This week, a lovely industrial design thesis by Steffi Min was posted on Vimeo and deservedly made it round the web in 24 hs. I wanted to show it yesterday at the Summer School 2011, my college’s yearly young entrepreneurs workshop weekend.

Unfortunately there were downloading probs with the clip the night before and I knew we would have no internet access at our otherwise lovely location and did not want to rely on my surfstick either, so I made a few screenshots, turned them into a quick-and-dirty-pan-and-zoom movie file in Picasa and would simply present the slideshow.

Image: screenshots from Peg Light video.

As a back up, I created a story board like collage image file as well, and a good thing it was, as it turned out I had forgotten my MacBook DVI-to-VGA adapter, needed to present from PDF instead of Keynote, then there was no Quicktime or VLC on the organizer’s Windows notebook to show my .mp4 files, and as I said, no internet to quickly install it... Life doesn’t get much realler than this.

As I keep saying: Always have a plan B. Or two. It was a great lesson in how to adapt adhoc, think on your feet, change plans, and survive. I left away half of my slides, decided to work with what I had seen from the group presentations and took it from there. A room full of people beats five videos. It is all there: the small insecurities, the nervous feet, the strong claims.

It was a great working atmosphere. Thanks to everyone involved in setting it up. And good luck with your projects.

And yes, I bought a second adapter for my handbag this morning.

Peg Light Video:

Simple. Plain. Minimalist. Love at first sight.

I have only two issues with the project.

• Will it come only in red?
• Can you please change the soundtrack?

It is such a nerve wrecking loop, I need to mute it every time I watch the video. And I watch it often, as I find it a marvelous design.

So for class I went for the first 37 seconds of In the darkest place by Elvis Costello. Perfect fit. Just as the light bulb begins to glow, he sings: In the darkest place, I know that is where you’ll find me.

Better. Much better.

Even if I never got a chance to play/show it. See above. 

I find Professor of Physics and Astronomy Janna Levin a great role model for speaker women, which is why I translated her latest TED talk into German and have been showing it in all my classes this week.

First still impressions may differ: She looks like Amy Winehouse, one student said. Others said: She scares me. Some said: Wow. Just look at those shoulders.

I am all in the wow-corner: Just look at those shoulders. Just look at that stance. Just look at that posture.

Why is that good? Why is posture important for women?

Because we still have not enough good role models. Because we still try and hide, when out front. Because we still feel we got nothing to say and show it. Because we all know how to be cute, but not how to be convincing.

Levin talks about space, and she takes her space. She is not making herself small, invisible, light grey.

She has something to say. And it shows.

Her gestures seem natural, precise, dynamic, not studied and learned. They go hand in hand with her words.

Her voice carries, and yes, she could work a little on her intonation, and yes, if you talk about the sound of black holes banging on space like a drum, please do not make your audience wait for more than ten minutes... (11:10)

But she does not raise her voice at the end of every sentence, like we all do, you know, when we are, like, nervous, when we do not know how to go on, like, you know, because we do not know where we are going.

Levin makes statements. She knows, where she wants to go, and she is taking us with her. Full stop.

And I find it charming, really, to see she is nervous like the rest of us, and at one point even giggles. It’s the human touch. Machines may be perfect. The rest of us. Not.

The point is simply: Small things do not matter, if there are enough big things in a talk.

If you look at the script, you will notice many small repetitions. Wobble like a drum. It made translating her pretty hard work.

If you listen to the talk, you will find the repetitions helpful. Talk is different from text. 

Summary:

I love her posture, voice, energy, power and determination. I love the way she spreads energy. I love her dense, visual language. And hell, do I love those shoulders :)

The talk is a great example for how to condense complicated matter, such as gravitational waves into visual and verbal images an educated lay audience will easily understand.

Favorite moment:

11:15 The sound of the universe. Tock-tock-tock-tock-tock-tock-tock.... and then it’s gone.

That is how you build up tension. And the silence after is part of it. 

Ideas for improvement:

A slight change of choreography. Do not delve into Einstein and the Great Theory of Relativity before your audience has heard the sound of a first black hole for the very first time.

I played the talk for 3 minutes and then everybody said: We want to hear the black holes. Now. 

Do not wait for another ten minutes. Give your audience a taste, an idea, a first, brief big bang. Make them hungry.

Then feed them Einstein. They’ll be eating out of your hands by then.

And whatever you do: Do not talk over the sound everybody has been waiting to hear.

Do not talk over movie clips, do not talk over music. And never, ever, talk over the sound of two stars colliding.

That could seriously backfire.

Even more so than the question if maybe we are not the only intelligent life form around, ours not the only thinking, talking, presenting unviverse, and our species not created by some fairy tale God, but flickering, golden star dust.

Phil Waknell from Ideas on stage is one of the more recent active voices in Presenting Land, and one that is not easily overheard. As he says himself: His aim is to be the Number One presenting agency within five years. He may actually achieve that, using social media to the full. I find, it is one hell of a very clear goal.

He is also very generous with advice and ideas on his web site and has helped stage the TedEX Paris 2011.

Recently he provided a full 90 minute taped talk on presenting for free.

Now I may not agree with everything Phil says or does—e.g. I always need to hear more about the whys behind the you musts, and my own business goals are quite different—but different is good, and in presenting different is essential.

We all are different, and so are our audiences, and we need to bear that in mind, when preparing a talk.

From the video, there is much to learn for budding entrepreneurs or anyone interested in what makes a talk a better talk and so far does not really know much about it:

Good visuals, good stories, and—I am happy to see it included—oratory.

But then that is where I come from: If you cannot present without slides, you cannot present at all. Words are available light.

So have fun watching, and to Phil: Good luck with your goals.