Speaking tips blog
Communication matters. What are you saying?
Cussing
Steve Crescendo posts an inquiry about the appropriateness of business cussing in a blog entry today. His case was that he wants to raise awareness and has a generally common cussword in a phrase to do it. He ends with, "I just don't think that anyone will be...
Or else…
Had a friend relate a communication from a Big Wig at a large corporation. Seems that the peons were getting careless with their reporting, specifically their project statii and time reports. So in a global communication to the entire organization, Mr. Wig mentioned...
But we WANT bullet points
Worked with a presenter today who had a beautiful presentation -- I don't know that I could have been as creative and visual as the final product he produced. It had pictures, few words, allowed for a maximum of interactivity, and was compelling stuff. But...
Brett Favre syndrome
Got to evaluate a Toastmasters speech today. Evaluating is hard. This particular speech was made easier by the fact the presenter approached me beforehand and told me to "let 'em have it" -- in other words, not to go easy and really help them. I usually do that,...
Snoozing
More from today's Beyond Bullet Points presentation...Cliff did a live survey for the audience's response as to what a "normal" (boring, bullet-drive) PPT presentation made them feel like. About 80% of respondants enterred one of two answers: ZZZZZZZ (puts me to...
Way beyond PowerPoint
Took in Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullet Points webinar today. Interestingly enough, he had six violations of yesterday's blog entry in the first 20 minutes 🙂 That said, I like his approach to cleaning up PowerPoint and his method will help thousands, to be sure.But...
Before we start…
This is one of my TTPP (Top Ten Pet Peeve's). Tonite's example was my nephew's middle school band concert. Three separate times the band director said something to the effect of "Before we get started, I'd like to..." This has at least two problems.First, once the...
Interacting
My session at Saturday's Toastmasters conference was titled Interactive Techniques for Presentations. It's still amazing to me how few presentations employ any techniques to get the crowd active and involved. But this isn't true in kindergarten -- kids there are...
The devil’s in the details
Heard a story from a presenter today who was using the story to draw an analogy which was very clear to the main point. Wonderful technique for helping an audience remember and apply. But there was a minor issue that really lost a lot of folks. The story was about...
Clear directions
Had a great time speaking at Saturday's Toastmaster's District 37 Spring Conference. As always, the preparation and delivery taught me more than anyone will ever get out of one of my sessions. That's the real joy of teaching.One of the nuggets from this weekend's...
You know what they say…
I often wonder if I'm the only one to hear what I hear. On a flight today where the flight attendant was less than stellar -- let's just say she wasn't the fastest jet in the squadron. Somehow my "apple juice" ended up red (cranberry), and she felt compelled to go...
What they take in.
Today was a monumental day in the life of the Hoffler family. My first Tee-ball game as a parent. Watching the wee one line it up to smack (dribble) it the first time was a moment I hope I never forget.The funny moments of the game are almost too numerous to count. ...
