The latest in our series of expert guest posters comes from Roger Kethcart. Roger is an entertainment writer by trade, but his intellectual curiosity knows no bounds. His interest in rhetoric and public speaking started in college when he took Latin and was introduced to Cicero, the Roman philosopher, who though dead, added life to Roger….
The following is a great guest post from Ellen Finkelstein. Ellen is an expert trainer on using PowerPoint and presentation skills to communicate clearly and powerfully. She is a PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional, a Microsoft award), one of only 10 in the United States. Her well-known website at www.ellenfinkelstein.com offers hundreds of PowerPoint tips…
Want to know how to give a successful presentation? I can sum it up in one sentence: answer your audience’s questions. Successful Presentations Answer their Audience’s Questions I’ve often seen presentations which were captivating, funny and interesting, with great visuals and well presented by the speaker…which has left the audience disappointed and frustrated. Why? Because…
It’s a horrible moment in a speaker’s career. You build a speech around a story you found. You use it for years. It’s a great start to a session, you rely on it, it has warmth, depth, a point and it carries you on a wave of laughter into Act 1 of your story. Then,…
My experience as both an audience member and presenter tells me that the longer a presentation is, the more chance there is of the audience feeling boredom and apathy. And I doubt I’m the only one to have this groundbreaking insight. It could be that presenters get less interesting the more they talk, or meeting…
It’s becoming increasingly common for meetings to be conducted via conference call, Skype or virtual online meetings in business. Of course it makes sense from a business point of view, saving lots of money and time. But is communicating with remote audiences causing you to lose focus in your presentations? Is your message being diluted…
A few notes of planning for an hour long presentation; an unexpected tangent; questions you hadn’t prepared for…these are a few of many presenters’ least favourite things. But if we’re well prepared and confident in our selves, they can all lead to more fulfilling, interesting and successful presentations and pitches. Improving your ‘winging it’ skills…
Hope springs eternal in the human breast, Alexander Pope But it’s not true is it? As Pope was suggesting. Hope fades like a sunny morning, into a grey and drizzling afternoon. Particularly where presentations are concerned. I was at a conference last week, and saw a couple of great examples of the conference speech, and a few that were…
Last week I attended my first Independent Publisher’s Guild UK (IPG) Conference. I was there at the recommendation of Antonella Pearce, the excellent Publisher Relations Manager of the Publisher’s Licensing Society who suggested I should attend to learn a little more about the world of publishing. I love going to conferences. Particularly those where I have no agenda for being…