I always enjoy casual chats with George Torok, a presentation skills coach and colleague in Canada, and after describing to him a particularly impressive state-of-the-art audio-visual center I just toured and will have the delight to present from in January, we segued our discussion to this question:

is it the tech toys that help make the presentation better, or can you be more effective without them and ace the talk with some imagination and brutal honesty?

He sent me 2 links that show smart speakers knocking it out of the park:

1) Vince Poscente, being imaginatively physical in a clip from a presentation and his use of the word “you” to engage his audiences

2) Jeff Blackman, being just brutally honest and open in his self-fulfilling life story of perseverance to emote engagement.

I am always a student of better speakers than I am, and hunger to learn from them. So when you see me speaking next, I may just sound and act a tiny bit different than the last time you saw me: the sum total of the smart presenters I learn from have a beneficial effect on my delivery and effectiveness.

Isn’t that how professionals get more professional?

And of course, there is applicability of this conversation to your LinkedIn personal too! But you knew I’d pivot there.

That said, I don’t know the answer to George’s and my conversation, and am asking you readers who are public speakers, coaches, trainers out there: what you think–is it the technology or the technique?

Or both?