HCI's Toronto Networking Group

Comment

Comment by John Colangelo on November 7, 2008 at 11:14am

I agree with Phil in all that he has stated, A hand out with all of the slides would be very usefull ahead of time, gives people a chance to review as well as refer back to the the information in their own time.

Comment by Phil Wylie on November 7, 2008 at 9:58am

I agree that Brian was an incredible source of information and a very engaging speaker.
I do think that providing information beforehand, or giving people handouts afterwards is more effective then trying to read everything on his slides- I actually think that his slides and that amount of information take away from the effectiveness of his presentation. People get stuck taking 10 pages of notes, or reading his slides- rather then listening to and absorbing what he is saying. A better way would be to provide handouts immediately following his talk, and for him to have a few summary slides while he speaks with major concepts highlighted. I know that most presenters use their slides like speaking notes- but that method (which is rampant in business...but shouldn't be- check out the book Presentation Zen for more) doesn't really improve your retention of the content. (even though Brian was quite good despite his using his slides as speaking notes- some of the other presentations consisted of someone reading you the information that is on their slides- which is a waste of time) Anyways...that's my rant.

Comment by Joseph Palumbo on November 7, 2008 at 9:47am

I agree with Dave, Brian was an incredible source of information and he presented it very well.

What would have helped was to have the information beforehand so we can focus on listening and interacting rather than notetaking.

Keep up the great events!

Comment by Dave Crisp on November 6, 2008 at 3:40pm

Brian Wilkerson of Watson Wyatt was great at yesterdays event, although it was like drinking from a fire hose - 10 pages of notes. I'm looking forward to the slides, but a lot of his asides were even more interesting - like only needing 4 or 5 of his nine best practices for better financial results (but needing to tailor which ones and do them consistently well). This sort of topic could expand to be a huge step forward for HR. I heard almost the same in a McKinsey research presentation. Is this something we should be hearing more about?