Author: Bengt (Page 27 of 49)

Visualize your presentation as a starfish

October 26, 2009 / Bengt

Marion Chapsal sent me a link to Be a Starfish Speaker which gives this interesting suggestion:

Visualize your presentation as a starfish. Your central message is the middle and your main points radiate our from there. If you get off track, just return back to the center.

Sarah Gershman points out that a speak needs a central message. She writes that:

Next time you prepare your content and each and every time you practice your speech, first review the central message of your presentation. You should be able to state this in no more than one sentence.

If you can create one sentence that sums up your core message it will be much easier for your audience to remember.

I like the starfish as a symbol for a speech. There is a central part, your core message, and the arms represent a handful of points you want to make.

Credit: Photo Starfish on the Beach.

Presentation Zen is a great book

October 24, 2009 / Bengt

I have read Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds. It’s a beautiful book in itself and terrific when it comes to its topic. The book gives lots of examples, it is inspriring and very well written. Presentation Zen is the kind of book one returns to for reference as well as for new ideas.

I have made some notes while reading the book, things that stuck this time.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Leonardo da Vinci

Communication is about getting others to understand why you are excited. Communication is the transfer of emotion.

Make slides that reinforce your words, not repeat them.

What’s your point? Why does it matter?
If the audience remember only one thing, what should it be?

Simplicity is the essence of clear communication.

Bring everything back to the core message.

You have to believe in your message completely or no one else will.

Garr Reynolds has a blog with the same name, Presentation Zen, that I suggest you subscribe to.

Marion Chapsal recommended this book to me. We talked about books around presentations and she wrote If I could recommend only one this would be THE ONE! I am glad I followed her advice since I really love this book.

Get Presentation Zen at The Book Depository.

Social Media Inspiration

October 21, 2009 / Bengt

Today I attended a seminar arranged by Ledarna in cooperation with IHM Business School. Brit Stakston from JMW Kommunikation had a very interesting and informative presentation about Social media.

Social media is about relationships and storytelling. Brit also talked about digital presence which is much more than just having your own homepage. My own digital presence is fairly large, see my sites and my profiles, but I still got things to consider. I’ll probably rearrange some of my content in order to strengthen my over all profile.

Turn Almost Anything Into a Whiteboard

October 19, 2009 / Bengt

Have you ever felt that your Whiteboard is too small for your ideas? There is a smart solution to that. Fast Company has an article about IdeaPaint: Turn Your Entire Office Into a Whiteboard.

IdeaPaint turns virtually anything you can paint on into a dry-erase surface. Your creativity is the limit, paint walls or tables or doors or…

Take a look at IdeaPaint on YouTube for ideas and HowTo.

How NOT to use PowerPoint

October 18, 2009 / Bengt

I came across this video through How (Not) to Present with PowerPoint at Presentation Skills. The video is a condensed lesson into how NOT to present with PowerPoint.

How to develop self confidence and influence people by public speaking

October 17, 2009 / Bengt

I have read How to develop self confidence and influence people by public speaking by Dale Carnegie. Here are some of my notes based on the book.

The book has this reassuring quote by Cicero:

All public speaking of real merit is characterized by nervousness.

Dale Carnegie gives this advice: See yourself as a messenger, the message is important. In other words, content is important.

Preparation
Preparation means assembling your thoughts, your ideas, your convictions, your urges. Preparation means selecting, polishing, working them into a pattern, a mosaic of your own. A speech is a voyage with a purpose and it must be chartered.

Outlines
The book lists some types of outlines.
1. State your facts
2. Argue from them
3. Appeal for action

1. Here is a situation that ought to be remedied
2. We ought to do so and so about the matter.
3. You ought to help for these reasons.

1. Secure interested attention.
2. Win confidence.
3. State your facts, educate people regarding the merits of your proposition.
4. Appeal to the motives that make men act.

How to open a talk
The book lists these alternatives:
• Arouse curiosity
• Begin with a story
• Begin with an illustration
• Use an exhibit
• Ask a question
• Open with a quotation
• Tie your topic up to the vital interests of your audience

How to close a talk
The book lists these alternatives:
• Summarize, restate, outline briefly the main points covered
• Appeal for action
• A terse sincere compliment
• A humorous close
• A poetical qouotation
• The climax

This book overlaps in parts with Dale Carnegie’s The quick and easy way to effective speaking. I prefer that one.

EditPad Pro Text Editor

October 17, 2009 / Bengt

I have been using EditPad Lite for a longer time because of its ability to handle multiple files with a tabbed interface. EditPad Lite is quite powerful yet lacked some features that I wanted.

I write my blog posts in HTML-format and wanted a better text editor for that. Since I am pleased with the Lite-version as a basic text editor I decided to try EditPad Pro.

EditPad Pro’s Clip Collection is terrific for my needs. In the Clip Collection you can save plain text but also before&after which is perfect for HTML-tags. Select a text, click on the proper clip and the text is surrounded with the HTML-tags. That’s a lot easier than the copy-paste I did in the Lite-version.

Presentation Tips

October 16, 2009 / Bengt

Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen, has created a page with Presentation Tips on his own site. The tips are three main areas: Organization and Preparation, Delivery and Slides. There are also Samples and Tutorials.

Olivia Mitchell at Speaking about Presenting has created a collection of her Best Posts to help you with every aspect of your next presentation.

Presentation Skills has tips around
• Planning and writing the presentation
• Using visual aids effectively
• Overcoming presentation nerves
• Delivering the presentation confidently
• Answering questions competently

Leonard Cohen offical channel on YouTube

October 11, 2009 / Bengt

There is a Leonard Cohen channel on YouTube with official videos. Currently only eight but I hope that grows.

Slide design: Living large

October 10, 2009 / Bengt

While browsing around at Presentation Zen I came across Living large: “Takahashi Method” uses king-sized text as a visual.

Takahashi uses only text in his slides. But not just any text — really big text. Huge text. Characters of impressive proportion which rarely number more than ten, usually fewer. The goal, he says, is to use short words rather than long, complicated words and phrases.

I can see a point in using text only since images might distract the audience. Keeping the text short, easy to read and easy to remember is also a good idea.