The seminar seating was open to two sides which were aisles to the exhibition which meant visitors not attending the talk were walking to and fro offering a distraction to audience.
The noise and distractions from the stands beyond the aisles also exacerbated this.
Since many of the speakers were delivering from a lectern usually from notes accompanied by PowerPoint slides the audience needed to concentrate that bit more.
Some of the microphone settings were not set up quite right to carry the speaker’s voice of the melee of the exhibition.
One of the most engaging of the presentations showed how such distractions could be overcome. It was a workshop presentation by Sue Meadows from RADA enterprises http://www.radaenterprises.org/.
Sue’s topic was on speaking live to camera.
With the rise in business use of video web conferencing calls, and Skype calls on video all in selling need to learn skills of speaking to camera. Apart from Sues’ experience as an actress she coaches the newsreaders and reporter on TV Channel 4.
Sue presented from the centre of the stage and did not use the lecterns placed at the sides. The camera shot display covered the entire screen live from where a ‘student’ sat in front of a laptop with camera on.
Then in short enacted scenarios the student delivered to camera in a series of linked cameos. Sue punctuated the student’s delivery and got the audience to observe and give feedback which she then drew out learning points.
She also got us doing breathing exercises, tongue twisters standing up and drew questions out of the audience.
Sue focused on three main areas
1. Physical Posture when sitting at the laptop camera and being fully prepared.
2. Body Language – especially the eyes – keep looking at the camera and through the lens
3. Work on your vocal qualities – from breathing through articulation to projection.
Remember your microphone is never off, nor the camera until your laptop is fully disconnected. Forget mute buttons. Sue cited the current scandal of two TV Soccer pundits whose sexist indiscretions supposedly off camera and broadcast has led to them losing being sacked or forced resignation.
(Sue Meadows of RADA Enterprises Ltd. and visitor! )
Another great seminar came from the 37 year old Tom Stone – Product Design Architect from element k.
His talk was on Mobile learning and was particularly of interest to the Sales and marketing community. Based in Rochester , NY , this was Tom’s first visit to London.
The previous week he had attended an exhibition in the USA where he noted that alongside the I Pad there were 30 new tablet devices on show along with Android and blackberry offering. The number of Mobile devices are growing and growing.
Apparently a survey was done in the states asking what would people who have just left the house return to it immediately keys were no.1 followed by the Mobile / Smartphone etc.
Tom’s talk was well structured and clear.
Sales and marketing professionals are a target market for mobile learning because most already use the technology and have a device they use for work.
Tom identified two areas of opportunity for Sales and marketing in mobile learning
The first was “STOLEN MOMENTS” or time fillers e.g. at the Airport, in the Car ( Audio only) Queuing and the second was URGENCY. To help performance support more people are asking for just in time learning access.
One case study that Tom mentioned was for Merrill Lynch( part of Bank of America) whose results from a mobile learning project were impressive. A survey of 170 Merrill executives on a Mobile learning project
99% thought it support their learning well
100% were willing to complete another mobile training project
75% considered the advantages as convenient, better time management, and training with no distractions compared to certain e learning methods.
Tom Stone of element k
Tom’s talk outlined who mobile learning was most suited for, where most mobile learning is used, where it is considered most important and what the main issues of mobile learning in terms of design and compatibilities are with devices plus some great advice on the ‘gotchas’ and ‘ hurdles’ to overcome.
A Further report to come on the last day of the exhibition.
Happy to know that web conferencing is now possible thru the use of internet.
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