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Myth: American=Good Presenter

Mar 24th, 2009 by Jared

I received a lot of positive feedback about my 5 minute presentation at Seedcamp last week. Some of it was the backhanded compliment variety that went something like this, “Really good presentation…but you’re American so it’s easy for you.” Nobody meant any offense with the comment, but it got me thinking. Does being an American (or Brit) make you a good presenter. Not really.

Yes, we grew up speaking in front of groups. Yes, our culture rewards extroverts. Yes, English is my native language. But that’s not the point. Presentations are about telling a story. The poorer presentations at Seedcamp had nothing to do with language fluency, they lacked a story. They explained a product, rather than selling a story. There is nothing American about a good story. Or am I missing the point?

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  • I have heard it say that Americans are generally better at presenting than us Brits. I think that maybe true, as a big part of presentation success is having the self-confidence to know that you can do it and do it well. American society, where anyone can grow up to be president, is good at generating self confidence. Hence better presenters. Of course it is not always true as demonstrated by ex-president Bush when he is reading the autocue.
  • Jared
    @StefanH- I think you are right, the key is practice, practice, practice. And that's my point. It's true that US/UK culture gives more opportunities for practice in our school system, but practice could also mean standing in front of the mirror for 1 hour. There's no excuse for not spending that time practicing. I feel people assume presentation skills come naturally to Americans, but I spend that 1 hour in front of the mirror just like the next guy should.
  • StefanH
    I guess practice makes perfect. As one has more opportunities to give presentations and speak in front of groups during school and through college in the U.S., one is more likely to develop good presentation skills. And at some point one will hopefully make the leap from a merely informative presentation (which is hard enough, if you don't have a lot of practice and are so focused on just getting up in front of the group thinking more about the act of presenting than the presentation's content) to a truly great and original one (I'm thinking of your MERP / Chelsea Clinton one here :-)
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