Caffeinated Learning
  • Home
  • Anne Beninghof
  • Consulting
  • Tips Blog
  • The Books
    • Sample Chapter
  • Contact

Do You Know About This Extremely Valuable Button?

3/11/2017

0 Comments

 
Halfway through a recent three-hour presentation, I was asked to finish thirty minutes earlier than planned. No, it wasn’t that the group was bored, but instead that a critical, unexpected matter had arisen that my client needed to discuss with the group. I pride myself on being flexible and so, of course, said “yes.” Immediately, my mind began scanning through my presentation slides to decide which I could skip without shorting my participants.
 
It is very common for presenters to have more material than fits the time they have available. This may be due to:
  1. Nerves  “I’m not an expert! I’d better give them everything so they feel they get value.”
  2. Arrogance “Everything I know is extremely important and they need to hear it all.”
  3. Lack of experience “I don’t know how long this will take.”
  4. Unexpected Events “Well, that wasn’t part of the plan!” 

If this ever happens to you, the worse thing that you can do is begin quickly forwarding through slides and saying “Sorry, but I am running out of time and can’t talk about that.” Your audience will cycle through a series of emotions you don’t want - confused, stressed, disappointed and short-changed.
Picture

Instead, make friends with the Freeze button on your projector remote! This little, often-ignored button, has a highly valuable role to play in a slide-based presentation. When you press it, the slide that is currently projected will freeze, or stay on your screen until you press the button again. This allows you to then go into your Keynote or PowerPoint file and skip, change, add or delete slides without your audience witnessing your changes. To give myself a chance to do this, I might ask my participants to turn to a colleague nearby and discuss my last idea. In just a minute or two I can freeze, make changes, and unfreeze, ready to go again with my audience being unaware of what I have eliminated. 

​
For more ideas, check out Caffeinated Learning: How to Design and Conduct Rich, Robust Professional Training. 

0 Comments
    For even more ideas...

    Subscribe to our mailing list

    * indicates required

    Author

    Anne Beninghof is passionate about teaching and learning.

    Archives

    February 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    RSS Feed

    var switchTo5x=true; >
Privacy Policy, 2018
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Anne Beninghof
  • Consulting
  • Tips Blog
  • The Books
    • Sample Chapter
  • Contact