Are You Making the Same Mistake as the B.B.C.?

If you are in the UK and probably beyond,  you cannot have escaped hearing about the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.  There has been a huge  amount of  media coverage, much of it live, of the various events that have been taking place and whether you are a monarchist or not  some of it has been spectacular – like the fireworks which was my favourite part of the whole thing- hence the picture!

The B.B.C. has come in for much criticism of its coverage, particularly for the river pageant and the ” boring , long winded and pathetic attempts to make it interesting ” as one disgruntled viewer put it!

Now they were covering a live four hour, rain sodden riverside pageant but did the various presenters do enough to keep their audience interested?

I must admit to having watched some of the live coverage and I quickly became very bored. Why? because I suppose I’m not that interested in watching boats go along the Thames. And that’s basically what happened for four hours with some inane and often totally irrelevant chat from the presenters……

There was an assumption made that everyone would be happy to sit and watch the  event , with so much studio discussion  and “fatuous commentary” ,without any thought being given to the quality of the viewer experience.  The result? lots of complaints and bored viewers.

And I see the same thing happening time and time again in business presentations. Assuming that the audience will be happy with lots of boring information and irrelevant detail without any thought being given to their experience of the presentation.

Whenever you are planning and preparing your presentation, whether it’s a  5 min slot or an hour long one, make sure that you consider it from the audience’s point of view. Put yourself in your audience. What’s the experience like? Would you like to sit through your presentation?

Because when you can answer “yes” to these questions then you will give a presentation that  connects and engages your audience in a way that will make you stand out…

And you won’t make the same mistake as the B.B.C.!

Until next time,

with best wishes for your success,

Cath

Cath Daley Ltd.