Benjamin Zander at Pop!Tech 2008: How Fascinating!

This is from Presentation Zen, and written by Garr. Go sign up for his blog. If you have Nancy and Garr how could you go wrong in a presentation.

I've talked about Benjamin Zander and his inspiring presentations before (such as here and here), but I stumbled on another one today on the Pop!Tech website. (Pop!Tech is a wonderful resource for short presentations by some very smart and interesting people doing some amazing things; you can even see a nice talk by our buddy Daniel Pink at Pop!Tech.) This talk below has some similarities to Zander's TED talk (and the content is found ">in his book too), but there is a bit of a twist in this talk as he brings a very bright young musician on the stage to help illustrate his point about transformation, being in the moment, contribution, etc. If you have never seen Zander present before, then you owe yourself 20 minutes to take this in; the lessons are applicable to your work no matter what your field.

Above: Watch Benjamin Zander present at Pop!Tech 2008

The Zander method
Below are a few shots of Zander in action.

Benjamin Zander may start his presentation on stage, even using a visual or two.

But he does not stay on stage very long. Zander likes to get down and mix it up with the audience.

Back on stage: One minute he may be making a point at the piano about playing "on one buttock" and the next moment...

Zander returns closer to the audience and works the room again, engaged, passionate.

Working with a young student on stage: Make a mistake? "How fascinating!"

Zander brings his student down so that he may make a better connection with an audience member to show that music (and many other things) is not about technique only but about connection, and contribution, and full engagement with the moment.

The conclusion: Zander returns to the stage and the same visuals to make his case again.
Benjamin Zander is the Zen master of presentation. See more presentations on the Pop!Tech "Pop!Cast" site. This is a great resources, especially for classroom instructors. Fascinating!

This is syndicated from Presentation Zen, and written by Garr.