Presenting in the Auditorium!

Hi everyone! Today I will start saying that this post is probably going to be a bit too long because there are a lot of things that I'd like to tell you about! I know long posts aren't good, but I have too much to say ;)

First of all, as the title says, today was the day in which we had to present our Aerospace Technology project in the auditorium. We were the third group to present its project.

At first I was a bit nervous, wondering if we would do it well or what would happen, but guess what? After the first group finished his presentation, we had a lot of technical problems and the second group couldn't present until 30 minutes later or so! This was because there was a power failure in the whole building and every time that the lights turned on, three seconds later the lights turned off again. This was quite annoying but it actually relaxed me! 

This was our paper airplane :)

After this, my only fear was if our airplane would fly while presenting. I'll explain this: to draw the audience's attention, we decided to make a paper airplane and throw it during the presentation. It wasn't the typical one, so we didn't know if it would fly (although we tried it before the presentation, sometimes it flew and sometimes it didn't).

Luckily it flew! In fact, the whole presentation went really well. I've improved a lot since I started this course, and I'm very proud about how the presentation went and about my progress regarding communication skills (especially with oral presentations).

Moreover, after finishing all the presentations, we were told that our project about the aircraft prototype for 2040 was selected to be the one that will be presented on the 25th June to some companies that are coming to the university! This is great news because it means that real companies are going to know our names! It's nice to know that sometimes our effort is compensated with things like these.

And since today was a great day and obviously I'm feeling really good (although the day after tomorrow I have a very difficult and boring exam), I'd like to share with you an amazing cover of the song "Feeling Good":

This seems to be the last post, regarding the fact that we won't have more Communication Skills classes, so I'd like to thank you all for reading my blog and I hope you enjoyed it! Maybe someday I'll create a new blog and I hope you like that one too!

Thank you all very much for reading! Bye!

Aerospace Technology Project (V)

So, on Thursday (as all of these days) we have been working with the Aerospace Technology project. This time, the teacher told us that if we wanted to, any of us could voluntarily present our project to the rest of the class. As nearly every voluntary activity, no one seemed to want to do their presentations, but I thought it was a good opportunity to present before the real presentation. This way we would be constructively criticized and therefore improve our presentation skills for the final presentation.

In addition, at first I doubted about if I wanted to present or not because we didn't prepare it much and therefore it would be improvised. But actually the teacher told us this was good because if we were able to improve our presentation without preparing it, once it is prepared it would be even better!

In fact, it was quite clear that the presentation was improvised because instead of lasting the required 5 minutes, we presented for about 10 minutes. Besides this, I realize I am improving my presentation skills and the main reason for this is because we have had to do many presentations all along the course. 

This makes me come back to what I have already talked about in other posts: the importance of preparing and practicing in order to improve anything, especially oral presentations. 

That's all for today, thanks for reading!

Aerospace Technology Project (IV)

Hi again everybody! Well, on Wednesday we were told that the "best" project per course and per degree will be chosen to be presented to an external company. And if this happens, the chosen project will have to be presented in about 2 minutes on the 25th June. 

So we won't know which project will be selected until Tuesday (tomorrow) or maybe Wednesday, but if my group's project is chosen, it will be both positive and negative. The obvious positive part is that it will be presented to a real company, which is great, but therefore it will require more work, and it will be difficult to summarize such a project because if it is already difficult to present it in 5 minutes, in 2 minutes it is even harder. Despite this, I think the effort would be worth it!

Not much more to say for today. Thank you for reading!

Aerospace Technology Project (I)

Hi again everybody! Well, what I most liked from today is that we continued doing the Aerospace Technology project about the design of the aircraft for 2040.

Before, we were told (again) that, apart from the presentation that we will have to do about this project in the Aerospace Technology class (more related to technical issues), we will also have to do another one in the auditorium (more related with communication skills) and this one will have to be much more "simple" because we will only have 5 minutes to present the whole project and we will do it in front of many people who may not have any idea about engineering. So we will have to manage how to explain all the technical issues about our project in a way which anyone can understand, but this will actually require a lot of effort in order to "simplify" what we want to say without relying on technical data or concepts. 

The main idea from this post is that it is really important to learn how to communicate something to people who don't have the same knowledge as you have, because in the future we will surely have to do so, and probably many times!
Not everybody is an engineer...

Thank you for reading!

No more activities!

So the class we had yestersday (4th June) was the first class without activities which actually are for the "Communication Skills" subject! This is because from now on we are going to be working on every presentation or project we have in other subjects, so that the teacher can help us make them better.

I find great this idea of having more time for doing things from other subjects because we actually need it! Now that the end of the course is near, apart from the final exams, we have so many projects and presentations to do and therefore, having an "extra time" to do them is quite a relief, and even more if we have the opportunity to do them better according to the suggestions that the "Communication Skills" teacher may give us.

I know this isn't a really interesting post, but I needed to talk about this relief! Thanks for reading!

Group presentations aren't a mixture of individual ones!

So, the groups that didn't present yesterday had to do it today, and two of those groups showed us the importance of knowing about the whole presentation and not only about the part that they are going to present. 

This was because these two groups weren't actually "groups" because some members where missing and the group was only composed by one single person who had to do the whole presentation. Actually they reacted very well and could go through their respective presentations very well.

The only thing I want to leave clear in this post is that, whenever you do a group presentation, don't just focus on your own part. Instead you should at least have a general idea from the whole presentation, knowing some parts from the other members just in case something happens (as it happened today) and you end up presenting other's work. 

Not much more to say today. Thank you for reading my blog!

Powerpoint, Prezi, a Poster... or what?

Hi again! Well, today we had to make a little oral presentation, but we couldn't use PowerPoint to support it. I realize this is a really good idea because in my opinion, PowerPoint is a great software, but it is too much used, and sometimes it is better to make something different.

Therefore, what could we use instead of the typical PowerPoint? There are many answers to this question, and it mostly depends on what you are going to talk about. 

For example you could use some kind of poster (you can do it virtually by using the .pdf format) which shows as a whole all the main aspects you are going to talk about, using some images, graphs, etc... that make it more attractive. Or you could also do a mind map. Actually, today we were a bit "surprised" because one of the groups presented using the FreeMind software. In my opinion, it is a good idea to use it, but I personally don't like the image it gives to the presentation, because you actually don't see a presentation, but instead it is like an editor... I think the best alternative to using PowerPoint is Prezi. I really like this tool because it makes very dynamic presentations and you have much freedom according to design. If you are creative and you know how to use Prezi (I say this because at first it seems a bit difficult to use it... at least it was for me), you can make amazing presentations that really draw the audience's attention.

So those are the types of tools for presentations I think we can use, but that doesn't mean that they are the only ones! In fact, if you choose another one which hasn't been used yet, it may even attract more your audience, just because of doing something different to the rest!

That's all for today... Thanks for reading!

Oral Presentations (II)

As I said in my last post, preparation and practice are essential when doing an oral presentation. So in our last class (on Thursday) we did an oral presentation, which actually is some kind of preparation for the "important" presentation we will have to do on Monday (which is tomorrow).

Tomorrow, we will have to present what ideas we are thinking of for our project about the aircraft for the year 2040. So the "pre-presentation" we had on Thursday was really valuable, because it was a good moment to practice and realize what things we are doing wrong in order to improve our presentation skills and do a great presentation tomorrow.

Not much more too say for today actually. Thanks for reading my blog!

Oral Presentations (I)

Well, today we have discussed about something I believe is the most valuable part of the subject: oral presentations. I believe in the importance of this issue because, actually, I'm not quite good at it and I realize a good oral presentation of any project can lead to many doors being opened.

My biggest problem when doing an oral presentation is re-explaining things. What I mean with this is that I usually try to explain myself as best as possible (I'm too perfectionist), but because of this I try to find the best words to explain it and I use to get them mixed up, and I think I end up confusing people instead of leaving the ideas clear. So what I must do is just let my words flow (which is quite difficult for me; but everything is possible through practice) and not re-explain things, because probably if I say something wrong, people won't take notice about it, but if I go back and explain it again, they will surely realize that what I said was wrong, and that doesn't give a good impression. 

In my opinion, the trick when you want to do a good oral presentation is just to prepare it and practice it a lot, and when I say "a lot", I mean A LOT! No good presentation is totally improvised, and if it is, the person who does it is actually a genius. 

Here I leave you a video which I think is very interesting about how to do great presentations:

That's all for today. Thanks for reading my blog.

The secretary: problem or solution?

Yesterday was my turn to be the secretary in class and it was really hard for me to act as if I were the teacher due to my shyness. It is really difficult to think when there are so many eyes looking at you, waiting for you to say something, and many times I got my words mixed just because I couldn't think clearly in my head. Actually I was a bit quite nervous.

When it comes to talking in public, if it's a planned conference, where you maybe explain some slides which you have been working during a long time and you know exactly what to say and how to say it, because you have prepared it for many days, I've got no problem; but if I have to be the one who manages the class, telling people what to do or not to do, and things like that, it's really difficult for me to do it well. Maybe I should have prepared what I would have to do as the secretary, just as if I was explaining any other sort of thing, and that way I would maybe have done it better as I think I did, because spontaneity is something I am really short of. But even if I had decided to do that, I wouldn't have had enough time, because I was chosen just the day before...

But, despite all of this, I think it is a great and really valuable experience, which helps me get rid of that stupid shyness that keeps me from doing many things. And once you do something like this, you realize what you are doing wrong in order to change it.

HEY! Listen to me, please!

Well, hi again everybody! In today’s class we didn’t actually do much but there is a topic we discussed about which I think is quite important: drawing people’s attention when speaking in public. So how can we make sure that people are listening to us?

You could talk about a topic which really attracts attention, but anyway, if you speak during a long, long, long time, although it may be an interesting topic, the public will surely end up tired of listening and will get distracted with whatever happens in the room. So in order to draw the public’s attention there are some things you can do. The most effective one is to make an interactive conference, where you involve your public in the topic you are talking about. You can ask questions, give “live” examples using the people in the room or whatever other thing you may think of which can lead to a more enjoyable conference, just let your creativity flow. The best way would be to interact with those people who you think aren’t paying attention, because this way you force them to listen to you.

Body language is also really important. If you can move around the room you should do so, because maybe your words aren’t drawing someone’s attention, but if you move, he/she will end up looking at you just because, in some way, you are “disturbing” him while moving around. And this way you make people listen more actively, due to the fact that they have to follow you with their eyes.

It’s also important to look into your public’s eyes instead of looking to a paper (please, if you can, try to avoid reading things) or to the infinite. If you do so, the people you are looking at will feel as if you are only talking to them, involving them more in the situation. 

To sum up, if you want to hold a good conference and to make people listen to you, you should make it as interactive and dynamic as possible, and you must feel the connection with your public.

Thanks for reading my blog! I hope you find my posts rather interesting or valuable.

An image is worth 1000 words

Well, in this post I’d like to talk about what our image says about us, because, like it or not, the first impression is what counts and there is only one opportunity to make a good impression on somebody.

At first I’d like to clarify that with “our image” I mean EVERYTHING: A simple and small movement such as touching your hair, or even the way in which you look to what is around you, says a lot more than what you think about how you are. But sometimes it’s true that first impressions don’t quite show how we really are. So, what can we do if this happens?

As I already said, we only have one opportunity to make a good impression, and if this doesn’t go well and you make a wrong impression of yourself, it might hugely influence in how people think about how you are. And it doesn’t matter if you make a great effort in order to change that impression because that first one really stays there, and you can’t go back and undo it.

So, the first thing we must do is think if we actually know how we are. This might sound a bit strange and obvious, but it isn’t always that easy. Sometimes we are influenced by friends or family and we end up being who they want you to be and not who you really are (or who you want to be). So this is an important point to take into account.

Then, we must think about what we believe that we show to the rest with our image: what our clothes say about us, our hairstyle, our way of walking, how we sit down, our voluntary and involuntary movements, our gestures, etc… And we must analyze if this corresponds to what we want to show. If something doesn’t, know you are able to change it before it’s too late.

After doing this, it’s always helpful to ask your friends or your family to tell you what they think about your image. Every opinion counts.

Another point to consider is the situation, because you don’t have the same risks, for example, when you meet a new friend than when you apply for a job. But this point is a bit difficult to manage because, in my opinion, you should try to be the same person in any situation.

Of course, if you are going to a meeting, NEVER BE LATE. 

Well, once you’re conscious about what you show with your image, you will have all the tools to be able to change whatever you think wouldn’t end up making the impression you want to make.

Another important (and really, really, really important) point related to this is your profile picture. Remember, because we usually forget this and we see the Internet as a game, that when you select a photo and you upload it into your profile (never mind if it’s in facebook, linkedin, youtube or whatever other site you think of), anybody in the whole world can see it; so this is quite relevant, above all, when you are applying for a job, because be sure that your (hopefully) future boss will enter in these sites to investigate about the candidates, and your profile picture is the first thing he/she will see about you; not your curriculum, not your cover letter, but your internet profiles. So be careful with what you choose to upload to the World Wide Web.

Well, I guess this post might be a bit long but I realize that this is an important topic that we should all consider and that (if you are able to make a really good impression, without making a fake one) it can lead to many doors being opened.