Chairman's Award -- is the bar too high now?

[Carolyn_Grace]

Originally Posted by kjolana1124

In the hotel in Atlanta, when our Chairman's presenters were going over our presentation, we seemed to get off task a lot. A few times I tried to get us back into focus, to which they responded "We're not going to win anyway, why does it matter?"

Something that we have found that works to "keep the presenters focused" is to actually practice our presentation in a very busy area. This brings everyone together, makes it a team event, emphasizes how hard the students work that present, and helps the presenters feel like they're not missing out on the fun at the hotel.

Last year they practiced in the pool at the hotel! It was great. They took turns saying their parts, while the other two goofed around. There were balls flying, people swimming around us, and squirting us with squirt guns, and everyone was laughing. It made the practice session a lot of fun. It also kept the presenters focused...they were able to relax and turned it into a game (they won if they could get through their part without laughing).

It was much much more effective than practicing in a quiet room, as if they were presenting to the actual judges. By having many things around them that could possibly distract them, they actually concentrated on focusing better.

And the rest of the team helped them, encouraged them, and made a big deal about how awesome it was that we were competing for the Chairman's Award.