I'd like to hear more about embarrassing presentations you guys have sat through in the past.My favourite one was where the guy started the presentation with some verses from Shakespeare. I thought, "this is going to be a class act", and was absolutely right. It got better towards the end, with poems from Kipling et al!My other favourite one was where the junior guy was doing a stellar job, but the older guy felt like he had to keep interrupting to add in bits of clarification every few minutes. The old guy sat there to one side, while the junior guy did his best to achieve a rapport with the audience, with the old guy seemingly doing his best to break the younger guy's flow at ever opportunity.I also saw one presentation where the old guy did the intros and summarised the whole presentation in about 5 minutes. Then said "Over to Bob to take us through the detail". Bob then just re-said what the old guy had said, except he had to drag it out for another 120 minutes. The old guy had truly stolen his thunder, right to the point where there was basically nothing left for him to impress the audience with.Then on another occasion there was this old duffer who knows how to put on a great show but doesn't know anything about the subject itself. So we spent around an hour watching him put on various hats (yeah, he actually used props) and essentially saying not a lot more than "IT isn't about technology, it's about business" (thanks for the insight, Sherlock!).Oh and there are so many more.Share your best ones, guys.

Commencement of big project across the pond. Meet & greet with various execs from the business. Practice lead and yours truly midway a session with couple of client-side senior execs. CEO gatecrashes said meeting, nobody so much as bats an eyelid. PL does not recognise newcomer (even though they've met on telepresence) and doesn't appreciate his arrival. PL gives an gives an example of a customer scenario and decides to: a) include newcomer in example b) learn just who it is that gate-crashed our meeting."Sorry didn't catch your name?" CEO states name and proceeds to hand out business cards.

That sounds like a GOOD presentation, not an embarrassing one! :)

BEP - feel it would be a dereliction of my duties as most long-standing reader / contributor to the forum not to point you in the direction of [url]http://forum.top-consultant.com/UK/21912/10/Funniest-Moment-In-Your-Career/[/url]I can't imagine what it must have been like to sit through that presentation all the while keeping a straight face!Tony

Brilliant - love it!!

Actually, it reminded me of a time at school where a teacher walked around with some toilet roll hanging out the back of her skirt. She was a large, bossy lady - a true "school marm" character. Sounds like the pee stained trouser incident was an even better version of that!

Like BEP I've got a few. But the one that springs to mind is Southampton !!Basically, I was working on a bid several years back in Healthcare when we had some partner presentations around technology.The group consisted of 2 VP's and several directors from our firm as it was a large opportunityGoogle (yes the thieving scumbags) came in with their black box search system for the solution.They were there saying it could do this and this and wait 'till we show you the local/regional search capability. So they typed in Southampton and said we can now show you what people there are searching for in healthcare - he puts the term in stands back with a smile and then looks at the projector to describe the results.Top hit on what people in Southampton were searching for at that moment was - "Itchy Anus"Well in a room of male consultants I bit my lip and glanced over at the sales guy - he began to fidget and squirm it was not long before he couldn't control himself any longer and indeed we all started pi55ing ourselves - needless to say we had a break at this point but I have always wondered if I ever get to meet anyone from Southampton is to somehow ask why? Anyone here from Southampton ? Just shows what google know about us DC

Ages ago, my University professor left the room just before the start of the class with his microphone turned on . We heard hear water splashing. He left his microphone on and went to the toilet! When he return there was a burst of laughter; he quickly realized and was very embarrassed but that didn't stop him from giving an entire lecture :)

Coming to you live thanks to paperthin walls: currently on client site, overhearing one of client's (very sensible) team members conducting a job interview next door. Candidate interrupts her, and talks all over her. 100% bull, full of 'stuff' and 'literally.'I'm desperately resisting the urge to punch him through the wall.Over and out.

I had to sit through this presentation:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovi06xJgKQ4Awful.

WTFCharlie which are you if you were there ?MUst be one of 3 1 the MC;2 BLoke with the white hair; or3 PIanist in the backgroundIf all presentations were like that life would be hilarious. Just as an after thought IS MR Shorky really BEP and hence the inspiration behind this thread DC

Hehe, creative... delivering one's presentation through the medium of Xbox KinectAnother example of one of my experiences: Many moons ago, I sat through a presentation where I genuinely actually almost fell asleep. I looked across the room, and people were truly struggling to keep their eyes open. The guy delivering the presentation was a SVP of a top-tier strategy firm. Head so far up his own backside that you wouldn't believe. He was by far the most boring person I have ever had to endure. I had never before experienced anything like it, it was almost like he put the room into a trance. I was trying my utmost hardest to even just keep my eyelids open but even with extreme focus and effort I just couldn't stop the things from shutting, he truly was that extraordinarily boring. One guy actually hit his head on the table from nodding off (seriously!) and nobody even took much notice of it, such a sleepy state they were all in also.

A colleague of mine is the same. He put the clients to sleep. The next time the client requested us to send anyone but him. lol

Yeah but I mean literally people were falling asleep. As in not just bored, but actually physically going into "sleep mode" like you do when you're in your bed at 4.00am. This guy's effect was like a sedative... his droning voice actually had the effect of shutting my eyes to the point where I couldn't open them again for at least 20 seconds or so... I had never experienced anything like it before (and this was when I was younger by the way, it's not just my age!)

I did fall asleep once. I left home at 4:30am to catch a flight and when I arrived at the client's site I had to sit through a 2 hour presentation by one of IBM's Distinguished Engineers (oxymoron) about the merits of their component based architecture. Luckily (or not), one of our junior consultants nudged me awake.