I love “TED talks”. If you don’t know TED, it stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. TED is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to spread great ideas and affect positive change. It began as a conference in 1984 and now sponsors/supports a number of conferences around the world. TED has an interesting format, when presenting at TED, speakers have 18 minutes to deliver their message. Many famous people have presented at TED, including Al Gore, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates. But some of the most interesting talks are from people you have never heard of. There are over 900 TED talks www.ted.com. When you watch TED talks, you learn… Read More
Continue ReadingBe a boy scout…
The “Be Prepared” motto has been used by the boy scouts for over 100 years. Being prepared means being in a state of readiness to do your duty; it’s about making the necessary preparations to handle situations that will or could occur. As a presenter you need to be prepared to deal with a variety of situations that can throw you off or cause the audience to disengage from your presentation. This can dilute the message you are trying to get across. I’d like to share some of my experiences about what can go wrong, and how to be better prepared. Technical problems If you are presenting at a conference, make… Read More
Continue ReadingConnect with the audience … Knowing me, Knowing you
I went to an ABBA tribute band performance a couple of weeks ago. They were theatrically and musically very good, however for the first half of the concert they did not connect with the audience. For me this was puzzling; ABBA songs are upbeat and popular. But the applause was only polite, there was no clapping, people did not sing/dance along when invited, and it actually became uncomfortable. As I thought about what they were doing/ not doing to cause this disconnect, I realized that these are the same things that apply to presenting. From a physical perspective the singers were mostly at the back on the stage, even though… Read More
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