Everyone has heard the advice about incorporating stories into a presentation to make your message more " sticky " and easier to understand. So we're all on board there. But if you're not a natural story teller [and I count myself firmly in this camp]...you you know, the person who always

With the explosion in popularity of microblogging tools like Twitter , presenters are now faced with the possibility, or even likelihood, that some members of their audience will be tweeting (posting on Twitter) during the presentation. Initially, that idea is off-putting to many presenters. They sputter, "But that means the audience won't be paying attention

In a previous post, I explored  common concerns about Twitter usage in presentations and concluded that Twitter offers many benefits in terms of audience involvement and engagement. However, seeing the benefits of using Twitter and being able to incorporate it effectively into your presentation are two very different things. So let's take a look at some best practices for integrating Twitter into a live presentation.

When I teach presentation skills classes, I frequently get asked the question, "Should I use notes in my presentation?" [ Said in a tone of voice that assumes the correct answer is no ]. For some misguided reason, people seem to think that if they are delivering a presentation or a speech, they need to be able to do it completely from memory, sans notes. They seem to think notes are cheating or make them look

One of the actor's most precious tools is his voice. Unless he's in a Marcel Marceau retrospective, without his voice he will miss an entire dimension of communicating with the audience. So the actor protects his voice by doing exercises to strengthen it, by warming it up before using it on stage and by learning breathing techniques to maximize its projection and tone.

TED has earned a lot of attention over the years for many reasons, including the nature and quality of its short-form conference presentations. All presenters lucky enough to be asked to speak at TED are given 18-minute slots maximum (some are for even less time such as 3- and 6-minute slots). Some who present at TED are not used to speaking on a large stage, or are at least not used to speaking on their topic with strict time restraints.

Exposing ourselves to traditional Japanese aesthetic ideas — notions that may seem quite foreign to most of us — is a good exercise in lateral thinking, a term coined by Edward de Bono in 1967. "Lateral Lateral Thinking is for changing concepts and perception," says de Bono. Beginning to think about design by exploring the tenets of the Zen aesthetic may not be an example of Lateral Thinking

Most people do not really think about design and designers, let alone think of themselves as designers. But what, if anything, can regular people — teachers, students, business people of all types — learn from designers and from thinking like a designer? And what of more specialized professions?

Presenting while people are tweeting is challenging – but also adds a new dimension to the presentation experience for your audience. Gradually tools are being developed to make it easier for you as the presenter to manage the backchannel. I

People often ask if technical or science-related presentations can be as compelling as presentations covering other less technical topics. Now, not every presentation has earth-shattering, Nobel-Prize winning significance, but I assume if you are talking about your research or current issues in your field, etc. that your words have a benefit for someone else.