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Working On A Presentation for Latino Legacy Weekend

Have you ever seen a presentation where the audience didn’t pay very close attention, or where they pulled out their Blackberries instead of listening?  I have, and I suspect you have too.  That’s because delivering good presentations can be tough. They often lack direction, don’t evoke emotion, and don’t truly connect to the audience. Well, just the other day, I found out that I have the challenge to do all those things at an upcoming conference next week here in Chicago.

Just days ago, I chatted with the organizer of the inaugural Latino Legacy Weekend Seminar. The seminar is hosted by my good friend, former congressional candidate, and current US Department of Treasury team member Emanuel Pleitez. Emanuel is a great guy, and like a lot of the folks I know, he’s definitely making things happen, and keeping me on my toes to try to do the same.

The event will host students and leaders from all backgrounds and professions – law, business, finance, policy, arts – and bring them together to think about their passions, ideals and biggest concerns. “The Weekend’s driving question is: What legacy will we leave? It’s an opportunity to step outside of our fields and pause our lives to challenge one another to think big.”

And in my view, this event will not only be a good opportunity to talk about this question but also to share critical information and personal stories with each other.  Discuss our passions, goals, and dreams, and connections. And then stay connected so we can help each other as we’re in pursuit.

I haven’t finished my presentation yet, but I’ve decided that I’ll be presenting on Labor Economics and the state of the labor force in the Latino community.  There’s a lot of good stuff out there. But more importantly, as I continue to say here on my website, I believe that the labor force is the big issue of our time.

I think the key to giving a good presentation will be engaging the audience. And compelling them with interesting information. Fortunately my topic lends itself well to that. But I plan to spend the next week or so figuring out how to be effective.

In a recent article I read that the human body is capable of experiencing over 5,000 emotions. But in the course a single work week, most people only experience a dozen of them. To me, means there’s a lot of opportunity to evoke emotions that people tend not to have because they spend so much time on work, family, and other day-to-day things. Emotions like fears, vulnerabilities, concerns, and motivations. And that’s what the current economy has done to a lot of people. Made them fear being of out work. Become vulnerable to admit and discuss their fears and perceived failures. Feel concern for friends and family who struggle with those fears. And then find motivation to overcome their circumstances. So there’s a lot to work with, and I hope I’ll be able to come up with something good.

Overall, it should be an interesting event. The variety of presentations should be interesting, the rewards of the conference should be manyfold, and it will be a great way to meet a lot of new people.

As always …  stay tuned to hear how things turn out!

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PS I’ll also note, that not only do I have this conference next weekend, but I also have another professional conference in New York City in early June. As such, I’ve decided to dedicate a my posts over the next two weeks to the conferences. Before the conferences, I’ll discuss networking tactics and preparation for speaking to attendees and employers. And afterward, I’ll do my best to journal the nuances of the events. I hope that you’ll check  back to read. A lot of people have been writing in recently with networking questions. So I look forward to posting over the next few weeks.

3 Comments to Working On A Presentation for Latino Legacy Weekend

TB
May 24, 2010

Jeremy – That’s a brilliant way to view giving a presentation – as an opportunity to engage the audience by causing them to evoke emotion based on the topic. This is really helpful!

Next week, I have to speak to a group of recent college grads who will be starting their professional careers at my company, on the power they have to drive their careers in whatever direction they choose. For my presentation to be of any value, it’s critical that I ‘connect’ with them, and I have been exploring different ways to do that. This provides a different perspective from which I can approach things. Thanks for the info and I look forward to subsequent posts on your conference experiences.

Jeremy C Wilson
May 24, 2010

@TB Thanks for the note TB. In my view, there are two important pieces to a presentation, in addition to have substantive content of course. 1. Engaging the audience. 2. Understanding the standard things that are tactically best for delivery – pace, posture, gestures, etc. I tend to be better at #1 but hope to do a good job at both next weekend. I will let you know how things turn out.

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