Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Countdown Clock For Presentations: How To Build It


When training a class or delivering a long workshop, it is always difficult to get people to come back to their desks in due time.


The same happens when assigning a test to be completed within a specified time. Missing a common shared timer for everyone, it gets a little difficult to communicate efficiently to everyone when time is really running out.

In these situations, what can work extremely well, is the use of a digital countdown timer to be projected on the main audience screen. In this way, you need not continuously interrupt or distract attendees to inform them of the remaining time and anyone can see at a glance how much time is left.


Here PowerPoint expert and book-writer Ellen Finkelstein gives a step-by-step tutorial on how to build such a digital countdown clock.

presentations, powerpoint, public speaking

Tuesday, May 30, 2006


10 Days to More Confident Public Speaking (Paperback)
by The Princeton Language Institute, Lenny Laskowski

Written by an expert in the field, this book has the tools you need to become a relaxed, effective, and commanding public speaker. A clear, concise, step-by-step approach with dozens of inside tips, 10 Days to More Confident Public Speaking will help you:
* Overcome nervousness and discover your own natural style
* Establish an immediate rapport with your audience
* Practice your new techniques daily in conversations with friends
* Write a speech that builds to an unforgettable conclusion
* Expertly blend humor and anecdotes into your talks
* Use special techniques to memorize your speech
More information

public speaking

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Speech Making Success Tip

In preparing for your speech, make sure your notes are in order. Choose the best way to create them to support your speech. For example, you may choose palm cards with dot points, or you may choose to type the whole speech on letter paper with the main points highlighted. If you have more than one piece of paper, make sure that they will not distract from your presentation, either visually or audibly. And make sure you can move from one to another easily. This might even extend to putting them in different areas of the presentation area. When you visualise your successful speech, include the best way that your notes can support that speech.

public speaking

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Bronwyn's blog

You're welcome to visit me at my personal blog.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Public Speaking Tip: Add Weight

From Tom Antion

No I'm not promoting obesity.

I'm referring to outdoor presentations.

If you are ever forced (I say "forced" because you should try to avoid outdoor presentations at all costs) to do an outdoor presentation, then make sure you have several different kinds of weights handy to help control your presentation.

You might need a sand bag or dumbell to hold down the easel of your flipchart.

How about taping some heavy coins to the bottom of the sheets and clamping the edges to keep the breeze from lifting up the pages?Paperweights, or in a pinch, plain old rocks are great for holding down papers you have on a table on stage.

What else do you commonly have with you on stage that could blow around in a breeze? Make sure it's secured.

Ties and scarves that look gorgeous in a no wind hotel room look terrible and distracting when flapping in the wind.


Monday, May 22, 2006

Use Powerpoint to enhance your presentation, not cripple it

I'm not the first person to point out that Microsoft's mainstay meeting and presentation application Powerpoint is usually anathema to any sort of useful communication, and that most speakers rely on it as a crutch rather than a memory jog, but I just got back from a three day marketing conference and was really struck by how most of the presenters were still falling into BPS (Boring Powerpoint Syndrome).

You know what I'm talking about if you ever go to meetings or attend any sort of workshop or conference. These are the folk that use plain white backgrounds for their slides and cram ten to fifteen bullet points on each slide, each bullet point a full sentence.

Read on ...

Tags:

presentations

public speaking

Thursday, May 18, 2006


Turn Ordinary Presentations into Extraordinary Experiences for
You and Your Audience

How to Deliver Highly Effective Presentations
breaks down the presentation process into easy and manageable steps.

You can produce exceptional results if you have the FOCUS, the TOOLS and the CONFIDENCE to make it happen.

More information

Tag: public speaking

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Um... uh... do I sound stupid?

Have you ever wondered why some of us just can't seem to expunge those "ums" and "uhs" from our speech, no matter how hard we try?

I don't know about you, but even as a professional speaker, I still have to carefully edit those filler words out of my podcast every week. And it's worrisome, since many people tend to take a plethora of "um" and "uh" as a sign of a lack of intelligence, or at least as a sign of a less-than-suave delivery.

Turns out that there is actually a reason for those seemingly meaningless fillers.

Read on ....

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Sunday, May 14, 2006

Three essential body language tips


"For anyone who has done some training with me, you’ll know that I don’t focus on body language when presenting. People can get obsessed by trying to look convincing or slick, and neglect the content of their presentation. They perform all the textbook hand gestures, and what comes out of their mouths doesn’t match up. A bit like watching 100 chavs pour out of a limo. It just doesn’t seem right.

Sometimes however I do give advice on body language for presenting - especially when it detracts from the message. Here are the 3 biggest body language presentation pitfalls, and what you can do to avoid them:"

Read on ...

Tags:public speaking, body language

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Are you a librarian or interested in libraries?

Visit Bronwyn's Library blog for librarianship, news, marketing and more.

Tags:library

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Public speaking tip - the value of Icebreakers

Icebreakers are little exercises that help relax tension and loosen up a formal atmosphere in a meeting where you want to have creative ideas and group participation.

This icebreaker will have everyone laughing:

Break everyone up into small groups of 2 or 3. Give each group a made-up punchline. Each group now has 5 minutes to come up with a joke or story that uses that punchline at the end. The crazier the better!

Here are some example punchlines:

1. And that is why you never let a cat go fishing!

2. That proves that elephants don't like hot dogs.

3. Finally he said, "Sir, your computer doesn't have a cigarette lighter."

4. The moral of the story is, "Always wear socks!"

Tag:

public speaking

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Public speaking Success Tip

If the structure of your speech involves "Tell them what you are going to say, say it and tell them what you just said..." then the Introduction, Body and Conclusion are vital.

But just as crucial, are the links between those parts - the bridging. They provide another opportunity to remind the audience of your message, and to link the parts together seamlessly.

Often as you take breath to launch into the next point of your speech, the following utterance carries the weight of that breath or pause, and therefore is an ideal opportunity to reinforce your message.

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Wednesday, May 03, 2006

A Public speaking quote

"Brevity, said Lord Bacon, is the soul of wit, and conciseness is a virtue I have always admired. The magic of poetry lies in its power to compress ideas or emotions into a mere handful of words. But prose can work the same spell, which is why Francis Bacon's aphorism has survived the centuries."
--Arthur C. Clarke,
"Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds"
(St. Martin's, 1999)

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public speaking

Monday, May 01, 2006

Resources for Families

For information on parenting, family nutrition, books and reading, teenagers and more, visit the resources for families web pages
Tag:
families