Tim Smit- Presenter Extraordinaire

I attended a presentation by Tim Smit at the weekend. We live not far from the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the Eden Project and Tim does try and maintain good links with the local community. 

If you have read any of my other blogs or looked at any of my web pages you will know that I strongly advocate planning and preparation whenever we mere mortals are faced with delivering a presentation. Now Tim is the complete antithesis of all I have been saying - but then, he's a natural raconteur so he is allowed to break the rules. Tim stands in front of of people and talks as a way of earning his living. He said himself that when starting up Eden (if you don't know Eden then shame on you and go here straightaway!) he didn't have any technical knowledge on clay pits, structures, construction, plants, horticulture - you name it, he didn't know about it! What he did know how to do, what he was actually by now an expert at, was talking to people and demonstrating to them that with ambition and belief the exceptional can be made to happen. That was what he did for Heligan and then Eden - he charmed people into getting their cheque books out and buying into the dream.  

There are exceptions to every rule, and Tim is one of them. He turned up at Portscatho Memorial Hall on Sunday afternoon and admitted he didn't know what he was going to talk about!  No notes, no projector, no laptop, no PowerPoint! I am sure he knew the message he wanted to deliver, and he is a superb ambassador for both Heligan and Eden (which have done so much to revive a local economy that was in a crash and burn spiral with the slow demise of the china clay industry), but what he didn't know was what would work well with this particular audience. So he came in softly, checked out the demographics, through out some feelers and decided what his key button pushes could be and as importantly, what they couldn't be and what they shouldn't be. He talked for 100 minutes without notes (although a single Betty Stoggs helped him out enormously, more for something to do with his hands I think than to wet his whistle). His talk was structured, had a message that he wanted to deliver, and a mood that he wanted to create. Sometimes I guess Tim has his work cut out convincing the local population that the creation of over 500, mainly year round jobs, is not something to be sneered at. Why that would be, I have no idea, and if I did, a blog on presenting is not the place.... 

Bottom line - If you have had an idea that could shape the future of a region, become one of the biggest UK visitor attraction outside London, and you made that idea happen, then what are you doing reading a blog on presentation skills? If on the other hand you haven't done any of this then please stay as long as you need - presentation is clearly not one of your strong suits - YET! 

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