Red Dot Lessons - Part 4
In this article, you will learn 5 ways to use movement to help you communicate more powerfully to your audiences.  We will discuss how movement is used to help illustrate emotion and momentum.

​Emotion and Momentum (4 videos) 

From almost any position on the Red Dot, presenters have the ability to adjust the distance from the audience.   By moving closer or father away, they can illustrate contrast, such as advancing versus retreating, improving versus worsening, boldness versus shyness.

​In the beginning of her presentation, the presenter describes two responses to emotional storms.  She takes a step forward, to represent those who “lean in” to their communities for support.  She then takes a step backward to represent those who choose to retreat and suffer alone.   She concludes by taking several steps forward to make the her bold promise. (video)

​Her powerful ending begins with a tragedy, one with the potential to cause people to retreat. (video) 

​From this emotionally vulnerable spot, she is able to create momentum and positive emotion, by increasing her volume and taking bold steps forward. (video) 

​Audience engagement and attention is heightened, giving the presenter the perfect opportunity to invite the audience into taking action.  (video)

​Summary
Your Red Dot can be a conference room, a large theatre, a classroom, or even a living room.   Whenever you are on stage, I invite you to use movement to tell better stories, to teach more effectively, and to visually engage your audiences.

Red Dot Lessons - Part 3
In this article series, you will learn 5 ways to use movement to help you communicate more powerfully to your audiences.  We will discuss how movement is used to demonstrate a range of opinions, and to play different characters.

Demonstrate a Range (1 video)
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Often, we need to illustrate a visual range of examples or a spectrum of people on the stage.  In her example, the presenter wishes to distinguish the range of opinions that people may have about Reality TV.    ​

​Play Different Characters (1 video)
Changing positions on stage allows presenters to play more than one character, and helps the audience visually understand which character the presenter is playing. 

​In the presenter’s second story, she illustrates a conversation that she is having with her boyfriend.  At position C, she plays herself, with her back to her boyfriend, speaking in her own voice,   She then moves to position B, where she plays her boyfriend, speaking in his low voice.  (video).

As she moves in and out of each character, the audience is able to easily follow her story, enjoy the dialogue, have a laugh, and absorb the lessons learned.

Red Dot Lessons - Part 2
In this article series, you will learn 5 ways to use movement to help you communicate more powerfully to your audiences.  We will discuss how movement is used to give your stories separate locations.

​Give your stories separate locations (3 videos)
The speaker shares three stories: one is with her girlfriends in a home, the second is with her boyfriend, and the third is with her girlfriends on vacation.  Here she has the ability to use the front and the back of the Red Dot to identify each of her stories 

​Position E represents her Monday night ritual, when she meets at girlfriend’s house to pile on the couch and share about their week.  (video)

​After the evening is done, she walks to the front of the Red Dot, Position F, to indicate that she has now shifted to another location, where she will interact with her boyfriend. (video) .  ​ In her third story, the location shifts to a vacation apartment in France.  What remains the same, however, is a couch at Position E, where she can repeat the experience of sitting and sharing with her girlfriends.

​​By establishing these two story locations, the presenter identifies a place where she can go in order to weather a crisis or an emotional storm.   When she tells her third story, a crisis arrives that leaves her in a state of emotional turmoil. (video)   While in the midst of turmoil, she is able go back to a safe place, on a coach with her girlfriends where she finds support and connection.

​The center of the circle (Position C) represents the present, where she shares her wisdom, advice, lessons learned (video).  

​She moves to the right edge of the Red Dot, Position D, to speak about an idealistic point in the future.  (video) 

​When you connect the four dots, it gives a visual timeline that goes from left to right.   We’ve all seen timelines before, in history books and in bar charts.  These stage positions are consistent with how we have used and experienced timelines to communicate past, present, and future.

Once these positions are established, the presenter has the ability to gesture towards the left edge to reference lessons learned in the past, and to gesture towards the right edge to reference possibilities in our future.  In her closing section, she moves to position B, her time on the MTV show, to share the key lesson from that experience.  (video)

​Top 2 Mistakes
The first mistake that presenters commonly make is staying frozen in the exact same spot throughout the presentation.  As a member of the audience, you can close your eyes, and have the same experience as the rest of the audience who have their eyes open.   The cameramen can also fall asleep and successfully capture the entire presentation.

The second mistakes that presenters make is wandering aimlessly on the Red Dot.  There does not seem to be any purpose to the movements, and the audience can be distracted from the messages the presenter is intending to share.  Sometimes, this occurs because the presenter takes the stage with nervous energy, and their body just wants to move around to dissipate that nervousness.  The most common reason, unfortunately, is that presenters do not build intentional movement into their presentations.

Opportunity Lost
Presenters miss out on a huge opportunity to leverage the entire Red Dot to help them better communicate specific messages in their presentation.    Some of you may think that the Red Dot is too small, that there really isn’t enough room to make effective use of movement.  At TEDx conferences, the Red Dot comes in many sizes.  It may take you 3 steps to travel across a small Red Dot, while other conferences have larger Red Dots , requiring 10 steps to walk from one end to the other.

I was on the production team of a large event, where Nick Vujicic came on stage to share his inspirational message.  The size of the stage was enormous, giving each of our speakers lots of space to use while presenting to over 2000 people.  For Nick, however, his “stage” was the top of an 8 foot conference table.  Nick does not have legs, and has two small and deformed feet.  His stage movement is done by “waddling” from one end of the table to the other.  Nick’s incredible presentation skills was augmented by his usage of the entire table, and his movement helped him connect with each and every member of the audience.

No matter the size of your stage, you have the capability of using the entire stage to help you tell a story, teach the audience, and visually engage your audience.

In this four part series, we will be reviewing how movement allows you to:

• Illustrate Past, Present, and Future
• Give your Stories separate locations
• Demonstrate a Range (of opinions)
• Play different characters
• Illustrate Emotion and Momentum

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