Reading the Room: What Dubai Taught Me About Listening
My seminar was booked for 30 minutes, an hour before the fair closed on day two. My team and I had spent days perfecting the slides. Then I walked in and changed my whole approach.
Listen before you answer. The questions I was asked, on air and at our stand, were not the ones I had prepared for. They were what the Dubai audience actually wanted to know. In Singapore, I mostly meet families with a familiar set of goals. Dubai was far more global, with wide-open aspirations such as astrophysics and architecture, not just the Ivy League and top UK universities. The qualifications were just as varied: CBSE, the Filipino and French syllabi, BTEC, HNDs, some I hadn’t heard of in years.
Deliver what people need, not what you assume. These students are not the ones I taught years ago. Their world has shifted: the economy, the job market, even internships, which are close to impossible to secure, with some applicants applying two years ahead and getting nothing. In the classroom, that means asking whether a student needs a lecture, new information, or help structuring what they already know.
Read the room. After the radio interview and more than 200 conversations at our stand, I knew what families wanted to know. So for the first 15 minutes of the seminar I simply talked, as a parent of three, about what we all want for our children: to be settled, healthy and happy. I only touched on Young Scholarz’s credentials and teaching methods near the end, and I’m proud of those methods, but they weren’t what the room had come to hear. I didn’t reach the slides until 15 to 20 minutes in.
Three questions helped:
- What is this audience expecting from me?
- What do they actually want to hear?
- What do they need that they haven’t asked for yet?
The room needed more than help with grades.
Prepare differently. You can’t over-prepare, because you can’t know what people will ask. Know your content, get a good night’s sleep and stay calm. It’s the same advice I give students: I never predict exam questions. Be ready with everything you know, then practise organising it for whatever is asked. And be honest when you don’t know. “That’s new to me, I’ll get back to you” builds more trust than a bluff.
People connect with people. Visitors wanted to hear about our credibility and my own journey, because a real journey is the truest illustration of life. Around 150 people stayed seated for the seminar, and many came to our stall afterwards.
A prepared talk is only a starting point. Pause, listen, and let your audience decide where it goes.