Whilst I am a fan of the intelligent and sparing use of PowerPoint and other presentation tools  I am always on the lookout for great examples of presentations which use props to bring their messages to life.

I recently came across this short 10 minute video on TED and I commend it to you.  Hans Rosling is an inspiring and creative presenter and I love how he uses a simple and readily available prop to help his audience understand some mind [...]

Ikea replaces Powerpoint! is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Seminars are a powerful business building strategy when done right. They are a great way to strengthen relationships with existing clients and showcase your expertise to new ones.

If done well you can also create an environment where existing happy customers “sell” your services to prospective customers naturally and unobtrusively.

Recently I was privileged to attend such an event run by one of my clients, a large accountancy firm. I had been helping one of the partners put together [...]

The secrets of successful seminars is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Ever since humans developed language we have used stories as a powerful method transfering knowledge. We teach our children through stories. We build relationships and bonds through sharing stories. We are entertained by stories.

I would argue that we spend much of our non-work time storytelling.   Socially we understand that the best stories are engaging, entertaining, and memorable.  Yet when it comes to business communications we have a tendency to throw all our experience [...]

Storytelling in speeches and presentations is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

If you pitch for a specific piece of work and don’t get it that dissapointing but at least you know that you lost it and you can try and do something about it before the next pitch.

But what about when you give a presentation to a group of potential clients with the hope of generating new leads. What happens if your presentation turns your audience off rather than on?  You could be losing sales because they won’t even invite you [...]

Is your presentation losing you business? is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Most of us probably can’t rely on the luxury of a professional speech writer to craft our presentations but that doesn’t mean we can’t pick up some great speech writing tips from the pros.

In this post I want to share with you how  you can use the same strategy to write speeches that Walt Disney used to create his cartoon masterpieces.

Disney used a three stage strategy which has been modeled by NLP expert Robert Dilts.    Dilts labelled these three stages Dreamer, [...]

Speech writing tips the Disney way is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Perhaps you know someone who has asked you this question or know of someone who would benefit from professional assistance but hasn’t taken the plunge so far.   Here are the typical reasons that my clients give me when I ask them “Why did you come?”

To speed up my learning process. It’s absolutely true that there are good speakers who have never sought the services of a presentation skills expert. They have learned by the traditional method of trial and error [...]

Why should I hire a presentation coach? is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Whenever a CEO or Senior Manager stands up to speak they have the opportunity to positively engage and influence.  I believe that this opportunity is all too often squandered, Here are some thoughts on the common Senior Management presentation mistakes made by senior executives along with some simple solutions.

1) Just because you are senior doesn’t mean you are automatically a great speaker:

I have heard a lot of senior management, directors and CEO’s speak. A few of them have been outstanding, some have been [...]

The 7 things senior management need to know about effective presenting is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Earlier this week I gave my first live presentation using only my iPad hooked up to a VGA projector and my iphone as the remote control.

It all worked perfectly and apart from almost dropping the iphone half way through all went well. I even got comments afterwards about the great slides. The only shortcoming I could find was that there seems to be no way to blank the screen in between slides when giving a presentation using iPad. [...]

My first full presentation using iPad and iphone is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

It’s natural to be a little nervous when you start speaking but your nervous gestures can give the game away to your audience .   Here are  the most common and most distracting ones along with preventative  tips on how to reduce or eliminate them.

Dancing, rocking and pacing as you speak can all be very distracting for your audience. Awareness is the starting point so get some feedback on your stance and movement. [...]

7 Nervous gestures and how to tame them is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

I’ve been using my iPad for almost a year now and it has become an indispensable piece of kit. However the one thing I haven’t given up my netbook for yet is running PowerPoint presentations.

The iPad is not yet the ideal presenter tool but it has got much better and it is now quite possible to create or import a presentation and display it on a projector using the iPad.

Here’s what do you need to get started:

Apart from your iPad [...]

How can I give a presentation using my iPad is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing