My Toastmasters Blog — Public Speaking Secrets – Your Audience (and Google) Know More than You
Last night I attended an open speaking event, that wasn’t Toastmasters, where speakers were tasked to give an interesting 5 minute presentation. One of the presentations was a fabulous demonstration of drawing the audience in with an interesting story, making good use of PowerPoint to reinforce spoken points, and dressing to fit the speaker’s speaking style. However, the presentation was ruined when I got home, Googled the speech topic, and found out that the presenter lifted the major points of his speech from a British business writer without citing the source.
Evil Genius Media + Events — Write it…so you can read it.
4. Insist that the lectern has a lip or a rest at the base to sit your presentation on so it doesn’t slip off.
5. Ask ! Is there a lectern ?
6. Be a prima donna. Insist on enough time in the room, with the lighting set to how it will be on the day. ( So you can tell if you can see your notes or the audience if that’s important. )
7. Make changes to the lighting if you need to. It’s your presentation ! Better still, insist you speak with the event organiser prior to the event and tell them what you want. If they can’t supply or organise it, you can adapt your presentation to suit the circumstances.
8. Have a pristine copy of the presentation that you are going to read from. It’s a nightmare when you pull the pages from pocket or bag to find them crumpled so they won’t sit on the lectern.
Biz Asia — BBC’s Tasmin’s “breathtaking” on-air moment [with audio]
BBC Three news presenter Tasmin Lucia Khan left viewers gasping for more after reading a bulletin hopelessly out of breath.
The show in which Tasmin gives a minute-long current affairs update from around the world in ’60 Seconds’ was terminated on Thursday after just 30-seconds due to the mishap.
During the embarrassing episode, she was not seen on-screen but was audible only. Seconds into the bulletin, she was heard gasping between words before giving up after the first item.
Rexi Media — How do you present to multitaskers?
A friend recently described to me how his 12-year old son did his homework and I admit I was a little shocked by how much times have changed. The boy would type frantically on his computer with his I-Pod in his ears blaring hip hop, constantly shooting IMs to his friends, while periodically being interrupted by beeping text messages from his cell phone. Apparently the youngster actually got his work done, but I have no idea how. When I was a kid, we had TV, the stereo and the (one) family telephone, and we certainly didn’t talk on the phone with one I-Pod earpiece in the other ear while typing on our MySpace pages at the same time.
Daily Writing Tips — The Chief Justice’s Prepositional Slip
The preposition switch may not be evidence of parapraxis, but the fact remains that Roberts did mess up the oath. Poor guy! He’s earned himself forever the distinction of being the first justice to to stumble over the 35-word oath in the course of sixty-four years and eleven Presidents.
Webinar Wire — Giving Demos Via Webinar
I’ll make one last recommendation. If you choose to do a live demo, have a hot backup of everything ready to switch over during your session. Log in as a presenter on a second computer (preferrably on a separate network) and have the demo software fired up. If something goes wrong on machine number one, abandon it and carry on from machine number two. Audiences are sometimes bemused, but almost never assuaged by watching presenters try to fix things that are going wrong in their demos.
Jay Raskolnikov — half hillbilly, Demi-Culture — Some Thoughts
She was fine, but managed to unplug a cable leading to a special which was the only light on an actor later in the show. Got that fixed for the next scene. Show went pretty well other wise.
Fortify Your Oasis — Phil Schiller’s keynote – how to not confound expectations
In a word, he was over-anxious and under-rehearsed. Yes, I felt some empathy for him; but he did nothing to win me over with his opening. And he was under-rehearsed. If you have your material down cold – particularly your opening – you simply don’t have to refer to your prompt screens that often, and certainly not that obviously.
Overnight Sensation — Public Speaking Myths: You Should Never Open With a Thank You
In the event that you start a speech with a thank you and everyone in the audience comes up to you afterwards and says you lost them at the onset, please let me know as I’d love to know which planet your audience was from.
Presentation Zen — Apple’s Keynote Remote: first impressions
It won’t replace my Keyspan (the Keynote Remote app does not have a black-out-screen function and the iPhone is a bit bulky in the hand compared to a tiny, plastic remote), but if I ever forget my remote control, my iPhone will do the trick just fine.