Ellen Finkelstein — Outstanding Presentations Workshop

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Phil Presents — Presentation Pitfalls #7: Slide synch (or lack of)

While the speaker was fiddling with his envelope, someone else advanced the slides too quickly, and revealed the winner’s name to all but the speaker before the envelope had even been opened. Doh! Not only did this make the speaker look silly, it made everyone think less of the organization of the event, both for the Powerpoint slip-up and for even using ceremonial envelopes when the winners were already on the slides.

Webinar Crusher — What If I Screw Up A Live Webinar And How Do I Recover?

If you think that your first webinar is going to run perfectly, you’re wrong. If you think that your first 20 webinars are going to run without any problems, you’re also wrong. Things are going to happen. Maybe your Internet connection will die or Go To Webinar will not display your screen correctly. Maybe your PowerPoint won’t show up or you will lose your PowerPoint. You might be all ready to demonstrate a site for your viewers only to find out that the site is down for maintenance.

Instead of crossing your fingers, hoping nothing will ever go wrong, no, that things will go wrong. When these things do go wrong, what do you do? Always have some kind of a backup plan.

No Sweat Presentations! — When You Speak, Don’t Jingle or Deliver Other Distractions!

Other personal distractions could have to do with your appearance

• A stained shirt or jacket
• Food on your face or in your teeth (I’m not kidding.)
• Too flashy jewelry that sparkles too much.
• Outrageous clothing that ’sends its own message’

There are some preventative measures that can be taken to avoid delivering distractions.

• Empty your pockets before speaking.  No coins or keys = No Jingle!
• Have a friend in the audience quietly ’signal’ you if you start swaying or rocking.
• Put a Post Note on the lectern or on top of your notes or mind map with a reminder
• Get a good night’s sleep the night before a presentation.
• Practice – Practice – Practice
  • In front of a mirror.
  • In front of friends and family.
  • In front of a camera.
• Look in a full length mirror before coming to the lectern.
  • Check:
    • Clothing – zippers, buttons, for lint & hair
    • Self – hair, face