Sunday, February 8, 2009
Week 6, Presentations (final blog assignment)
Describe an effective presentation that you attended in person. This can be a meeting, a workshop, a training session, or anything where one person presented information to a group of three or more people in a business setting. In your opinion, was it effective? Why or why not? Did the speaker use visual aids such as slides, handouts, or other objects? If so, were they effective? What would you have done differently?
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I attended a seminar called “Get Motivated!” It was the best seminar I have ever attended. Included in the seminar were Susie Orman, Zig Ziglar, Bill Cosby and Colin Powell. The best information, to me, came from Susie Orman, who is a finance expert. Susie talked about how people should get rid of all of their debt and save money. One of the first things Susie said is to pay off all of your credit cards and cut them up. She also said “If you don’t have the cash for something you want, don’t buy it.” Her presentation was so inspiring and very effective to me. So effective that I went home and cut up all of my credit cards. I am also proud to say that I am credit card debt free.
At the seminar I received a “Get Motivated Workbook.” In the workbook there are many different articles and areas to write your own notes. Some of the articles are called “The 25 Most Important Business Skills to Master Now,” “25 Super Achievers, Share Their Success Secrets.” There are some really good tips for everyone to read.
I wouldn’t have changed a thing about this seminar. It was very informative. If you ever have the opportunity to go to this seminar, I highly recommend it.
I worked at Cassidy’s Superstore for five years. This is where I learned the most about customers and business. I learned a lot from Scott Cassidy, but he had a couple of seminars for us also. The speaker was not bland. He made us want to listen. He used drawings on an easel and we did exercises with handouts. They were fun, not boring. It was a long time ago so there are a lot of things I’ve forgotten, but there are quite a few things I took with me. I learned that I can’t please everyone no matter how nice I am and for every snobby customer, there were ten great ones behind that one. I also learned that the customers are rarely right, but treat them with respect and make them happy. I think the seminars were effective because I remember leaving and looking forward to the next one.
I attended a success seminar by Angela Dayton, in New York City. It was all day, which would seem exhausting, but she did a really good job. She had a work book to go along with her seminar so people could do activities pertaining to what she was talking about. She also did a good job of engaging the audience by having group work with people from all around the U.S. This was a great presentation, cannot think of anything that could have been done better, I was very impressed with this all day event.
In high school I was in a club called FCCLA which stands for Family, Career, Community Leaders of America. We went to many training seminars and listened to different speakers. Each one was very effective because they taught us about different things that help you in the business world.
They would have a power point as a visual aid so that you could follow along and take notes if needed. They would also keep us involved by doing different activities. That would be in the big group, but we would also go into smaller groups and go to other different trainings and get to know the others better.
I got a lot out of being in FCCLA and I am really glad that I was in it for 3 years.
For me when it comes to actual work related business I really don't remember much for presentations, but I do see presentations one day every month.
I think for me and the not remembering presentations in work situations is more because I am the type to live in the now. Trying to remember past presentations is just something I am not good at, then again there are days I don't remember what I ate the day before. For each person it will be different to begin with. I know if a presentation is about something that I am interested in it will be different then one that I really have no interest in knowing.
When it comes to work I really haven't had any type like this. When I got trained at Wal-Mart, Per-Mar security, the casino in Black River Falls I was just one on one with the trainer and they just told me the rules, guidelines, and what was or was not allowed.
I look forward to reading everyone else's responses though so I can understand fully about presentations in the work place.
I forgot to add that the presentations that I go to every month are clear, concise, hands on and very knowledgeable.
I have attended a seminar for Western Dairyland. It was for everyone who was employed there. It also had a "ropes" course that was awesome. It was directed by a speaker and it was a vigirous physical course. I am a "hands-on" learner, so it made a huge impact in my day. I still remember what we learned in "team-work" that day. It will always be in my memory. If we didn't work as a team balancing on this platform, we all fell off. This is very similar to what happens in the real work world. It was a very positive workshop for myself!
When I worked for a financial company I attended a few different meetings pertaining to finances and business. Although most of the presentations were done very well, I remember one in particular. I cannot recall who the presenter was, but I was very enthralled with the information that was provided to us. It was regarding the specifics of house loans and some vital information that is overlooked when people sign loans. It was a very effective presentation and one that I learned a lot from. The speaker used slides of previous loans written and why one should always read what is in the small print, especially before they sign anything. I enjoyed the fact that the presenter also was happy to answer questions from audience and also took the time to involve us and keep us entertained in the presentation. It was a very effective presentation and one that I learned a lot from. I will take that information with me when I go to purchase my first home. I can’t say that I would actually do anything differently with the presentation since it was already done so well.
Because I am a ministry volunteer in the Dunn County jail, I have had the opportunity to attend many quarterly training sessions. These training sessions have addressed many topics pertaining to issues relevant to volunteering in this particular environment.
The presentation on security was the one I remember most vividly. It was presented using Power Point slides with actual photos of dangerous situations that could occur in a jail setting. This was very effective as I was seeing the potential for a good situation to turn very bad, very quickly. The presenter was also very engaging as a speaker and was able to keep everyone's attention throughout the lengthy session. He posed questions as to how we would react to the situations on the slides which allowed us to interact during the session.
It was a very effective presentation with useful information that I pray I don't forget. I wouldn't have changed a thing.
I recently attended a marketing sales pitch presented by Maverick Media of Eau Claire. There were several elements to the company’s pitch; the most effective, I thought, was the free ordure’s and wine (insert laughter). The largest portion of the event was a prepared lecture with power point. The presentation was well done. It exhibited excellence by demonstrating the following: effective imagery, verbal signposts, smooth delivery, and sound conclusion. However, the one element that was obviously missing was the speaker’s exuberance. Although the speaker conveyed his message with an effortless style that was unobtrusive, he appeared too lackadaisical. By the end of the message, the speaker’s nonverbal communication suggested, this high class New Yorker, cannot wait to leave the room and fly back to his penthouse suite. Negative comments aside, I felt the power point was very strong. It included many attention grabbing, audio clips and attractive visuals that held the room’s focus throughout. Had we come with a budget to buy a marketing campaign plan, we probably would have walked away as new partners with Maverick Media.
Several years ago I worked at a department store and I had to attend a special meeting for team trainers. The meeting was held by a lady from corporate. I can’t remember much about the meeting, but the one thing that I remember is that we had to do some role playing. None of us wanted us to do this, but she had a kind and gentle approach to get us to do it. She didn’t speak down to us, but to us. She had some of us as new employees then the others as trainers. When I was playing the role of a new employee, it really put it into perspective how I we should be treating a new employee. I believe this approach was very effective; I still use what I learned in that meeting to this day.
I really can't remember any really good presentations that I have been to that was work related. I guess when I worked at Kohl's I learned alot about customers and I they never had a presentation that we needed to attend. We had meetings during work and either the manager or another co-worker would tell us how good or bad we did that day for sales. We would always have to ask if they had a Kohl's card so they would tell us how many we got that day.
When I trained I just sat there with the person that trained me on how to do everything and the rules for working there.
I Just recently attended a mandatory meeting at work. I can honestly say it was a waste of four hours I can never get back! First of all it was unorganized, with a slide show that was being very difficult to say the least. Secondly the presenters where acting like it was the first time they had seen the material, the material that they had to explain to us. They were going back and forth with each other making it look so non professional, I sat back and thought “this is how not to run a meeting.”
Just with these two examples I believe that the meeting was a total disaster. If they had done a dry run with a short presentation; they could have worked all the technical bugs of the operation, or may have made copies of some material to help with the presentation. Secondly, arguing and not being sure of what you are trying to teach others can really set a tone for a meeting. I personally would make sure I know what I’m going over, and that I understand what I am teaching. I also would not be in a power struggle in front of others.
When I was a shift leader at Kwik Trip we would have training sessions every few months to keep us up to date on health codes, standards, new procedures, and any other information corporate thought was relevant. The presentations that I found were most effective were held in the late morning/early afternoon. Any presentations that were done early morning were hard to pay attention to because I was working until midnight the night before and barely got any sleep and any presentations that were done later in the evening would make me upset that I was giving up my life and social plans to be there.
We would normally start off in a large group and go over a broad review of whatever it was that we were going to cover in the session. They would use a variety of props and other visual aids and charts to explain or further demonstrate their point. Then we would break off into smaller groups of 5-7 people where we would discuss it more in depth and do any activities that were scheduled to be done. After those were completed we would reconvene to discuss our findings, etc.
I think that these meetings were almost perfect the way they were. The only problems that I ever encountered were the speakers. I don’t want to listen to people in corporate who don’t deal with the real life situations that we were addressing on a daily basis like we did. I would rather have a store leader from our area be in charge of the meeting and given all the information and allowed to review it and make suggestions to improve it.
When I was a shift leader at Kwik Trip we would have training sessions every few months to keep us up to date on health codes, standards, new procedures, and any other information corporate thought was relevant. The presentations that I found were most effective were held in the late morning/early afternoon. Any presentations that were done early morning were hard to pay attention to because I was working until midnight the night before and barely got any sleep and any presentations that were done later in the evening would make me upset that I was giving up my life and social plans to be there.
We would normally start off in a large group and go over a broad review of whatever it was that we were going to cover in the session. They would use a variety of props and other visual aids and charts to explain or further demonstrate their point. Then we would break off into smaller groups of 5-7 people where we would discuss it more in depth and do any activities that were scheduled to be done. After those were completed we would reconvene to discuss our findings, etc.
I think that these meetings were almost perfect the way they were. The only problems that I ever encountered were the speakers. I don’t want to listen to people in corporate who don’t deal with the real life situations that we were addressing on a daily basis like we did. I would rather have a store leader from our area be in charge of the meeting and given all the information and allowed to review it and make suggestions to improve it.
When I worked at the Green Mill, we had a corporate sales representative come in periodically to have a products presentation with all of our servers in attendance. The speaker (Cory) is one of the best speakers I have ever seen. He used flipchart presentations as well as product presentations. We played games and had contests with prizes for those who received the most points. It was very much an interactive meeting. As servers, we all truly enjoyed it and looked forward to his coming.
I don’t believe I would have done anything differently. We had a lot of fun, and were all encouraged to “study up” so that we could win the prizes (primarily gift certificates, free meals, etc…) His involvement with the group created a sense of camaraderie amongst the employees. He was a very effective speaker and none of us minded being in a work meeting for 2 – 3 hours and, I daresay, all of us walked away with more knowledge about our products than we had before.
On a personal note, I would have to say that his uncanny ability to remember those of us who had been in meetings before also created a sense of appreciation. He would randomly pick out veteran employees and make reference to things we had said in prior meetings, and was diligent about asking after our families and school lives. It was all very impressive and left us with a feeling of home.
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