Presentation Summit 2021: Conversation with Glenn Gibson

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    Glenn Gibson is the author of the book Before the Mic and Director, Global Technology Evangelist at Hyland, a leading software company. Glenn is an award-winning public speaker with a passion for technology and has collected several IT certifications such as a VMware Certified Professional, Citrix Certified Administrator and Microsoft Certified Professional. As a native of Scotland, his passions include all things Scottish; kilts, bagpipes, whisky, (real) football, meat pies as well as playing the drums and expanding his ever-growing vinyl collection.

In this conversation, Glenn talks about his participation at the upcoming Presentation Summit 2021, being held on location in Clearwater Beach, FL, and virtually this year from September 26 to 29, 2021.

Indezine.com is the official media partner for the Presentation Summit.

Geetesh: Glenn, please tell us about your Short Stories: Why Presenters Need to Think Like Musicians session at this year’s Presentation Summit. What would be the takeaways for the audience, according to you?

Glenn: Musicians need three things – confidence, mastery over their instrument, and great material. Unless a musician is playing beautiful music someone else has written, they must learn how to WRITE music that people want to hear.

Similarly, presenters need three things – confidence, mastery over their presentation instruments (voice, physical presence, and slideware), and great material. Unless they are delivering presentations someone else has written, first they must learn how to WRITE presentations that people want to hear.

Attendees will learn why it is so vital to develop their own presentation writing process, learn lessons from songwriters and understand how to make their presentations meaningful, memorable, and motivational!

Geetesh: How will you approach this year’s hybrid environment at the Presentation Summit? What would be the challenges of being in sync with both the in-person and virtual attendees at the same time?

Glenn: I cannot wait to get up on stage in front of a live and virtual audience, for the first time since February 2020! I am going to approach this presentation with the highest level of preparedness and enthusiasm that the attendees to this wonderful event deserve! Making eye contact with people in the room is such an effective way to keep people engaged and gauge their interest, and while I cannot do that with every remote person, it will strive hard to look at the camera to include the virtual audience in the delivery too.

Geetesh: Glenn, please tell us about your book, Before the Mic. Whom is the book addressed to, and what motivated you to write this book?

Glenn: My book is for everyone who delivers presentations, willingly or reluctantly! My goal is equally to help nervous presenters approach the mic with confidence in what they have written, and for confident presenters to add significant substance to their personal style.

I have written thousands of presentations, for myself and others, and have developed a repeatable writing process that I use every time. As I coach people through writing their own presentations, I have realized that one of the biggest hurdles to effective presentations is the writing process. The “open up a slideware application and start typing” approach inhibits creative thinking and wastes so much time! I started looking for a book that focused exclusively on the process of going from a blank page to a fully developed presentation that could be delivered with or without slides. I could not find the perfect book to recommend, so I thought I would write it myself. I called it Before the Mic, because it focuses exclusively on the writing process, everything that happens BEFORE someone picks up the mic! This book lays a foundation on which all other presentation skills can be built.

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