What our participants are saying

Presenting with people in mind - February 2010

Hi Michael,

First off I would like to thank you for a great day, it was well worth my attending.

As you may be aware I had every intention of not attending and even went as far as sending my apologies, but under extreme pressure I was pulled kicking and screaming to the room.

So there I was, a very reluctant attendee, ready to spend ANOTHER boring day listening to some HR freak telling me how to present!!!

WRONG!!

By the end of the day I was a convert!

I am currently reviewing several of our ongoing presentation/meetings and training sessions to see which little GEMS I can introduce, "slowly slowly catch the monkey" as we would say in Africa.

I am very conscious of trying to change too much too soon but there is a real opportunity to make some "subtle and appropriate" changes.

The realisation that the current approach to meetings and training was developed to make my and other presenters/facilitators job easier and not really designed with the audience in mind was a bit of a shock.

Music, yes great, but I will need to think this through carefully to get maximum benefit with our hard arsed Operations shopfloor.

I have passed you details on to colleagues in Sydney and Adelaide so I am sure you will be hearing from us again.

Once again thanks for the experience and the opportunity to grow even at my old age (Something about OLD DOGS AND NEW TRICKS!)

Certainly one of the best sessions I have attended in a long time.

Cheers

Les Souster - Manufacturing Manager

Hi Michael,

I’ve spoken about the training on Friday to most people I’ve spoken to since then – so thank you for an extremely impactful and enjoyable experience!!

When I’m in a training course, generally I find that I ‘learn’ content up until the point I leave the room. The application of what’s taught doesn’t seem natural and therefore doesn’t stick, and as you pointed out, is presented with an air of self defeat (almost loathing!!) that immediately, there is a gap between what’s being taught and what is being learnt (if anything!). Your open and honest techniques, natural communication style and focused material/activities create an atmosphere of comfort which was rich in information and from which, I think the group benefited greatly. Thank you!!

I feel confident now in understanding my audience, before I meet them (for the most part anyway, I'm going to guess they’ll be human J!), and creating an atmosphere for them to help achieve great results for what I need to deliver and what they need to receive.

Personally, I feel that the session on Friday was the best training course I have attended. Not just for the amount of fun and laughs we had – but for the lessons and ‘tricks’ that you shared with us! I will highly recommend you when speaking with colleagues and friends and look forward to any other training sessions you may have on the go!!

Thank you, again, for such a great day and for being so open, honest and encouraging. Remembering that everything has a purpose has helped me in my day to day activities at work already – and I am enjoying my new found memory capacity!!

Take care. Enjoy the rest of your week!

Cheers

Jess

Jessica Joseph
Program Coordinator - Transformation

Bupa Australia Group

Hi Michael

It was great to meet you at the training last week. I found the training to be fantastic and even though I didn't know what to expect before attending it was just the type of course I needed at this stage in my career. I'm really glad it wasn't a sit down and lecture type of session.

I used some of the concepts you taught during a short training course for the Novartis reps yesterday. We make a drug (Atopica) that treats a type of skin disease in dogs and the goal was to make the reps understand how this condition is diagnosed by vets. Its a pretty complex topic and I only had 30 minutes to work with. So instead of lecturing to them from a powerpoint presentation I made it much more interactive. I created a mock "consult" situation to demonstrate what a vet would have to go through when a skin disease patient walked through the front door. I dragged up a rep who had to play the role of the vet (complete with stethoscope) but reassured them that the rest of the crowd was allowed to help them out so they didn't feel singled out. I played the part of the pet owner and used a fluffy dog toy as my skin disease patient.
Even though I didn't have a chance to practice this role playing scenario (and no I didn't use the words role play in front of the reps!) beforehand it went really well. The reps really got into it and I tried to make it realistic (and funny!) by playing a typical, difficult pet owner that doesn't give a straight answer.

Before attending your course I would not have even thought of doing something like this and would have followed a similar powerpoint lecture style presentation. This would have been bit of disaster yesterday as my training started at 3:30pm - so it was towards the end of a long day that was filled with countless powerpoint presentations. So I was very pleased that I was able to put into practice what you outlined in your course and achieve really good results.

Training with people in mind - October 2009.

Hi Michael,

I think one of the biggest benefits was the bite size chunks of information.

As I said to you at the end – I still felt very fresh and ready to learn.

The day showed how often we over complicate our presentations.
I will now spend more time planning my key messages.
And then focus on some simple, fun, memorable ways to deliver that message.
And avoid using a power point or traditional delivery forum.

I think the day was extremely valuable.
It will be of enormous value when I next present.

I would probably do another course or consult you before my next major presentation.

I used the “what do you want to cover next?” on Friday at my meeting which was well received.

I would also recommend you & Deep Blue to anyone & everyone.

Thank you very much – It was a lot of fun!

Regards,

Duane Millard
NSW & ACT Sales Manager
Cenvet Australia Pty Ltd