Business Insight Zone

This is not the paneling you want.

I made a tactical mistake. On the first day of SXSW Interactive, I had the chance to see Prof. Lawrence Lessig give a presentation tied to his work in fighting government corruption. Lessig is a legendary PowerPoint presenter, but I couldn’t figure out a good business connection to his topic, which is inherently political.

A-a-anyway, I attended another panel — which shall remain nameless — and was reminded of some things not to do with a presentation.

The Prime Directive: DON’T BE BORING.

That’s easier said than done, maybe, but there are many tools in the box that can keep a presentation rolling. Among other things:

• Say it SHORT. (This applies especially to introducing panelists — we can easily find their biographies, blogs, books, etc.)
• Have a thesis. “Monkeys are awesome.” “Twitter is evil.” “You’re doing it wrong.” Whatever — but have a thesis.
• Vibrant tone of voice.
• Expressive visuals.
• Remember that the sweetest words to any audience are “For instance.” Give examples.
• Interaction — even conflict — between panelists.
• Humor.
• Outrageousness.
• Unexpectedly awesome Powerpoint slides.
• Sexiness. (Define that any way you want.)
• If you’re the leader or moderator of the panel, you MUST set the tone — in terms of energy, focus, interaction, everything.
• . . .

The point is, you’ve got all the tools of oratory, debate, drama, technology, and so on to HOOK YOUR AUDIENCE.

In short, go for some theatricality — like this . . .

If you’re gonna do a panel, go ahead and put on a show.

This all becomes even more important in the age of Twitter, when back-channel conversations during presentations run rampant. I was trading notes with friends during the dull panel, and we weren’t surprised when people started leaving long before it was over.

Takeaway lessons

–It’s not enough to be smart. Every member of that panel was plenty smart, and I went in predisposed to like and respect them.

–It’s not enough to have an interesting topic. This panel had plenty of fodder to work with — they just didn’t use it well.

And, not least . . .

–Don’t let the audience take over the panel from you. In this case, the Q&A was meandering (too many essay-length self-promos and non-questions), and the panel never seemed to grasp that things had got away from them. Too bad, because it all amounted to a big missed opportunity.

The Short Version

As my friend John Johansen said when we were discussing this topic, “Make them want to buy the T-shirt afterwards.”

~

Paneling photo by shaners becker; U2 photo by Chris Sansenbach; both used under Creative Commons license.