Title: How to create a world where no one dies waiting for a transplant
Presenter: Luhan Yang
Evaluation
Delivery
- You had a very good delivery. You know your topic very well and are well-practiced.
- I felt that your gestures were simple and effective. Your arms were often gesturing in parallel. That's not bad. I like to coach speakers to mostly have gestures that aren't symmetric to make it look more natural/interesting, but there's nothing really wrong with what you did.
- I felt that you spoke very clearly. Your pacing was very good to help me understand a complex topic, and you used pauses well.
- You handled the Q&A portion of the presentation well. One recommendation I have is to always repeat/rephrase the question. It gives you an opportunity to make sure you heard and understood it correctly.
Content
- Your introduction was interesting because you teased us with a pig's picture as a solution and then went back and told us the problem. Your first slide confused me because of the stopwatch that showed 20 minutes, but you never told us what the twenty minutes represents. You did well to present the problem.
- In your introduction, you also referenced the associated social problem, but the only one that you described was the "cruel black market." I'd encourage you to be more precise here. It seems to me that the black market is not human and cannot have human emotions such as cruelty. Is the real social problem that the shortage in Asia creates a condition where organs are received based on wealth or that the desperate poor are being paid to donate organs or something like that?
- You introduced CRISPR fairly well. It's a complex idea, and I would have liked a better visual to go with your explanation. Your visual was conceptually interesting, but I felt that a series of 2-4 slides to simulate how CRISPR functions would have been very helpful to me.
- The xenotransplantation flow chart you showed was good in its accuracy but not as effective as it should have been. The first thing I noticed on the slide because of its size was the callout circle of the sequence modification. But that's not where the story begins, so you don't want my attention to start there. This slide would be much better broken up into about 4-5 slides, each slide adding the next piece of the story.
- I really liked your conclusion. You used a common "imagine a world" device and presented your vision for the future.
- Your presentation covered the medical and scientific aspects of xenotransplantation very well. I felt that it avoided an essential aspect that has to be considered to avoid accusations of negligence. The presentation ignored all of the moral and ethical aspects to discuss (whether animals should be used as organ factories for humans, the implications of inserting human genes into animals and the side effects it may cause to the animal — will we still sacrifice the animals if the genes migrate to the brain and give the animal a greater cognitive state, should there be any limits on giving animal abilities to humans (or human abilities to animals). While your presentation of the scientific aspects was interesting, it seems the ethical issues are even more compelling and deserve more discussion and consensus.
Chuck Hinkle has been formally evaluating and coaching speakers worldwide for over thirty years.
“Chuck took my story I was giving at a TEDx conference and turned it into a powerful presentation. Then he coached me so that I could deliver it confidently and effectively. It was the most impactful presentation of all the speakers.” Sr. Business Analyst & TEDx Presenter
“Even more than being terrified of public speaking I am more terrified of sharing my personal past with others. That was until I encountered Chuck Hinkle. Chuck listened to my ideas for my first TEDx talk and gently coaxed me to share part of me that was not a part of my work persona. He helped me develop the skills I needed to convey a message that would reach the hearts and minds of folks literally around the globe. My New Years resolution was to overcome my fear of speaking in public by possibly talking to a group of school children or at a senior center as part of a group. By working with Chuck, I gained the confidence and skills to stand on the stage alone and reach out to over 17 different countries and Dare them to make a difference. And what is even more amazing is they took the challenge and told how they did. Chuck used a combination of presentation techniques on how to use PowerPoint and pictures, to what stories to tell and how to paint a visual picture. I grew personally and was able to land an amazing new role professionally thanks to Chuck.” Commercial Contract Manager & TEDx Presenter