20 tips for better conference speaking ~ 16 February 2009 ~ View from on stage as I’m preparing to speak at An Event Apart New Orleans 2008. But if anything, I’ve done quite a bit of speaking over the past four years (see the summary on my LinkedIn public profile ), and therefore I’ve learned a few things about speaking along the way. The art of speaking I’ll be straight up with you: I don’t profess to be an expert speaker. I’ve had my share of presentations that have been total flops, along with some very successful

Speaking and Twitter dominance The experience of South by South West (SXSW) in Austin is like the But embarrassing when I'm speaking and someones sees a live tweet from one of my surrogates... @Pistachio  Great as back channel, speakers can see what audience wants Wild West - it's the frontier of Social Media converging with traditional conference, dominated dominated by Twitter.

New communicators connect with EVERY audience – no matter the setting – in: • behavior • content • interaction text and speaking. But it will change the face of the speaking environment. conference and formal speaking environment. Good friend and communicator Chris Spagnuolo has a great blog called Edgehopper (that's his frog above) - and he was nice enough to interview me . In case you missed it: Ten Questions with Bert Decker (1) In

Business speakers (and leaders, keynoters, politicians, Pastors and, well, everyone…) need to be aware that like it or not, Twitter is coming to their speaking experience. Be Aware, and Beware! There's been a lot of buzz - and new insight - into what to do about people twittering while you are speaking. Now there ARE great new possibilities, particularly with high tech audiences Olivia Mitchell did an outstanding guest blog on Laura Fitton's Pistachio site, and the next day on Chris Spagnuolo's Edgehopper , wrapping up a busy week with her own summary post. All great

Even though I’m an “okay” presenter, it was easy to see right away some areas of development and the power that great delivery has in connecting with the audience and conveying ideas well. scan the audience and don’t look anyone in the eye, I’m swaying and leaning on one foot or the other, I keep my hands cupped in front of me and my legs crossed. Spending the day at Decker was delightful. Shortly after arriving, the transformation of my delivery techniques was well underway.

Are you holding audiences in the palm of your hand? Digging for the Treasures in Your Stories” with Emory Austin, CSP, CPAE “The Tags: public speaking public speaking business speakers speaking speaking caree with Glenna Salsbury, CSP, CPAE Your platform effectiveness is powerfully enhanced by your clarity of unique message.

Search on women and public speaking -- or ask your network about eloquent women, as we did recently on Linked In -- and Barbara Jordan's name always seems to come up more than once. But this was no shy role model for women in public speaking. The citation for a late-career award from West Point noted her early interest in public speaking: Deciding early in life to be something out of the ordinary, For many who heard her in the 1960s and 70s, it's her voice that still resonates--and her ability to put simply some of the most complex ideas in democracy. She's another barrier-breaker: the first African-American since Reconstruction to be elected to the Texas Senate, the first female African-American from the South to be elected to the U.S.

Tara Leigh Tappert recommended "my friend Ramona Austin , who is the curator at the Barron Gallery at Old Dominion University in Virginia. It's a great speech, one that relies on stories she knows well and has told over and over again--one key to speaking smoothly without notes. Notice how, even from a lectern, she looks at and engages her audience in all parts of the hall. Last year, another speaker coach asked me to help find video examples of today's top women speakers , because he was having trouble finding examples to share with trainees that were of current, rather than historic women speakers.