organized; however, while watching the recordings I noticed that they needed to work more on the speech flow and find effective ways to engage the audience. Their posture and eye contact were good but some of them definitely need to work on their speech rate, such as making more pauses so the audience is able to “digest” the information provided and not feel overwhelmed with the amount of the information at a fast pace. I also think that there were more cases than I expected of people not showing their faces and this is something that they need to change. I understand that these are difficult times, but we are provided with all the tools to make an effective job, so we need to take advantage of that and do our job. There is also room for eliminating fillers such as um as we tend to use them quite a bit.

Overall, I believe that they have many strengths such as the ability to speak without feeling overwhelmed or very nervous, to quickly think and avoid mistakes without getting frustrated (mistakes are for human beings), to deliver the speech with effective voice projection and to effectively use multimedia. The main areas for improvement would be to engage the audience, those who did not use their cameras should do it, speak at a slower pace and make appropriate pauses, and use fewer fillers throughout the speech.