Last week I had to give an Ignite presentation in one of my classes, my professor is one of those guys who has been everywhere, done everything. He came across these presentations at campout conference - which sounded to me like it was the professor's version of Woodstock - that ended with a night of ignite presentations. Here’s how they work…
Each presentation lasts five minutes, you have twenty slides and the slides automatically advance every fifteen seconds. The presentations are usually about pretty much anything. My presentation for my class only had to be three minutes, twelve slides advancing every fifteen seconds, which to me seemed like not enough time to really say anything!
Having 15 seconds per slide is hard! You have to get your point across very quickly, without talking at 5x the speed you normally talk. With these presentations it's important to be flexible; it’s easy to get off from your slides so you have to focus on getting your main points across but you can’t be afraid to skip something to catch up to the always changing slides.
These presentations are about telling a story. You really have to be interesting, and maybe these aren’t the kind of presentations you’ll be doing in a professional setting but I think they teach you a few things.
- You are more important than your slides! When the audience is watching an ignite presentation they only have 15 seconds to look at your slide, but most likely less assuming they spend some time looking at you. I made my slides all pictures! I only used words on a few slides (1 to 3 words per slide). The slides are there to accompany YOU!
- How to be comfortable presenting. Ignite presentations are supposed to be fun, you’re sharing your ideas, or things you love, so you really can relax, be yourself and start to be comfortable presenting in front of other people (yes, this is more challenging for some people)
- How to effectively and efficiently present your point to others. When people give advice about how to give these presentations, they recommend telling a strong story or picking a big theme. You want to engage the audience but at the same time you have to be extremely efficient in getting your point across. Every presentation you give, in every setting, you want to be interesting, and clearly present your points without rambling on - ignite is a good way to practice that
I don’t expect you guys to want to spend your friday nights giving ignite presentations to your friends, but I think it is interesting to look into. It’s a more fun way to get experience giving presentations and even just seeing how some of these people go about their presentations may give you some ideas for making your future presentations even better.
Here are couple presentations to check out...
These Ignite presentations sound like a good way to train yourself to give the most effective and engaging presentation possible--even in less time pressing situations!
ReplyDeleteInteresting post. I've never heard of Ignite presentations before, although the concept of limits to the length of the slides is not surprising to me.
ReplyDeleteIt'd be an interesting method to explore in the future, to be certain.
Great job.
Great post Alexa! I've never heard of Ignite presentations before but they seem to be really interesting. I think this post is extremely relevant to our fourth project. Learning effective presentation skills is something really valuable for the professional world. I think being able to captivate an audience and focus all of the attention in the room on yourself and your story is most definitely a valuable skill that would only result in positive recognition from superiors and co-workers.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this post, and I think the skills you talk about can be used in almost any presentation setting. Although in the Ignite presentation you are more pressured for time, it seems like a really good exercise to be comfortable speaking under pressure and keeping your explanations concise. Often during presentations, people talk for too long or expand too much and lose the audience's attention. The Ignite workshop seems like it could really help with that problem!
ReplyDeleteI'm not gonna lie, I thought these presentations sounded super interesting and fun to do as well as to watch. The fact that each slide has fifteen seconds makes the whole presentation very dynamic and high pace, sort of like a movie being presented. I think doing these would be really fun (probably pretty hard I bet though) and, like you detailed, an awesome way to first-hand demonstrate the idea that presentations are about YOU and not the slides. You have to take car of getting your point across, being flexible, and making it interesting to the audience. I think watching a presentation like this could be really beneficial to learning about how one has to be comfortable and confident with what one is presenting and at the same time be passionate but restrained enough to engage the audience but avoid giving too much information. Awesome concept and post!
ReplyDeleteNice post Alexa!
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of Ignite presentations before, but they do sound like a crazy mix of fun and completely nerve-wrecking. All three of your tips are perfectly fitting, as we present our project 4 this week in class. As for #1, I think that's one of the greatest pointers of a good presentation. You (the presenter) are much more important than your slides. Your ideas are important and your execution is key.
I'll remember these as I present on Thursday! Thanks!
Kate
Thanks for sharing, Alexa! Ignite sounds like such an interesting, and exhilarating-ly nerve wrecking experience. Definitely all good tips to think about for presenting!
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool! I've never heard of anything like that, but I'm sure it really forces you to figure out what the most important points of your topic. It seems like that would be good preparation of an elevator pitch or business pitch when you only have a short amount of time to convince someone to invest in your product. I'll be sure to keep your tips in mind!
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks for shedding light on this new concept. While my first thought reading this was "Who in their right mind would want to do that?," I immediately realized the benefits of it - a great training tool for effective presenting and thinking on your toes (also, it's perfectly relevant to our current project!). Great post.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you shared this! You are so right, presentations are about telling a story, and everyone who read this is for sure going to remember it. What an awesome training tool to help any kind of student in the future. Awesome post!
ReplyDeleteI love that you posted this because its right around the time that we are giving our group presentations!
ReplyDeleteAnd you are so right, presentations are so much more than the information presented on the slides.. its all about how you present yourself and how you can personally attract the audience!
Great post Alexa! I definitely understand the benefits of using Ignite for presentations in class. It allows you to understand the overall purpose of your powerpoint and use a more efficient approach to attracting the viewer rather than having them just stare at the screen. Thanks for sharing!
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