All of us have been in one of those presentations where the speaker don’t respect the time limit. They just go on and on; it seems that it will never end. You may have also experienced a speaker in a rush, seeming to spew the message at his audience. When the presentation ends earlier than expected, you are left wondering what was the rush.
MISSING YOUR MARK EVEN AFTER PRACTICING?
Just because the speaker didn’t hit their timing, doesn’t mean they didn’t prepare. They may have. When you first practice your speech, you will likely run long because you are still struggling with the content. As you get your speech figured out, you will start to get a feel for the length of it. You can then start to adjust your content to match your constraints. In time, you will have your speech down pat and timed perfectly. Right?
The stress of the real presentation very often will alter your speech. You might begin speaking way too quickly, making it hard for your audience to follow; you might ramble on for far too long, without getting anywhere. Your speech was perfectly timed for the safe environment where you practiced – the office, the bedroom, or the mirror – but not for standing in front of an audience.
VR offers you a more realistic practice stage
Reproducing the levels of stress you’d face in a real presentation is a challenge for which Virtual Reality (VR) can be of help; it can recreate a similar experience to the real one.
The stress and pressure put on you by the virtual audience will make your speech much closer to what it will feel like when the D-day arrives. You will get a better grasp on your timing. By realizing if you’re going too fast or too slow, you’ll be able to make the needed arrangements to fix it.
SETTING TIME LIMIT AS EXTRA HELP
In Virtual Orator, you are able to set up an Expected Presentation Length. If you go over it, you’d be able to see behavioral changes in your audience. This will help you realize you’re taking too long.
Virtual Orator’s new Hard Time Limit feature allows you to set a timer that will stop your practice presentation. It is just as strict as some moderators, e.g at TED. You can use this to get a good feel for your speed and timing while delivering your speech.
MOTIVATION TO IMPROVE YOUR TIME LIMIT
When you’re practicing in front of the mirror, you usually look at the clock after finishing your presentation. Imagine that you’re 2 minutes past your expected time. Doesn’t feel like quite a big deal, right?
You might feel differently if you simply got cut off. When Virtual Orator stops your presentation, you’ll be able to determine how much of your presentation would be missing. This will give you a stronger motivation to look into what you need to work out when it comes to your planned speech, possibly finding out what to trim or rearrange.
Respecting time limit in a presentation is of crucial importance to its success. Practicing on your own might not be the better solution to achieve the perfect time since you don’t have the stress factor pressuring you. That’s where VR comes to play, giving you a similar experience to a real situation. With Virtual Orator you get extra help; by setting limits you get natural audience feedback when you go long and strong motivation to improve when you get cut off by the Hard Time Limit feature.
Cátia is a psychologist who is passionate about helping children develop and train social skills.
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