Posts tagged as:

Audience

How to inspire an audience like Nick Vujicic

January 11, 2009

Watch this video and be inspired. Nick Vujicic is an amazing man. His ability to shift the audience’s emotions is something else. And with the hardest audience – hundred of teenagers in a school gym. Within seconds he’s created fun, excitement, and laughter. He’s got them. He shifts to sombre and serious. And then inspires [...]

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New research: warning about story-telling

January 2, 2009

The guru of multimedia learning Richard Mayer has just published a new paper that all presenters should take note of. The paper is called “Increased interestingness of extraneous details in a multimedia science presentation leads to decreased learning”. The research Students received one of two PowerPoint presentations about how a cold virus infects the human [...]

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15 ways to improve your presentations in 2009

December 31, 2008

This is a big meaty post with 15 ways to improve your presentations. These ideas are designed to challenge you to stretch yourself. With each idea I’ve pointed you to further resources from fellow presentation bloggers or from my own archives. Choose one or two to work on at a time. Bookmark this post, so [...]

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A critique of Malcolm Gladwell

December 4, 2008

Garr Reynolds from Presentation Zen has highlighted several presentations from Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm Gladwell is a master storyteller in his books. He carries that through in his presentations. Watch the video – then read my analysis below for what you can learn from Malcolm Gladwell and his presentation style. What Gladwell did well So what [...]

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How to get the most out of Toastmasters

December 3, 2008

Toastmasters is a great organisation to join to get lots of speaking practice and increase your confidence. I was in Toastmasters for eight years and it made a huge difference to my life – I became a confident speaker, an effective social networker … and I met my husband there! It makes a huge difference [...]

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8 tips for encouraging questions in your presentation

November 27, 2008

Most of us would like people in the audience to ask questions. A lively Q&A session is stimulating and engaging for the audience. But sometimes you ask for questions, and you’re just met with blank gazes back from your audience. It’s a let-down and your presentation ends on a sour note. Questions from the audience [...]

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5 steps to effective Powerpoint Presentations

November 25, 2008

Stepcase Lifehack just published a blogpost on tips for more effective PowerPoint presentations. I was surprised to see some outdated and unhelpful advice. Here are my five steps to create an effective PowerPoint presentation. I’ve written about many of these steps before, so I’ve provided links to more detailed posts if you’d like more information. [...]

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5 ways bullet-point slides damage your brand

November 16, 2008

Your presentation style is part of your personal brand. If you’re still clinging to bullet-point slides, it doesn’t matter how dynamic you are as a presenter, your personal brand will be damaged. That’s because when you use bullet-laden slides in your presentation, your audience will make five decisions about you and your presentation: 1. This [...]

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Six lessons in public speaking from Obama

November 9, 2008

America has elected the greatest political speaker for a generation. You may think that there’s nothing for you to learn from Barack Obama’s speechmaking skills – that speaking to 200,000 people at Grant Park, Chicago is too far removed from the presentation you might give to your staff, to your management team or to potential [...]

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Review of the top 10 methods to overcome fear of public speaking #1

November 4, 2008

There’s a ton of internet advice on how to overcome the fear of public speaking. Much of the advice is of the “what worked for me” kind. Or the advice is the first stage of trying to sell you a a hypnosis CD. So how do you decide what advice to follow? In this post [...]