I love geeks but sometimes they don’t seem to love me. I’m not stupid but I’m often made to feel that way when I hear brilliant engineers, scientists and systems analysts ‘trying’ to explain what they do. It’s a crying shame really, because my starting position is admiration of expertise and excitement of the possibilities…
5 Steps to Conquer ‘Death by PowerPoint’ by Eric Bergman is aimed at eradicating the boring, text filled corporate presentations – which we’ve all experienced. It’s a great read, and I’d definitely recommend it. Who is it for? The book is written for corporate presenters. It will be useful to anybody who has to give…
I was forced to attend a driver education programme in the UK recently, having been caught on a speed camera doing 34 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone. Well I wasn’t really forced to attend. I was given the choice to pay a £90 fine and accept 3 penalty points on my driver’s…
Use these three types of questions to better engage your audience throughout the presentation. Answer questions from the audience This traditional method is often handled poorly. Typically the presenter delivers the presentation and then feebly asks, “Are there any questions?” What’s wrong with this approach? The end of the presentation and the question period…
I know that getting laid is not the only measure of success, but it’s translatable for everyone isn’t it? Whether you want the doubtful charms of an audience member, or business for the long-term from a corporate client, it’s opportunities we want isn’t it? So as a metaphor, let’s use the ‘getting laid’ idea as…
There’s an epidemic of near-fatal speaker’s diseases to be seen in corporate life. Here’s a quick outline of three of them, with the key symptoms for each to help you decide if you know anybody who’s suffering. If you do, there’s a simple cure. Outlined at the end of the article. Abstraction poisoning: This occurs…
I had reason to sit in on a brief, fifteen minute lecture recently, where an SEO specialist was setting out Search Engine Optimisation tactics to a group of amateur Mum bloggers. He started off well, giving a quick round-up of what SEO actually means – it’s about improving where your website gets ranked in Google search results….
Fit, Focus and Flair is our model for making sure each of your presentations are great – not just one in ten, when the stars are aligned and your stock speech just happens to suit the situation perfectly. Find out what we mean when we say ‘Fit, Focus & Flair’. Put simply, Flair is how…
We’ve talked for a few times about ‘elevator pitches’, and as so often happens, we like the idea of having an interesting, short, enticing pitch for all seasons but we don’t ever get round to creating one. I’m not a great fan of the ‘elevator’ because I think even 30-45 seconds is too long when…