How to present with Twitter and other backchannels
November 20, 2009
Presenting with Twitter can be challenging. Just about every week a new story of a speaker getting roasted on Twitter makes waves in the blogosphere.
I’ve written a free eBook “How to present with Twitter (and other backchannels)” to help you avoid that fate. There’s no sign up required. Just click and read.
I asked my trusted and expert community to review the book and say what they thought of it:
“Fantastic eBook! Outstanding information and well worth the read.” Jeff Hurt, @JeffHurt and MidCourse Corrections
Why your presentation shouldn’t flow
September 8, 2009
When I ask people on our courses how their presentation went they often say “It didn’t flow.” I ask them to elaborate and they say “I stumbled, I had mind blanks, and I had to start sentences again because they didn’t make sense.”
I then ask the audience how they found the presentation – they often don’t notice the issues which loomed so large for the presenter.
It’s not pleasant to be stumbling your way through a presentation. You’d like to feel that your brain and mouth are perfectly in sync and that words are just flowing effortlessly out of your mouth. That may feel good to you when you’re presenting, but it’s not necessarily good for the audience. Don’t aim to replace your stumbles with a continuous flow.
How to survive watching yourself on video
August 26, 2009
Do you hate the idea of watching yourself on video? Most people do. But on our courses it’s one of our most powerful tools for helping people to reduce their fear of public speaking. Watching yourself give a presentation can give you a tremendous confidence boost.
That’s because the way that you come across is often better than the way you imagine you come across. That’s because you can feel your nervousness, but the audience can only see it or hear it. Mike Bogle from the TechTicker blog writes:
In listening to the recording I was actually amazed how relaxed I sounded relative to the whirlwind of anxiety that was actually going on inside my head.
What you need to know before your first presentation
July 9, 2009
Giving your first presentation or speech is daunting. I’ve worked with many new presenters and here’s the advice that has made the most difference to them.
1. Content is king
Your audience is there for what you are going to say. Not how you say it.
How to tweet during a presentation
June 30, 2009
The latest academic research on Twitter and conferences addresses the issue of “snarky tweets” during presentations. What should be the guidelines of what is acceptable and what is not? My own experience of tweeting during presentations at Presentation Camp LA highlighted for me the new challenges we face around Twitter etiquette at conferences.
The research
Tony McNeil reports on a survey of 103 people from a conference on learning technology in April 2009: More than just passing notes in class? Reflections on the twitter backchannel.
Powerpoint custom animation experiment – check out the animation for yourself
June 17, 2009
Yesterday, I reported on the results of an experiment into the impact of Powerpoint custom animation on learning. I’ve now been given permission by the authors (Dr Stephen Mahar and colleagues) to publish samples of the screencasts used in the research.
Summary of the experiment
The purpose of the experiment was to test the hypothesis that: [Read more]
New research questions the benefits of custom animation in PowerPoint
June 16, 2009
I thought that simple, non-distracting animations that brought in slide elements one at a time as I verbally introduced them was helpful. I thought that it helped members of my audience focus on the slide element that I was talking about.
Seems I might be wrong.
Research carried out by Stephen Mahar, Ulku Yaylacicegi and Thomas Janicki found that students who were shown an animated PowerPoint slideshow learnt less than those that saw a non-animated slideshow.
How to create a “new” presentation from pre-existing slides
June 13, 2009
In a perfect world, every new presentation would be prepared from scratch, tailored exactly to the specific audience. But in reality, you sometimes have to cobble together a “new presentation” from pre-existing material.
How can you create an effective presentation in the shortest possible time using pre-existing slides from different sources?
There are two phases to this. First, organizing the content of the presentation and second, creating slides to go with it. [Read more]
Should you display the live twitter stream on a large screen?
May 20, 2009
Twitter is now a reality at many conferences. Now the question is: should you display a live twitter stream on a large screen so that everyone (not just the tweeters) in the audience can see it?
Sir Ken Robinson speaking at "Hacking Education" organised by Union Square Ventures. Photo used with permission from Fred Wilson
Having twitter on a large screen can enrich the conference experience. Here’s a report from the Museums and the Web conference 09: [Read more]
You don’t have to slow down to be an effective presenter
April 24, 2009
Have you been told to slow down when you’re presenting?
There’s only one legitimate reason for slowing down. That’s if you go so fast that your words get blurred. Otherwise there’s nothing wrong with speaking fast. Watch this video of Gary Vaynerchuk – would you want him to slow down?
This is the way Gary speaks. He’s being himself.
If you’re a naturally fast speaker and you try and slow yourself down, you won’t be being yourself. It will be an effort for you and you’re unlikely to come across as natural and conversational. Speak the way you normally would in a conversation.
