The German Presentation

This is a picture of me standing in front of a sign that actually says "Eugen" but I stood in front of where the third 'e' would be so you would all think it says "Eugene". Oh. I blew it. This is in Stuttgart.

14. November 2008
I just returned from my first group presentation experience and it was quite different than what I had become accustomed to. The presentation covered the reasons and initial research for our product development. A while back, a gentleman from a firm came to the University and suggested a project, and I’m on the team that took it up. We’ve spent the last few weeks researching patents and similar existing devices, as well as defining what it is we wanted to create. Surprising to me was the amount of time we spent on what I would have deemed petty details: slide show layout, logo, and a whole bunch of non-technical administrative stuff that proved to come in handy.

The speaking was done by only two of the team members but we all submitted the information and prepared the slides. Some of the criticism was justified; having missed one of the meetings because of an interview, I wasn’t entirely sure what all was going to be in the presentation but they left some stuff out. A large chunk of the criticism was directed at the aesthetics of the slides and presenter mannerisms. These are all important aspects but the bluntness with which the various aspects were addressed was quite surprising. The professors spoke with all confidence and self-assurance that their word on presenting was law. They did have good ideas and I made many mental notes for subsequent presentations but I am a bit torn. On one hand, I wanted to say “Information conveyed. End of story.” but at the same time, there is some importance to making a presentation super slick and professional because that’s the way the professional world works. The people spent 10minutes talking about how the slides need to be organized so there is a subtle left to right, bottom to top trend to suggest progress to the subconscious thoughts of the viewers. Goodness. Afterwards I asked if that was typical, and the team mates said “Germans.” Excellent! Yet another German experience captured and stored!

The adventure continues…
-H