America's Greatest Threat Analysis

America’s Greatest Threat Do you want to know what’s like to listen and evaluate the director of one of the most important sectors involved in America’s defense? On Monday, November 8th, the director of The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) came to Virginia Tech and spoke to a large audience in Mcbryde room 100. The audience consisted of mostly students, ranging from cadets to the ordinary student, who listened intently as Kenneth A. Myers III spoke about the purpose of defense against biological, nuclear and many other destructive forms of weaponry. He also discussed his involvement in the organization. As I listened and evaluated Myers’ presentation, I noticed many qualities of a good speaker, but I also noticed flaws in Myers’ presenting …show more content…
Kenneth Myers started his presentation with a very enthusiastic story about his time here at Virginia Tech which created a strong connection with his audience and how his major impacted his career choice. From there he built his presentation, going into what his agency does and then into his personal experiences with DTRA. During his presentation he showed his calmness in front of a crowd by being very casual in his speaking manner, he didn’t stutter or slur words. Furthermore, he paced slowly back and forth across the stage so he could speak to the whole audience. He made sure to not stay in one area too long since he wanted to include the whole audience. He further showed his calmness through his casual walking position with one hand in his pants pocket, but I also took this action as a sign of informality to the audience. I believe he was trying to be informal, but that’s a hard thing to achieve when wearing a suit, but overall his attire and attitude worked well for him and his topic. Lastly, Myers was very personal with his audience, he even took the time to ask questions to the audience which he rewarded correct answers with his personal challenge coin. As for his presentation content, he went in a very logical order and used his PowerPoint presentation to effectively validate and enhance his statements. He rarely read any statements or words off his slides unless he was emphasizing a key point or explaining a graph or chart. By the end of his presentation the audience knew about his organization and the importance of it in keeping the United States safe. Overall, his casual attitude and his thorough presentation into his job and his agency gave way to a good