FOL Diaries: Part 2
I love Brisbane! Australia’s most underrated city in my opinion. And on Thursday this was the location not only for the much reported demise of the Matilda’s World Cup hopes (Next round, let’s go!!!) , but the setting for the second instalment of these Future Of Leadership conferences that I’m outrageously grateful to be speaking at and this one definitely did not disappoint.
The crowd was amazing, and to be a little self centred to begin with, I was very happy with how I presented. Not that I wasn’t happy with how I presented in Sydney but this time I felt a little more comfortable and took what I learned in reflection with the advice of the ever generous Darren Hill to make a few adjustments and I think that paid off.
Enough about me though. I’ve always been fascinated by how different people approach the task of speaking and I wanted to highlight a few different presenters who all had amazing messages that I thought would be worth sharing. Rather than just tell you about their presentation, I think my preferred approach is to explain how they project their valuable messages through different and unique presentation styles.
I see a lot of myself in the style of presenters like Peter Baines and the aforementioned Darren Hill. A modest, emotional and personal connection with the audience that has recently been described to me as “cerebral”. This is always the style I’ve leaned into as I’ve found the touching parts of my story, similar to that of Peter’s is something that people require self reflection in order to digest and by appealing to their emotions you have the opportunity to pass on themes such as purpose which we all know the value of but rarely feel in a way that leads to significant change.
An addition to that, Darren connects on quite a profound level which is highlighted by the beautifully poetic end to his presentation which is not only very well composed, but a touching sentiment and his words on using the limited time we have in service of others is something I absolutely love. It’s easy to admire someone who lives true to those words as I’ve been lucky enough to experience first hand the gift of Darren’s very own wisdom and time that I am ever grateful for.
This style is natural for me to relate to but the beauty of speaking is that there’s certainly more than one way to go about getting your message across.
When somebody mentions they are a Data Analyst, it’s my assumption that a vast majority of people would most likely glaze over because, well, how many people love spending their time looking at spreadsheets and numbers? Bridging the gap between the monotony of numbers and a valuable insight into generations and culture is something that Ashley Fell does an amazing job of through humour and relatable content. Humour is always a slight prerequisite in settings like this and you see the value of it all the time. There’s confirmation of this when listening to Gihan Perera, a futurist and artificial intelligence expert who, when you read his bio, you don’t necessarily expect to be sitting down for a ton of jokes. However that’s what we got! I’ve become amazed how humour can act as a connector and a translator to make these often complex topics far more accessible and digestible for an audience.
There’s no such thing as one individual style of presenting and one of my favourite things about Future Of Leadership has been the incredible diversity of speakers that I’ve had a lot of fun learning from.
I don’t want this to go on too long and I want to save some other presenter’s for the next piece I write but one piece of advice I’d have for anyone who’s looking at improving the way they present, it’s to attend a conference like this and take as many notes as possible. It’s not always about what you present, how you present it is just as important.
So on that note. If you’re looking to experience what it is that I’m talking about. Come along to one of these! The next one is in Melbourne, August 10th. You can get your last minute tickets online
http://www.futureofleadership.com.au/buy-tickets-now
See you there