Anaheim, CA Artificial Intelligence presentation the bait and switch.

This presentation was promoted as an AI training course for real estate agents at Pacific West Association of Realtors.

However, this Artificial Intelligence talk and presentation in Anaheim California turned out to be nothing more than a bait and switch sales pitch.

I got a text message that looked like spam the other day. It was from a real estate training company. They were using a mass texting system that is becoming more common. So of course when I called the number it was not real. When I called them they sounded like they might be legit. When I went to their website it looked like it may have been hacked or they are very spammy, one of the two. Well I am interested in Artificial intelligence, so I attended their AI seminar. That was a mistake. The only AI they talked about was me asking them how they use Artificial intelligence in their marketing. I got a very basic, a very generic, and a very unhelpful answer. So I commented in a way I thought might stimulate a little conversation. Unfortunately the presenter didn’t know what I was talking about. Apparently he was unaware of some of the problems of AI. He did not even know what AI hallucinating was.

Basically it was a two hour sales pitch for their marketing services.

Not only was there the old bait and switch used but a lot of other somewhat questionable sales techniques as well. The guy doing the presentation was an experienced presenter, but he was condescending and I found him a little annoying.

He would say that it would not be professional to tell people one thing and then he would tell us that very thing.

He would say he was only going to take 5 to 7 minutes to cover a topic then tell us how great he was and take 14 to 20 minutes.

The sales presentation as one would expect was full of standard sales techniques, for two hours. He was a little irritating.

He kept telling us he was a professional and that he was educating us, while using 15 minutes for a sales pitch to give us a few minutes of real information.

Then he would tell everyone to respond to his less than authentic questions. That always irritates me. Don’t command me to respond to your contrived questions. I don’t like that.

If you want engagement from an audience, then be more engaging. It should flow out of your presentation naturally. Sometimes using a rhetorical question, without expecting an answer, is good enough. At other times you’re asking questions that need some kind of real feedback.

A lot of his presentation seemed contrived. He also talked alot about what experts told him to tell his audience. That seemed made up to me. That was a contrived sales technique.

I have seen the “they told me to tell you this” technique used effectively. However, he over-used it and it just became background noise. By overusing this technique he kind of ruined it for anyone other presenter I hear using this.

Now I could just be a little cynical. I admit that. But working with a lot of salespeople and marketing people makes me think, I am being conservative in my disdain for this kind of presentation.

If you want me to drive thirty miles and spend two hours at your presentation don’t lie to me about the subject matter. That is the first thing. Next don’t talk down to me and then spend all of your time telling me how great you are. I can see stretching it a little and I expect a sales pitch. But I also expect more signal to noise than the other way around. This is especially true for what is being billed as training at the Board of Realtors.

I am working on a new presentation of my own.

I am working on reconfiguring my Effort Werewolf talk for real Estate people to a talk for small businesses about web design. This means I am out looking at what others are doing.

If you have a speaking venue in North Orange County California and you need speakers get in touch with me.

It is always interesting to see how others are formatting and delivering their presentations. I’m constantly trying to figure out how to keep my own presentation interesting while also promoting a product or service. Getting that balance right seems more difficult than one would expect. Currently I am focusing on entertaining stories and unexpected business lessons from nature with light product placement.