Murphy's Law states: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." This is especially true and especially painful when there is an audience involved.
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Fortify Your Oasis: Presentation party pieces — “Most trainers and skilled presenters have a couple of these schticks that they can pull out at the drop of a hat. It’s a very good idea, because you never know when you are going to have to fill some ‘dead air’ because of a technical hitch or a late arrival. Steve Jobs illustrated this really well in his January 2007 keynote. His remote clicker stopped working and so did the backup.”
Sales and Marketing Manager.com: Sales Clown & — “Two selling blunders from Dan Seidman of SalesAutopsy.com. A couple guys drink slurpies before a call. And a former Xerox rep memorizes her pitch for a disastrous presentation.”
LinkedIn Answers (Michael Seidle): What is the worst presentation gaffe you’ve ever seen?
Great Public Speaking: CHECK EACH SEAT and SAVER LINES.
Learning as I go: The Day In Which I Spoke In Front of 200 People — “So, about ten minutes before a company-wide presentation is being made, it has come to our attention that there is no moderator. By the time I’m found, I’m told that I will need to do it. Uh. Crap. Me is not a public speaker as I will skipsy all over my words or start to babble with some weird fillers. No way. I cannot remember the last time I spoke to a room with more than six or seven people. 200? No.”
Communication Skills For Technical Staff: 5 Ways To Deliver A Disastrous Presentation
Control Booth Discussion Board: Human Stupidity — Photos of dangerous things witnessed during meeting setup and backstage. Apparently there’s a lot of things you shouldn’t do with ladders, fork lifts and power cables.
Overnight Sensation: Public Speaking Success: Death by Time Limit – Tip for Trainers — “The point is that if you’re supposed to end at a certain time and you don’t, you’ll notice the energy level of the room suddenly drop.”
Valley Wag: IAC building power outage kills New York tech meetup, spares us all — “New York wantrepreneurs preparing for a night of rejection and glazed looks can relax — tonight’s New York Tech Meetup is canceled due to a power outage at IAC.”
Terrific Public Speaking and Presentation Skills: How Many People Will Speak at Your Funeral?
Speak Schmeak (yet again):Â The power of language (or, how I got in trouble for saying “pee”) — “But it has revived an old question for me: How far can you push the comfort level of your audience? ”
slide:ology:Â Tips for Remote Presenters — Great tips from Nancy Duarte for avoid problem while doing a webinar. “When delivering a presentation online, each application used to display your content is very different. Host a dry run of your presentation in which you click through ALL your slides. Many of the applications lose transitions, builds, and animations. What works in PowerPoint may not work in the application hosting your presentation.”
Execupundit.com: What Can They Do To You? — “Somewhere I read about an executive who calmed the fears of an associate who’d blundered by telling her, “What do you think they (upper management) are going to do? Burn down your house? Take your children? The most they can do is fire you.”
Arunn Narasimhan:Â Decorum at an Academic Interview Presentation — “The Laser pointer used by the nervous candidate should auto turn off whenever it is pointed away from the board and in particular when the candidate turns and addresses the gathering.”
Toastmasters & Etc.:Â Let’s All Introduce Ourselves… — “Do you want to start out a meeting with “Let’s all introduce ourselves” at the beginning? I’m not a huge fan of this in general because it can get kind of out of control time wise (or very out of control), even with a small crowd, unless you’re careful. Three little anecdotes about this follow.”
Speaking about Presenting: How to manage unruly question time — “Ask each questioner to state their name before they ask their question or make a comment. They’re likely to behave better.”
CenterNetworks: I’ve Had Enough of “Live” at Conferences — “When I spend thousands of dollars and my time to attend a conference, I am really not interested in watching the Qik CEO broadcast the session live to everyone without paying attention to what’s going on in the moment. I also really don’t give a rats ass what people outside the conference think of what’s going on inside the room. I want to have the speaker’s full attention. I didn’t have that today – not by a longshot. And again, I am using this session as an example but the issue is much more widespread.”
Working Blue:Â They tried to make me go to conference, and I said NO, NO NO. . . — “I’m slated to give a brief talk to grad students about delivering conference papers, so I thought I’d start with the usual “conference blunders” routine. There are some immediate biggies that come to mind, but I know I’m overlooking some more subtle problems of conference paper downers. Any that I’m missing? Here’s my list:”
Seven Red: Top 20 4C’s Presentation Mistakes (Part 1) and Top 20 4C’s Presentation Mistakes (Part 2) — “The Technophile – I see you there messing around with your brand new MacBook Pro. You’ve got the A/V hook-up working, and you’re testing out the video. You even brought those portable speakers so that we hear the audio clearly. Good. I’m the last person to complain about a little tech stuff at the presentation. But why, why I ask you, must the video be longer than your explanation of why I’m supposed to care about it?”
(Diigo bookmark list)
Speak Schmeak: Don’t waste time talking about time — “She didn’t say it just once. In the course of her 20-minute presentation, she mentioned that she didn’t have enough time about five times.”
Loot Ninja: Konami Exec Fails at Her Own Game — “This lady is a Senior Product Manager, but has some of the worst microphone skills I have ever seen. She starts her talk by calling the crowd “lame”, that should get everyone into it. … Overall this lady needs to be booted from public speaking and never allowed to play a video game in front of a crowd.”
The AV Report: Would You Like a Mac Dongle With That? — “When I asked three (3) Mac users if we could try a Mac to run the slides from, not one of them were able to do it because they didn’t have their Mac VGA dongle with them! It’s just one more item to add to a checklist, but often forgotten about. I’ve seen three versions of this dongle/adapter – DVI, Mini-DVI and Micro-DVI! Which do you have?”
Shane Gibson: Blogathon 2008 – Entry #1 – Murphy’s Law — “What this means is if you are going to a clients office to demonstrate software or a web application we must assume and prepare for the following circumstances.”
Pro Humorist: Presentations: Fast Tip — “If you get the two muddled up, as people invariably do, then you’ll find yourself having to get permanent marker off whiteboards. Not fun.”
Face2Face: Privacy? What’s that? — :Cindy relates the tale of an association that found something from their meeting on YouTube that they really, really didn’t want to be out there for the world to see.”
Man In The Mirror: Check This “Avoid At All Costs” List.
Overnight Sensation: Three Ways to Improve Your Speech Delivery — “In general, as part of your speech preparation, try to anticipate the things that can adversely affect your speech. Knowing that computers and projectors are prone to technical glitches, wait staff don’t always remember to not clear plates while you’re talking and audience members may not always be respectful can help you adequately prepare for potential problems.”
Art of Speaking Science: What if you can’t pronounce their name?
Zallas Technologies: Will You Pass the Flinch Test? — “There is a little test that professional buyers give to every salesperson. It is a test to see if they are confident in the price they presented. They call it the flinch test.”
Make Your Point with Pow’R: What obvious answers are you overlooking? — “As presenters, we get so used to the routine that we overlook the obvious and jump straight into complex solutions for simple problems.”
Software Safari: User Conference Overload: Bad Software Conference Activities We’d Like to See Disappear –If your people are giving presentations like this, you’re asking for problems.
Nicholas Bate: 9 Things Not to Say in your Presentation — Brilliant.
The Eloquent Woman: testing the kindle on the lectern — “Here’s what I learned about what you should expect when using this new device in a live setting, from preparatory steps to actual use.”
Speak Schmeak: When audience members attack — “Do you ever feel like an audience member is attacking you when they ask challenging questions during your presentation?”
Linkedin Answers: Care to share your most embarrassing, awkward, or unusual speaking experience?
Law.com: Peaks and Valleys of PowerPoint Presentation — “What’s the worst mistake you’ve ever made (or seen) in a presentation using Microsoft’s PowerPoint?”
Corporate Presenter: TV Presenters and animals — “Ouch!”
Presenter Gold: White Death on the Podium — “And yet in a presentation situation, many of us put black text on white screens. I want you to think for a moment about what that’s doing to the audience. It’s been described as trying to read the lettering on a switched-on light bulb.”
Live Musician Central: Settle Your Nerves – Dealing With Stage Fright — “I’ve played with guys that were throwing up before every gig because they got so nervous.”
Services Safari: Delivering a Great Keynote Presentation Part 1 – The Delivery –“I know a person’s a bad speaker when I can imagine my 14-year, with absolutely no advance preparation, could be way more entertaining with the same material.”
Nury Vittachi: — I got the public speaking blues — “I know about these things. Somewhere on earth there is an “Institute of Introducers” at which citizens have all detectable grey matter surgically removed. They are then released back into the wild as certified Masters of Ceremonies.”
Web Strategy by Jeremiah: Fail Fast — “I screw up a lot, always have, always will, but what matters is what I do next. My first presentation to a Forrester client was a total F-up.”
Indexed: A real spectacle. –“Sweating, staring, crowds.”
Make Your Point with Pow’R: Pre-Presentation Speaking — “Remember to speak before your presentation. In some cases, even before you arrive at the venue.”
Jessica Hatchigan’s speechwriting blog: Time Matters: Scheduling Your CEO’s Speeches — “Do you have the option to choose the time of day your CEO will deliver his/her speech?”
Great Public Speaking: Public Speaking : SEATING TIPS
Linkedin Answers: The Un-Planned question – the impromtu – throws the best of us, but what are the toughest situations you find yourself confronted with?
9 Months to birthing my BESTSELLER!: Two Words that Make Most Audiences Cringe! — “Which brings me to the last lesson. Do Not, I repeat DO NOT do what I did (you’d have to be really brave or crazy!) Do not use language that will turn some or most of the audience against you!” (Slightly NSFW image)
Charli Jane Speaker Services: Top 10 ‘do nots’ when working with meeting planners.
Post-vacation Edition
 Back from a week down the Jersey Shore. Perfect weather, not so perfect internet access. Here are some items you might have missed left over from before I left. I hope to be back to the regular posting schedule later this week.
SpeakerSue Says: The most embarrassing web presentation ever — Some great tips for avoiding common web presentation disasters.
Nicholas Bate: 30 Minutes Before your Big Pitch to 35 People — Great ideas for a pre-presentation checklist.
Speak Schmeak: Be a host, not a guest: :”Checking out the venue in advance is frequently overlooked by beginning speakers, and here’s why it shouldn’t be.”
Laptop Magazine: Common (But Avoidable) Presentation Disasters — “A technical problem is almost guaranteed to occur during a big presentation. Here’s how to handle the most common issues.”
Great Public Speaking: DON’T GO TO THE BATHROOM — I don’t think I would have allowed the AV staff to get away with this. I know I never would have taken it upon myself to move a speaker’s stuff around if I was the AV person.
Authenticity Rules: Concentrate Your Training Room — Don’t let the energy dissipate.
Public Speaking Sucker: Five Ways To Snap Your Audience Members Awake If They’re Dozing Off.
Memo to C-Level Speakers: Turn Your Script into a Roadmap of Ideas — These ideas can also help you format your script so it doesn’t cause difficulties during your presentation.
Live Music Central: How To Handle Jerks, Be Professional — Meant for musicians but interesting perspective for presenters.
Geek News Central: Hilton Hotel Chains Internet Access and other Issues! — Gotta have internet and a desk. Might want to keep out for the promised future reviews.
Zallas Technologies: Managing Meeting Mayhem — “You start the meeting, only to be interrupted by two or three latecomers. As you glance around the room, people are busy sending text messages on their cell phones and whispering quietly to each other. What about the meeting? How do you even try to compete with all of these distractions, not to mention the rambling storyteller and the constant disagreement between the two at the end of the table?”
Speak Fearlessly: How to deal with the “Stump the Chump” dynamic in Public Speaking — ““Stump the Chump†refers to an audience member who may be disruptive or hostile; often expressed through repeated questioning meant to challenge a speaker’s authority and possibly steal the spotlight.”
Great Public Speaking: LapTop Volume — “Here’s a quick way to handle the volume when you do not have a sound person in the room.” and BACKWARDS — “The problem was, he started at the wrong end of the pole.”
SpeakerSue Says: The 2 Biggest Mistakes Presenters Can Make — “For example, you could: Faint, throw up, ramble, bore, forget, amble, become parched, blush, not know, say too much, say too little, humiliate yourself, not be funny, stutter, not shut up, patronize, condescend, shake, and in general make a mess of yourself. But wait, there’s more.”
Colorado Communication Coach: What I Learned from Scathing Criticism — “Then, on the backside, he or she typed out a numbered list of all the mistakes I made in my presentation…”
Gathering: don’t poison your attendees — “Seems like an obvious statement, but how often do we consider ALL of the ways we could be harming our guests?!”
Mother Tongue Annoyances: How to Attain Serenity Before Giving a Speech — “However, in my experience as a technical trainer, IT professional, and astute audience member I have seen not an insignificant number of public speakers blow otherwise fine presentations by needlessly psyching themselves out due to mishandled fear or over-jangling nerves.”
Overnight Sensation: Career Success: How a Crisis Can Become Your Opportunity for Greatness –Try to keep this in mind the next time the presentation is going to hell in a handbasket.
LetZcommunicate: “Speaking of Nightmares” — Seven presenting nightmares, seven really useful lessons learned.
Pro Humorist: “Pulblic Speaking: Hecklers” — “This is important because you are the speaker so you are in the position of power.”
Business Presentations: “Get the Hook: When Speakers Hog the Spotlight” — Great tips for gracefully helping the longwinded away from the microphone.
About Projectors: “ASUS Laptop Has Built-In Projector” — “Another reason you might want this projector in your laptop is because you could have forgotten your portable projector at home when you almost missed your business flight.” It always pays to have a backup.
While we’re on the subject of backups, Fleeting Glimpse Images tells the tale of what happens when equipment unexpectedly meets water. Although Rikk is writing about photography rather than the presenting business, there are enough parallels between the two to make this of interest to those seeking to break Murphy’s Law. “This exercise proved to me that I cannot out-plan disaster but I can plan to cope with it should it strike.”
Eye for Image Blog: “It never hurts to listen“: A Murphy’s Law moment that turned out for the best.
Dr Simon Raybould anticipates that the architecture of the room he is presenting in might present some challenges — Tiers to tears.
speechmastery.com: Accurate Pronunciation How Do I Say…? A List of the Most Mispronounced Words.
iDoctor: Happy Birthday USB Flash Drive! — I guess sometimes good things can come from bad presentations.
Speak Schmeak: A great idea for getting the laptop show ready.
Seth Godin: Sorry to talk so long… — You don’t need to say you’re sorry.
Speak Fearlessly: Stage Fright.
Speak Schmeak: Lost your place?
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Gathering: honey, i’m [sending a bunch of stuff] home! — “Here are some quick and easy things you can do to ensure your return shipment doesn’t cause you headaches!”
Connexion! Communication Central: Power Failure – How Not to Use Your Body….
Corporate Presenter: Presenting Under Pressure — “These American presenters really know how to lose it!”
Corpreform: Laser pointer too complicated for partner at Skadden.
PublicSpeakinghacks.com: Review: Monster Outlets To Go Powerstrip — “In the era of what was supposed to be flying cars and interstellar travel, I spend way too much time on my hands and knees groping in the dark and dust for a free electrical outlet under conference room tables, in presentation halls, and hotel rooms. Now, for less than 20 bucks I’ve got an ingenious compact power strip that is actually designed for the real world.”
Make Your Point with Pow’R: Living with Gremlins: “You never know what gremlin will creep into your presentation. All that you can do is be prepared to speak-on, sans your slideshow.”
Al Nyveldt: Philly Code Camp Wrap up — “If it were not for this extra time, my session would have been a disaster.”
Zallas Technologies: Don’t Fumble the Kick Off — “During a decades long sales career in the high tech industry as a front line representative, sales manager and vice president of sales Steve Martin participated in more than a hundred sales kick off events. He’s witnessed the good, the bad, and a whole lot in between. In an effort to help sales organizations put their best foot forward during the most important meeting of the year, Martin has come up with the following list of ‘Top Five Sales Kick Off Meeting Mistakes.'”
Overnight Sensation: Public Speaking Success: What to do when they don’t laugh at your jokes — “It’s every speaker’s nightmare: you’ve told that joke that you think is funny (you practically chuckle yourself as you tell it) but the audience doesn’t react.”
Speak Schmeak: Make sure the announcer can pronounce your name.
Brad Montgomery: Speaking Tip: We’re Bored By Your Intro! — “This guy has some killer credits and some amazing stuff on his resume. And he was funny. But his opening sucked. And in spite of his terrific skills, he never really one the crowd over.”
The Extreme Presentation(tm) Method: Don’t ever give an FYI presentation.
ManageSmarter: Five Things Not to Do in Front of an Audience
Create Your Communications Experience: Obama and the Teleprompter — “But why doesn’t he learn to use the teleprompter well?”
Memo to C-Level Speakers: Audience? What Audience? — “Sadly, some speakers behave as if, for all practical purposes, their audience doesn’t exist.”
Great Public Speaking: Public Speaking : OPENING TIPS.
bMighty.com: Strategy Matters: Eight Great PowerPoint Myths — “PowerPoint presentations that flood the audience with glittering graphics, brazen bulleted lists, and endless animations may look great, but they often drown out the message. Just because you can use every PowerPoint feature doesn’t mean you should.”
“The Wheel’s” Toastmasters blog: Speed Kills…
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