http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbusch/2945015981/
We rented a friends cottage this week. Ironically it is located at the same beach I had spent vacation on for years as a child and teenager. Amberley beach is where my parents rented a cottage there for every summer for two weeks years.
About 3 km north is Point Clark. My daughter, her friend and I biked up to the Point Clark lighthouse and went for the tour. The tour was run by a girl named Meaghan. She was in grade 10 and it was her summer job. What was interesting was she was obviously nervous. Once the group arrived, you could see her clearly ‘shift’ into a rehearsed speech about the lighthouse. Fair enough, I am not a presentation expert and I’d be very nervous too.
Meaghan explained the history of the light house and how it was built and we then all climbed the 114 stairs to the top of the lighthouse. At the top, Meaghan again explained the lighthouse, it’s historic features, views and other interesting things. At certain points when she would break from speaking to let everyone look around, I started asking her questions. I was trying to get her to relax a bit. She responded very well and articulately. She would answer me easily. It was obvious she had done her homework and knew the information.
After we came down from the lighthouse, we went to the museum, which was actually the light keepers house where he and his family lived. She came to a set of pictures and pointed to them and said “This is my great aunt and uncle, one of the light keepers here back in …”. I was shocked, and if you looked at the rest of the tour, you could see the changes on their faces. From this point on, the group completely changed how they viewed Meaghan and information she was conveying. They asked more questions, and showed much more interest in what she had to say. Even Meaghan seemed to relax a bit.
After the tour, I spoke briefly to Meaghan thanked her for the tour, said she did a good job and suggested she mention at the start of the tour that her great aunt, uncle and grandparents were lighthouse keepers at the lighthouse. She seemed genuinely thankful that I commented on her tour and for the suggestion. I really hope she does. I am not a presentation expert, it is something that I have always struggled with, although I do enjoy presenting when I have something to say in an area I am experienced in. Having personal experiences like Meaghan has where her family directly worked at the lighthouse gives so much credibility to what she is saying during the tour. She is portraying the same information, but adding that personal family history makes it all the more real to the tour guests. They pay more attention to what she has to say, ask more questions and listen more attentively to her responses. Being able to add examples, or experience in any presentation helps make the presentation even better. I was told that by a excellent presenter a while back, and I always try to do that when I present. This was a perfect example of why that works.
