When The Scientist Presents

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SMILE Jul 03, 2010

Show notes

The best ice breaker that I know of is not “a” smile, but “THE” smile. Not the cheshire cat grin, but the HAPPY smile born out of the sincere happiness of being able to communicate something of value to your audience Not the smile constantly deformed by words attempting to make their way through horizontally stretched … Continue reading "SMILE"

027 Speech first slides second Jul 02, 2010

Show notes

Dr Rao Machiraju, in the final part of the interview, suggests a provocative way to prepare a scientific talk…. the augmented speech. Be ready for Rao’s final one liner which is so good, it should be carved in stone, or at least printed on a T-Shirt! Image Flickr; Author Smilla4

What can the scientist who presents learn from Benjamin Franklin Jun 03, 2010

Show notes

Here is a passage of Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, where he gives advice on how to handle people who contradict you. This is particularly applicable to situations you may encounter during your Q&A, or even in scientific discussions with other scientists. Brilliant advice, as you will discover! You may be unfamiliar with the word “Junto“: It … Continue reading "What can the scientist who presents learn from Benjamin Franklin"

026 Handling unfriendly questions and comments Jun 02, 2010

Show notes

In this podcast (part two of the interview) Dr Rao Machiraju, CEO of REQALL and past colleague from the Apple days when we both worked in Apple’s Advanced Technology Group (ATG), shares with us his wisdom on how to deal with troublesome situations in Q&As, such as comments that could be perceived as aggressive, or … Continue reading "026 Handling unfriendly questions and comments"

What can the scientist who presents learn from Antoine de St Exupery May 25, 2010

Show notes

“It seems that perfection is reached, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” (Terre Des Hommes, Chapter 4) This is so applicable to scientific presentations. The starting point of a presentation is usually the scientific paper. Selection of the contents of the presentation is, for … Continue reading "What can the scientist who presents learn from Antoine de St Exupery"

025 Alternative Q & A techniques May 10, 2010

Show notes

I are delighted to feature a new guest on our podcast: Dr Rao Machiraju. Rao and I belonged to Apple’s Advanced Technology Lab in Cupertino California. He now heads his own company, REQALL, working on a fascinating product: memory recall enhancement tools. Rao is a master in the art of presenting. Today, he reveals his … Continue reading "025 Alternative Q & A techniques"

Presentation Traps 10 – The room trap May 06, 2010

Show notes

By Jean-luc Lebrun Doomsday! Your phone rings. The receptionist tells you the Japanese visitors have arrived. You take the elevator down five floors to the ground floor where the two meeting rooms are. Many people use them, and the furniture frequently gets changed to fit the requirements. You asked for a simple U-Shape table arrangement to … Continue reading "Presentation Traps 10 – The room trap"

Presentation traps 9 – the rehearsal traps May 04, 2010

Show notes

Try and find out what is wrong with the five situations described below. 1) Sylvia is in the University library facing the screen of her laptop. She came here to have a chance to be quiet and rehearse an important upcoming presentation. She methodically looks at each slide, and silently (she does not want to … Continue reading "Presentation traps 9 – the rehearsal traps"

Presentation traps 8 – the knowledge trap Apr 29, 2010

Show notes

“And here, you see…” These are the famous words that ring hollow to the blind. But the lack of knowledge leaves us just as blind – a temporary type of blindness, assuredly, but blindness nevertheless. For knowledge only lights up the world of the expert rambling along, finger pointing to familiar shapes on the laptop … Continue reading "Presentation traps 8 – the knowledge trap"

The Acknowledgment Slide Apr 25, 2010

Show notes

If you are like most scientists, chances are that you will place the acknowledgment slide at the end of your presentation. But if you watch one of the Hollywood award events, or attend a Nobel laureate award presentation, chances are you will hear the acknowledgments at the very beginning of the acceptance speech. Why? Because … Continue reading "The Acknowledgment Slide"

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