The Second Secret to Giving the Presentation Everyone Will Remember
Reader Hans Mundahl commented on my post The Secret to Giving the Presentation Everyone Will Remember, and his comment was so good it deserves its own post. He says:
If conference attendees:
- take a paper document following a presentation (barrier 1)
- it needs to be kept (barrier 2)
- and filed (barrier 3)
- and recalled (barrier 4)
before it can be useful down the line.
That’s excellent illustration of the inefficiency of printed documents because of the mechanics involved in handling and storing the information – and you can’t even search it!
The reality is that many of these conference handouts get jammed in bags, only to be seen again when you clean out your bag. And then the handout gets tossed out with the garbage.
A wiki can contain links, the keynote from the presentation and engage participants in dialog after the presentation, all with a simple bookmarked link in a browser (eliminating barriers 1 & 2). So it does more with less work. That’s a strong case for adoption.
I think the wiki also eliminates barriers 3 and 4. Filing (barrier 3) is no longer a barrier when multiple people are collaboratively contributing to the organization of information on the wiki, and recalling (barrier 4) is no longer a barrier because:
- By participating on the wiki, people have a better sense of the information it contains, and can get what they need faster.
- People can search the wiki and get what they need in a matter of seconds.
On the homepage of his wiki, Hans has embedded a recent presentation on technology in education, and the last slide exemplifies the approach he’s suggesting. On that slide, he says:
Feedback? Suggestions? More Ideas?
Share it all on the workshop wiki!
