Dean Kamen’s Segway presentation
I’ve been watching at least one TED talk every day for the past week, and in general they are very impressive. Most talks from 2005 and 2006 can be found At the TED talks page.
While many of the talks are excellent, one stood out to me as something to watch to improve your own presenting skills. Let me highlight what I mean for a moment: There are certain ‘defining’ presentations that show off a particular presenting style, and these are very well known. For example:
- Lawrence Lessig - Free Culture
- Dick Hardt - Identity 2.0
- Steve Jobs - Keynote Macworld 2006
- Michael Wesch - The machine is us/ing us
In case you don’t recognize some or all of the above, I recommend you watch them. Entertaining and usually not that long (Except Jobs, that lasts more than an hour) - but most importantly they highlight a particular presentation style. You learn something new that you can apply to your own presentations.
There are more presentations out there that are equally good, but those four were the most iconic, and/or the first (famous/accessible) one, and thus they have become somewhat of a legend amongst presenters.
Dean Kamen’s talk on the segway and his ideals behind its development (Feb 2002) should probably also be in that list. He uses no slides and only one prop, manages to come over as unhurried and casual (unlike just about every other TED presentation) yet he speaks relatively quickly anyway (interesting example of Alper’s previous post’s comments on presentation pacing), seems to be speaking in a stream of consciousness manner, as if he’s just talking to you without having prepared anything, and yet everytime a relevant statistic can be quoted, he quotes them.
As far as presenting naked goes, I nominate this talk as the iconic example.
Some things to watch:
He gets out loud laughter from the audience a couple of times but he never uses a punchline. He just trails off an anecdote and lets the audience ‘get it’ on their own time. This both strengthens the effect of the joke and offers a convenient ‘out’ if the audience doesn’t like the joke. With a punchline, if the audience doesn’t respond, you look like an idiot, and you’ll need a lot of cohones to continue your speech unfazed by the bombing the joke. Imagine for a moment if Dean’s jokes didn’t elicit any laughs. It wouldn’t have been very awkward. ‘hard jokes’ shouldn’t be in presentations unless you know what you are doing, but you can’t really overdo the ’soft joke’ - lacking a punchline or a dedicated ‘insert laughter here’ moment.
He engages the entire audience very well. It helps that he can just ride around the podium, but without slides, moving around is not very distracting and can even help keep the focus on you. So, if you’ve settled in for a bit of storytelling and turned off the projector, start pacing!
Where you make an unlikely claim, back it up with a number. You don’t need to delve into quoting sources, (but expect questions and have a file ready to quote sources when challenged) and you certainly don’t need to highlight it on a slide, but it does convey a sense of professionalism, a sense that you know what you’re doing.
Remember that this speech was given 2002, before the Segway’s less than stellar impact on humanity has become apparent.
alper http://alper.nl
April 24th, 2007Sorry to get back on this so late, but it slipped my mind.
The presentation is nice. What is hugely distracting though is his segging back and forth over the stage. This is motion sickness inducing and probably just to camouflage that the Segway cannot stand stationary.
And furthermore it is an exemplification of American decadence, to not be willing to exert the slightest amount of effort. Let me see, a Segway is several dozen times as expensive as a bicycle and using a Segway you can burn less bodyfat.
Kamen’s intentions may be good but his Segway runs on pure self-delusion.
Reinier http://zwitserloot.com
April 24th, 2007The /content/ of the presentation, that is, the segway and his dream that the world will be driving around in segways, isn’t particularly enlightening, but that wasn’t my point.
I think at this point it’s safe to say that his dreams haven’t come true; they are still an interesting gimmick, I’ve only seem them at events as a prop, never on the street. The technology is amazing though - when applied to e.g. a wheelchair that can drive up stairs, it’s great.
Barry http://barry.voices.com
June 21st, 2007I haven’t seen Mr. Kamen present yet….but I do own a segway and though they are quite decadent, for people like me with foot an leg problems, they are a life saver. And where I live (Southern California) I see them alot, and I use mine all the time, particularly for business. The ability to cover a large territory,with zero emissions, and huge fuel effeciency presents the other side to that coin. It has it good and bad just like everything. It’s all in how you use it. I also own a bike and a car and I use each for the appropriate tasks….well, usually.