Another school of thought would compel you to read the audience in real time as you go through the presentation and interact or extemporaneously strike off in a direction of their choosing by reading the crowd. Thanks for sharing these!!! blog comments powered by Disqus Previous post: Inc Magazine- A Video Review Next post: SOBCon Offers a Blog It Earn It Discount Get the blog sent to your inbox by entering your email address: Get the Free eBook! with Julien Smith

Mitchell makes the distinction, however, that Toastmasters doesn't go far enough for business presentation skills and message development (the latter is a core skill if you want to make your presentations memorable, and want to speak extemporaneously). Olivia Mitchell at the well-done Speaking about Presenting blog tackles the question of whether you should consider Toastmasters to learn speaking and presenting skills--and how to get the most out of it if you do. Mitchell--who says she became a confident speaker through Toastmasters--recommends the program, as I do, especially for

Fond as I am of trying new devices for speakers , I know that most speakers come to phases in their learning that require a major shift: from speaking as one of many in a meeting to a solo talk, from small groups to large audiences, from scripted to extemporaneous, or from low-tech to high, as in audioconferencing, incorporating online resources or using a teleprompter. This weekend, the New York Times looked at presidential candidate John McCain's struggles with more than one such speaker transition , as he moves to more scripted talks from his usual off-the-cuff style, and with

Veno submitted the written testimony we had worked on, then he used his 10 minutes to extemporaneously address his three main points.  Veno Today I was reminded of a critical presentation skill while watching Gene Veno, Executive Vice President of the PA Chiropractic Association.  Veno had a mere 10 minutes to state his position about a proposed insurance merger before the PA Department of Insurance.  Since

While the moderation requires extemporaneous speaking, the panel introductions did require a text--and gave me a good test opportunity . I took the Amazon Kindle out for a test-drive in a real speaking engagement last month, when I moderated the annual media roundtable--a panel of three reporters--for Washington Women in Public Relations . Here's what I learned about what you should expect when using this new device in a live setting, from preparatory steps to actual use: Readability was excellent.

When I train speakers -- especially when they're learning extemporaneous speaking -- I emphasize that the core message of any speech or presentation needs to be memorable for both the speaker and the audience. The goal: you shouldn't lose your train of thought and the audience should be able to recall what you said. In today's Wall Street Journal , Robert Lee Hotz reports on research that shows why that may be more difficult as we age .

If you're an overprepared speaker, consider this: The time you spend going over and over your content could be spent learning new speaker skills, like handling tough questions extemporaneously, gesturing, speaking without slides or text, and more. A woman in one of my recent communications workshops asked, "What do you recommend for me? My problem is that I overprepare for my talks ."