What to wear to a tech presentation?

This article was originally created by TGO Kunpeng Club. Link: What do TECH companies wear to presentations?

The author | Echo Tang

I’ve seen a lot of tech gurus speak, and they don’t care much about what they wear. They even insist that it doesn’t matter what I wear as long as the content of my speech is attractive, that “fashion shows” are for flashy celebrities, and that tech company speakers need not be so pretentious when they go on stage to deliver technology.

Last year’s Alibaba Cloud conference, Jack Ma’s dress is interesting, he did not wear his favorite bright sweater and T-shirt, but chose a white shirt, gray trousers with black shoes, all show steady and mature, conveyed Ali’s serious attitude to technology.

Apple executive Angela Ahrendts, also a speaker at a tech company, did not have such a smooth look. The thing about Ahrendts wearing a pink Burberry lace trench coat at the Apple event on Sept. 12, 2017, was that the Racked, Glamour and other outlets were all over the place.

The public is baffled by the media’s obsession with Ms Ahrendts’s clothes. Tech Insider’s Avery Hartmans responded: “There is no doubt that what Ms Ahrendts wears on stage at apple’s event is not as important as what she says.” But I also want to emphasize this point: What Ms. Ahrendts wears on stage is no accident. She would certainly not have pulled a Burberry trench coat out of a pile on her bedroom floor at the last minute: ms Ahrendts must have dressed for such an important event for something worth mentioning.

As head of Apple’s global retail operations, Ahrendts’ tastes are crucial to the company’s fortunes, according to Business Insider. She determines the look and feel of each of Apple’s stores, and is responsible for placing Apple products in the best visual position to draw people into the physical retail space.

So Ahrendts’s clothes need to convey not just the sophistication and competence of a female executive, but also fashion and peace, nobility and futurism. So the seemingly unremarkable dirty pink trench coat is a symbol of the convergence of fashion and technology, and the indelible role women have played in the development of technology.

It can be seen that for influential and decision-making executives, the choice of clothing is not only to highlight their personal charm, but also to convey their own values, and even the brand spirit of the company. So don’t dress casually for tech presentations.

TED is a private non-profit organization in the United States, best known for its TED conferences. Every March, TED brings together luminaries in the fields of science, design, literature, music and other fields in North America to share their thoughts and exploration on technology, society and people. The people who make it to the TED stage are top talent, and the public will comment on their clothes as well as their experiences and what they share.

Well aware of the importance of dress, TED organizers often give speakers a list of dress taboos: No dizzying stripes or intricate patterns; Don’t wear bright clothes or shiny jewelry that will affect stage lighting. Don’t wear anything bright, bright, etc.

But taboos aren’t enough. We also need to take some sartorial tips from TED’s many speakers.

Color selection

Different colors will make people have different associations. The purity of white, the mystery of purple and the wisdom of blue will make the audience have different psychological feelings. The speaker should choose the color according to the content of the speech, the environment of the speech and the characteristics of the identity of the individual, so as to achieve a good effect.

Stephen Burt is a professor of English at Harvard University and a poet. He chose a lavender shirt for his TED talk. When you take this shirt out by itself, it’s pretty ordinary. But when Stephen Burt wore it on stage, it blended with the purple backdrop, creating a very romantic scene. Even if the audience knows nothing about poets, they can easily feel the strong romantic and mysterious atmosphere.

In the color selection should also pay attention to avoid a single color, so as not to give people a dull impression. The change should be obtained under the condition of color harmony. There are two basic color matching principles can refer to: adjacent color matching and contrast color matching.

Adjacency collocation refers to the collocation of colors within 90 degrees of each other on the hue ring (which can be simply understood as color similarity), which is a common and relatively safe color matching method. Christopher Emdin, an associate professor at Columbia University’s School of Education, used this color scheme on the day of his TED talk. He was wearing maroon khakis, a dark maroon blazer, a maroon trim square with white dots and a maroon striped tie.

Although what use is adjacent color collocation, but also not drab. This set of collocation not only achieves the overall harmonious and consistent effect, but also presents the dynamic change through the adjustment of color depth and contrast of light and shade. The contrast with the stage background also makes the speaker stand out more. For men who don’t know how to match, matching colors is the easiest and least error-prone way to go.

Contrast color generally refers to the color difference of 180 degrees on the hue ring (simply understood as two completely unrelated colors), presenting the visual impact effect, making the overall effect of the character more vivid and prominent. Typical contrasting colors such as yellow and purple, red and green, blue and orange are more adventurous than their neighbors. This kind of collocation is relatively rare in the speech, because if you are not a master of using color, it is likely to cause a rustic impression due to the uncoordinated collocation of lightness and purity.

If you want contrast, and you don’t understand color combinations, you can use black, white and gray to save your life. These three colors belong to no color in chromology and can be matched with almost any color.

The choice of color still has a big principle: the color of the whole should not be more than 3. This three-color principle is emphasized in the foreign classic business etiquette norms, and the famous domestic etiquette experts have also emphasized this principle for many times. Simply put, the color of the body should not exceed 3 kinds.

Finally, consider the contrast with the stage background, the color of the speaker’s clothing should take into account the lighting color of the venue. It is best to contrast the color of your clothes with the background of the stage to avoid blending into the background during the shooting.

Glenn Greenwald, author of Nowhere to Hide, chose a pair of blue jeans and a blue shirt to contrast with the dark background. “They’re right about color,” Greenwald said in an interview. “If you wear black against a black background, you look like you’re wearing your head.”

Choice of style

First, to match the overall style of the meeting, communicate dress suggestions to the meeting organizer in advance, and pay attention to the attire of other speakers. If the speakers are going casual, a suit and tie looks odd; On the other hand, if all the other speakers are wearing suits and ties, if you are too casual, it will seem too casual and not serious.

Liu Chao, director of UE (user experience) at Baidu, has been criticised for this. On that day, liu Chao, the speaker at the 2016 International Experience Design Conference, dressed up in an ordinary T-shirt and a five-minute shorts. But was shouted low by the audience at the meeting site, the speech was forced to stop, baidu’s image also caused a very bad impact.

Second, it should be consistent with your topic.

The harmony between the dress and the theme of the speech is like a prelude to a song. It conveys the keynote of the speech before the speaker has even opened his mouth, giving the audience time to prepare emotionally and allowing the speaker to immerse himself in the theme more quickly.

Clio Cresswell, professor of mathematics at the University of Sydney, wore a dark blue sleeveless top, white translucent trousers and white stiletto sandals to deliver a keynote speech on Mathematics and Sex. I wanted to look sexy and glamorous, but not sexy, she told reporters. A short skirt would have been too flirtatious, so I opted for thin, slightly see-through pants. It’s not too tight and it’s not too sexy, and it looks neat. And neat and sexy also echoes the theme of “Math and Sex”. “Wow, I look great,” she said when she saw the replay.

Another woman whose outfit matched the theme was social psychologist Amy Cuddy, an associate professor at Harvard Business School. She wore a j.Crew green top, black skirt, black leggings, black shoes and a black cardigan. She wore it with a short silver necklace.

Amy Cuddy’s outfit is even more sophisticated. It looks like a black cardigan will clash with the background. In fact, she chose a coat with lower purity and slightly higher brightness than the background, which shows the mysterious color of psychology and echoes the theme of her speech.

Match the spirit of the company brand

When we have a serious discussion about what tech leaders wear, it’s easy to make fun of Jack Ma (who loves floral sweaters), Steve Jobs (who loves black jumpers) and Mark Zuckerberg (who loves gray t-shirts). “You see, they all have bad taste in clothes, but their speeches are still popular!” People often use this excuse to argue that what you wear is not important. So you pick a random dress and go on stage, regardless of the effect.

But Ma Yun also is not disregard the occasion disorderly wear clothes, in outstanding individual occasion, Ma Yun just wears the sweater of design and color that grabs an eye. In the cloud computing conference attended by nearly 60,000 people from 67 countries and regions around the world, he chose a formal suit to solemnly announce the establishment of “Dharma Courtyard”, reflecting the technical spirit of Ali.

Jobs’s wardrobe of black turtlenecks, though seemingly ordinary, had a special meaning. Issey Miyake’s brand tone is minimalist, extreme pursuit of tailoring technology. This coincides with apple’s brand of minimalism and strict control of product details.

As for Zuckerberg, his cabinet is full of grey T-shirts from Brunello Cucinelli, the Italian brand known as the “king of cashmere” and the “true luxury of clothing”.

So dressing is as important a science as the content of your speech. The next time you take the podium as a tech executive, consider the color scheme, the background color, the theme of your speech and the spirit of your company’s brand. You are responsible not only for your personal charm, but also for your company’s brand and image.

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