Imagine on Wednesday you come prepared with the clients ready to hear your presentation. The video conference is setup, your presentation and team are ready, and you’ve got a workable concept. You come to the front, take a deep breath, and begin…

This was very similar to the opening of the Machinescape from a few years ago. The client was so impressed by the student’s clever opening she was almost in tears. H2-Flo came up with a great statement from Elson Floyd to kick of the presentation. Regardless, we need to begin by setting a tone of understanding and connection, in a new way for our clients to know we genuinely care about their design.

It’s going to take a lot of discussion to get to that point, but it is within reach. We now need to take our multiple concepts we’ve developed, score them, and prepare a presentation for Wednesday. The presentation should follow the report documents key sections of 1) friendly opener, 2) review of key client demanded qualities, 3) applicable codes and standards, 4) Each leading design concept/paradigm, 5) Overall performance towards metrics, and 6) close with momentum and opportunity for further discussion.

By then you’ll need:

Reporters: To have compiled the content into a single presentation file and accompanying report.

Builders: To have found compelling example visuals of the concept/paradigm.

Theorists: To have an initial score for the approach and know the relative performance of each relative to the client specifications.

Pros: Know the codes and have a summary of how they affected the design.

Liaisons: Have a compelling opener, structure the transitions in the presentation, and closure. Basically a plan to facilitate the exchange.