Using Video Analysis For Personal Feedback On Your Presentations

I can hear the shrieks of horror from here!! Video? Me? Giving a practice speech? No way……

Actually – YES WAY!!

There is no better way to refine your presentation and your presentation techniques than by a simple review of a “selfie” video. You see I am not talking about “lights, camera, action” video but a simple video taken with your phone or tablet that you can view easily and quickly to help identify areas of both the content of your presentation and the way you are presenting that might need some improvement.

And sometimes these videos will reassure you that you can do this and you are going to be ok on the day!!

This is the process I use with my clients when we do not have the opportunity to meet face to face in person. We still meet face to face but electronically using Zoom (or sometimes Skype).

My client will take a video of their presentation and send it to me with their own impressions on a range of pre-agreed points. For example, we might agree that the most pressing need for this presentation is to keep the information relevant to the audience. In practice then, I would be looking to see that the content is not too wordy and it stays on the actual stated topic of the presentation.

What I am also going to look for is that the unspoken parts of the presentation help with keeping both the presenter and the audience “on topic”. This would be characteristics such as the voice strength, eye contact with audience, any distracting habits or lack of purpose in the presentation itself.

When you are doing this exercise for yourself, before you do the video decide what characteristics you will be identifying as important to the presentation itself. Don’t just focus on the words as the way you present will carry as much weight as the words/information.

Lastly, do more than one video. In fact, commit to doing one a day from the time you start preparing your presentation so you can see the improvement you are making using this one assessment tool. It will also make you practise your presentation much more often than you had probably planned to do!