OK… this sort of shook me a bit funny, but here’s what happened down in Buckeye with us, and I would please like to know if any other team out there has had this situation happen to them and whether or not its a bad sign or something of that nature:
We went into the room, presented our goods and then sat down, explained what they were, and then started our little three part speech. I attempted to make eye contact with both judges, and found that one was typing away, another was flipping through notes and other papers. They maybe made eye contact once every 30 seconds. The second part started, and in the middle of my teammate’s part one of the judges asked him a question, he answered, then moved on through the presentation. I believe it happened one more time, but that was about it.
Anyone have this happen to them? If yes, please explain, elaborate, etc. etc. I just want to have a good idea of what to do in future presentations.
In all of the presentations I have given (3), they have been busy looking at papers and taking notes during our presentations, but they would make eye contact every few seconds. This year, we too got quick interruptions while presenting, but it only happened once. That was the first time it happened. It was just a quick question about something we said though, nothing serious.
At Midwest, one of our three judges was taking notes, one was going through our paper, and the third was timing our presentation and making eye contact. I’m interested to know how it worked out with the timing of your presentation if they stopped you in the middle to ask questions - we were cut off at 5 minutes exactly, much to the chagrain of my partner. When we were answering questions, though, the judges would often stop us and ask more questions about our answers - we ended up talking off of an original question for probably about a third of our presentation, but it felt more like a conversation than a question-and-answer session, which was nice, because my partner and I were really nervous at our first Chairman’s presentation ever!
We presented one part (page), and then before we continued a judge asked us to repeat and clarify the section before because they didn’t quite understand what SOAP was. Otherwise, they were making eye contact with us in between jotting down notes. They also reminded us after 4 minutes that we only had a minute left and that they would cut us off at that point, so we rushed through the rest. There were a few questions from the judges at the end too.
At the Philly Regional they only interupted our presentation part once, and with a good, brief question. We only had two judges and neither seemed overly concerned with time, though one never knows. We had one taking hard notes and the other very engaged. I’m not sure if that was predetermined or just the judges personality itself. I’m almost positive that interuptions won’t happen in Atlanta. If you do encounter it, answer, and keep going. They may or may not compensate you for the time, but don’t rush too much and stumble. I know if you’re giving the presentation that you’re good at what you do, let them know it too.
Congrats to all Regional winners and good luck in Atlanta