Event Report, Gunma Chapter May 2018

Presentations 2.0: Modern Presentation Skills for the Digital Age
by Rab Paterson
May 27th, 2018
2 to 4:30PM
No matter where people work, in academia, business, or the media, there is a good chance they will be asked to give a presentation of some kind at some point in their career. For academics and teachers, the number of presentations they give goes up dramatically as in their work they are expected to present their research at conferences. While most academics are very knowledgeable in their own subject areas, competent writers via the many dissertations and research papers they have written on their subject, and from taking writing seminars as students, many have had little formal training in modern presentations. As a result, many academics (and other people) present in a way that is counterproductive to the aim of presentations, i.e. the accurate and efficient transmission of concepts, ideas, and information in a way that enables the audience to retain the content of the presentation afterwards. This session addressed this issue by looking at the four pillars of presentations – Advance Planning, Appropriate Content, Advantageous Structure, Amazing Design, and then finished with Awesome Delivery – these are what Patterson calls the 5A’s of professional presenting. Gunma JALT attendees were made aware of major improvements in how they approach preparing for presentations and in the audiences’ reactions to their presentations.