I’m always delighted to be asked to give a presentation on the use of Oracle technology; whether that be for a customer or at a major conference. Typically once i’ve written the material, got myself to the venue with all my gear and whatever requirements that customer/conference has, it’s showtime. However, passionate as I am, rather than having a relaxed chat about stuff to a PowerPoint backdrop, I do have a tendency to get a bit over-excited sometimes and can go a bit “off-piste” and need reigning back in.
Does this happen to you too? If you’ve got any focusing techniques i’d love to hear about them. What I try to do now is have a member of the audience to help me out and provide some friendly hand gestures.
I have developed a few simple ones to keep me on track and everything is tickety-boo.
1) The ‘Slow Down’ hand signal. If I get a little overexcited, I can start speeding up and trying to verbally impart too much information too quickly. No one understands me at the best of times so that can be a problem. When you think I’m starting to speed up a bit then please give me the slow down gesture. This is just using two hands and make it look like you’re using them to pat down a cushion.
2)The ‘Speed Up‘ gesture. The opposite of (1). If I’ve slowed right down and am waffling on then …. Speed it up gesture please. Two hands with palms up pretending you’re juggling some balls should do it.
3) The circular ‘off topic’ hand gesture is one I ask for if you think I have gone off on a tangent and need to be brought back in line. One hand in a circular motion like you’re winding something up.
4) ‘10 Minutes to go’ hand signal. Is that the time already? Show me 10 fingers please.
5) ‘5 Minutes to go’. That’s half of (4).
I’m very excited to be presenting on Oracle Data Visualization at KSCOPE19 in Seattle, Jun 25th 2019 this year and so I am already into the planning for that. If you’re in the audience then hopefully you can wave your hands at the appropriate times and help me out!
