Sunday, December 16, 2018

Plan Travelling to Give a Presentation - lessons learned

I recently gave a slide presentation using a Microsoft PDF at a club venue I know well in Singapore. I had the choice of using a borrowed laptop with a larger screen. Or a smaller laptop which would be lighter to carry.

I chose to usu the larger laptop. The screen would be easier to see if I had to turn it to the audience if I could not connect my laptop with the screen.

Lesson Learned
By the end of the afternoon the laptop failed - no battery power. No connector to the wall socket for mains power. I had the connector which links the laptop to the display screen in the office, and to the screen in the demonstration classroom. But I did not have the power! When using my old Apple machine, the power cable with the square power block was obvious. With the black laptop, just a lot of unfamiliar leads and bit and pieces and cables.   So much to remember and carry! I should have made a checklist of cables and connectors required.

Luckily, I had a print out of all the slides as a reminder.

Feedback
The feedback I got was:

Font Size, Shape and Colour
1 Use a minimum of 18 point font so people in the back row of even a small classroom can read it. I later looked on the internet to research this and found varying recommendations on a website called Quora.

The respondents also discussed which fonts are best for changing from an apple to a Mac system, for dyslexics, which colours are best, less tiring than black and white, yet acceptable and readable for the colour - one suggestion was the blue on yellow or yellow on blue). Sans serif which I prefer apparently makes you read on, whilst serif (with the feet like Times Roman, which I hate - to me it looks old fashioned and confusingly cluttered) apparently leads the eyes along the line of text

Acting Out
2 'We enjoyed the way you acted,' said Teresa.
 'You managed to act out grammar.,' said Trevor.

Acting Singlish
I had demonstrated the English phrase, 'an off day', folding my arms and looking glum. 'Having a day off' - short for 'a day off work' - running towards the door gleefully. Finally, the Singlish phrase 'an off day' which sounds to English speakers like the first (demonstrate glum again) when what they mean is the second (run to the door).

Singing
I demonstrated bring and take. For bringing and bringing back (alliteration!) I sand Bring Back My Bonnie To Me (an old Sottish folk song, well known in the UK, more of a novelty in Asia).

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

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