During a session with a client the other day, we talked about the delivery of his company's new employee orientation. He was looking for ways to make his message more clear and to keep his diverse audience's attention through a day-long training. The orientation is typical in its length, in the fact that there are various untrained speakers involved (sexual harassment, fire safety, benefits, etc.)

We talk a lot about organizing our content, main points, opening and closing, but we rarely talk about how to get from one segment to the next. How do you handle the spaces in between your points, stories, examples, and exercises? These are your transitions .

BPS Research Digest recently published an article on how the facial expression of a listener affects the way the speaker uses language. Here's an excerpt: "Audiences differ. Talk to one person and your words are welcomed by a smile and nod of acknowledgment. Speak to another, less winsome

I've written before about my own experiences with panic attacks , about thought traps that mistake emotions for reality , dealing with setbacks , and letting go of the negative . All of those articles include helpful tips for dealing with anxiety, but here's the most valuable of all: Avoiding the thing that triggers your anxiety is the best way to keep it hanging over your head and controlling you. And the

The first PresentationCampLA video has been posted! Watch Olivia Mitchell speak on how to incorporate Twitter into your presentations! I hope to get all the videos on the PresentationCampLA site, so stay tuned. The video is blurry in places; we were experimenting

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.