Hoyt Ng on Presentation Skills

Today, Hoyt Ng a senior trainer at DreamWorks PDI and a veteran presenter visited us at ETC-Silicon Valley. He brought with him many gifts and tidbits on presentation skills. Throughout his two and a half hour talk, he emphasized that everyone has the natural skills to present well. He joked about how some of his students when seated could answer questions like a perfect presenter, but would shed all their presentation skills the moment they leave their seat. It is important to note that Hoyt did not attempt to change our presentation style. He believed that everyone must find a style that is comfortable to them. Instead he provided us with various exercises. These exercises aimed to bring the natural skills that we apply on person to person communication into our presentations.

Hoyt explained that there are nine common presentation flaws:

1. Pausing
2. Breathing
3. Non-Words
4. Posture
5. Eye Contact
6. Movement
7. Intonation
8. Facial Expression
9. Emotion Honesty

In the spirit of good presentations, instead of a boring talk about presentation skills, Hoyt gave us many exaggerated hands-on exercises. Each exercise aimed to make us comfortable with applying a natural communication skill, in order to overcome some of the common presentation problems. For example, in one exercise the participant had to present by pausing for five seconds after every sentence. Similarly, in another exercise, the presenter was required to remain in eye contact with each audience for a continuous five seconds. In yet another exercise, the participant must perform extremely exaggerated gestures. He believed that once we are familiar with these exaggerated exercises, skills such as pausing, having eye contact and using gestures will become a habit during actual presentations.

Hoyt’s presentation skills class felt like an improvisational acting class every ETC-er takes in his or her first semester. Between engaging discussions about flawed presentations and numerous hands-on exercises, Hoyt’s class taught ETC-SV students many life-long skills on public speaking and presentations.