NOT a party political!
What budding business presenters can learn from the General Election announcement...
Just to be crystal clear - this is NOT a political post!
That said, it does draw of the unexpected announcement of a General Election recently made by the Prime Minister.
For it is already widely accepted that the delivery of that key message could and should have been delivered somewhat better.
Before reading on, please look at the video embedded into this post to briefly compare and contrast the speech made by the Prime Minister, closely followed by the response from the Leader of the Opposition. Both speeches took place on the same day.
Whilst neither message should be considered particularly inspiring, both messages were doubtless equally valid to their target audiences. Yet the Prime Minister's words were drowned-out* by The Opposition's unofficial theme music, and the audience was further distracted by watching their democratically elected leader get soaked to the skin.
This failure to control his presenting environment has led to some seasoned political commentators dubbing it
"one of the worst general election announcements of all time"
Whereas the Leader of the Opposition took the simple and sensible decision to deliver his response indoors and under more controlled conditions.
These differing approaches resulted in one message being overlooked (and even ridiculed), the other being heard and understood. This is surely not the outcome the governing party were seeking, and an entirely avoidable early own goal at the very start of their six-week election campaign.
The simple and rather obvious learning-point for business to business (B2B) presenters here is to always seek to manage the environment you will be presenting in. Whilst total control of all external factors is rarely possible, small mitigations can make a very significant difference to how your messaging is delivered and received.
As I so often say, 90% of a good presentation is based on simple preparation. And managing your presenting environment is a key part of that process.
Best regards
Steve
*pun very much intended!