A few days ago I was running an advanced presentation skills course and when one of my participants gave her first presentation it was clear that she had fallen into the trap of confusing a presentation with an information dump.   Its not that her content was bad, there was just far too much data and…

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Today is worldwide blog action day and as a supporter of this campaign I want to talk about what we as presenters and communicators can do to help end poverty.     Poverty is a very big problem and an emotive topic. Whilst most of us would agree that it is a bad thing, we may also…

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In several of my previous posts I have talked about the importance of having a clear outcome for your presentation or speech. Today I’d like to take a look at the next step in the design process – finding a logical flow. Your audience need to see that there is a path between your starting…

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presentation self-evaluation - scales

What to do after a presentation As well as writing about public speaking and presentation skills, I love to read and learn from my peers.  Today, I read a great post from Coachlisab about what not to do at the end of a presentation. She was reminding us of the importance of not being too self-critical,  Below…

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manns face showing happy and sad expressions - emotion in presentations

Why is it that so many business presentations are dry, dull and ineffective? Well, it could be the presenter’s delivery style, or it could be the tedious and wordy powerpoint slides they insist on using, but I think there is an even more dangerous principle at work here. I think that most business presenters think…

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I heard my good friend Jim Culverwell use the phrase “pitching beyond the room” last night whilst discussing his approach at networking meetings like BNI and Peer Group Learning.  I loved the phrase  because it sums up a truth that most people who network seem to completely ignore and I had to share it with…

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This video clip serves four purposes for students of presentation and public speaking skills: It demonstrates the value of a clearly structured message It shows how things like eye contact, body language and vocal variety engage the audience It shows how simple visual aids with well chosen images add to the presentation It contains a…

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I have had a slow puncture in one of the rear tyres of my car for a few weeks now. I kept noticing it but I kept putting off going to the tyre depot and getting it fixed. I thought I couldn’t afford the time or the money right now so all I did was…

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