Lessons Learned from the Top Ignite Speeches

Our last lecture for CAT 125 took place on November 28, and the top ignite speeches from each discussion section were presented.  From watching other people perform their ignite speeches, I discovered many ways that will help me in the future when telling a narrative or story.

Source: http://dnd.wizards.com/sites/default/files/media/styles/second_hubpage_banner/public/images/head-banner/NEW-TO-DnD_What-is-DnD_Subsection_Hero_140718.jpg?itok=5pBlzVTc

First off, I would like to say that my favorite speech had to be Trevor's, who talked about his passion for Dungeons and Dragons and made a topic that most people would scoff at, extremely interesting to listen to!  But what made his speech so compelling that it got voted as second best in the class?

When looking at my own speech script, I feel that my thoughts didn't always have the most cohesive structure, or that my slides didn't necessarily transition well into each other all the time.  I also felt that a lot of own personal experiences could have been better implemented.  However, Trevor's speech had me interested from the first slide, a blank white background with one sentence: I want to have a party.  Transitioning into his type of a party, Dungeons and Dragons, which is drastically different from the normal visual of party made the audience interested in what he had to say.  Although his slides did not necessarily include many visuals, Trevor did an amazing job painting an image in our heads by describing the types of scenarios that occur in a typical night of Dungeons and Dragons.

Source: http://www.ukeschool.com/graphics/uke-left-c.png

I voted for Marcus's speech on the ukulele as second best, but his speech ultimately won best in the class.  So what made his speech so successful?  Well, as CAT 125 is a course focused on mediums and visual narratives, Marcus had a very unique medium and visuals.  By using his ukulele in the actual ignite speech, people were intrigued as he didn't just stick to his slides, as every other presenter did.  Marcus's speech ended with him singing an abridged version of "I'm Yours," as well as him utilizing the information from his presentation to play the ukulele.  This was a powerful visual that sold the speech to the class, and got him voted to the top.  So what could I learn from Marcus's speech?  One thing I could've done more in my speech was implement the Rubik's Cube more, although I opted not to as I wasn't confident enough in ability to not "mess up" the moves I would have to make on the cube.