Engineering Seminar: To Attend Or Not?

By Author: Jason John
Total Articles: 85
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For a lot of people, attending a seminar is such a chore. For them, it is a waste of time to just sit there while pretending to listen to someone who is said to be an expert in his field but has quite a boring way to present his topic. Most of the time, people only attend the seminar because their company or school requires them to attend it. Having an attitude like this is quite defeating actually because one can learn a lot of things from attending seminars, even if most of the time it will take all of one's powers of concentration especially if the speaker doesn't know how to present his topic well.

For those who are going to hold a seminar, having an interesting or relevant topic is just not enough. First, the seminar topics should have useful technical content. It should not just deal with generalizations but the data or numbers to back up the topic of the seminar. It should also be presented in simple language and not too many technical jargons. The speaker should aim to be understood by his audience. In order to aid him in this objective, it would help to distribute some handouts so the audience can go along and ...
... refer to them as he talks. This will be useful especially if the venue is huge and the audience cannot see the speaker. Finally, to really make sure that the speaker has the attention of his audience, the seminar should be interactive. The audience will really be interested and will listen carefully if they know at the end that they can ask questions to the speaker.

Another tip is to make sure that the seminar topics will be understood by the audience is to present it in a way that answers the audience if they ask What's in it for me? The main points of the presentation should also be highly organized so that there is a smooth flow of ideas. The speaker should also communicate through his gestures that he believes in his topic and that he has done the necessary research to back up his words. To top it off, one must start the seminar in a catchy way that will effectively grab the attention of the audience. Once their attention is already there right at the start, it won't be difficult anymore to keep them engaged.

Reading through the tips, one factor that these pointers support is that for the seminar to be effective, it should be prepared for weeks in advance. The speaker should do the research, write down the presentation, go through it a lot of times, and return to it if there are additional insights he will think of later on. Being meticulous in preparing the seminar will be rewarded when the speaker will find his audience deeply engrossed in what he's saying instead of seeing them yawning or fidgeting in their seats.

Those who need a bit of help in looking for or preparing their seminar topics, there are various sites that cater to this demand. For those who will be speaking on an engineering topic, there are hundreds of topics to choose from. There are differences in how these sites offer the engineering seminar topics. There are some that give only a synopsis of the topic and links to other websites that will provide information on the topic at hand. There are others that virtually do all the work for the speaker with a downloadable comprehensive seminar kit complete with outline, illustrations, and sample handout. All one has to do then is just choose which can help him more and download the material.