And all those exercises I might use with adults? TALK ABOUT A TOUGH CROWD! If you think it's hard keeping adults engaged, try standing in front of a class of 12 year-olds. And to discuss effective presentations? The only thing many of them were interested in (at least regarding PowerPoint) was how to do fancy transitions and flaming

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 Beginning to think about design by exploring the tenets of the Zen aesthetic may not be an example of Lateral Thinking in the strict sense, but doing so is a good exercise in stretching ourselves and really beginning to think differently about visuals and design in our everyday professional lives. Lateral Thinking is for changing concepts and perception," says de Bono. The

Ideally, you would plan for audience participation exercises to be roughly evenly spaced through the presentation. However, having genuine, as opposed to contrived, exercises is more important. Your audience participation exercise should include time for them to think about what they want to say and/or an opportunity to rehearse what they want to say. Yesterday I had a skype conversation with Twitter follower Todd (@TJList) on how to include audience participation in a presentation. He’s presenting on getting through the economic downturn to an audience of small

It’s unfortunate that she cannot attend and we will miss working with her, but this creates a great opportunity for us to give away her FREE SEAT to another lucky winner!   The winner will have the opportunity to experience the DeFinis Communications powerful brand of presentations skills training complete with dynamic media, unique learning models, extensive practice exercises, video feedback and our signature Line by Line Coaching™ process.   I just got an email from our contest winner and because of a work emergency she is unable to attend our Encore! Elegant

Just as an exercise I took this list of "10 things" and made them into ten slides that could be a part of a lesson of sorts. Still, more than anything this was merely an exercise in making visuals that may be used in a future Ignite talk. In this talk below -- which contains a fair amout of visuals -- Bittman discusses what's wrong with the way many of us eat (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking, etc.). The other day I was watching this interview with Eric Schlosser on The Colbert Report. Schlosser is the author of Fast

In preparation for her talk she asked me if there would be a way to reproduce an exercise called “Speaker & Audience Mapping” that she usually leads in the slideology workshops . The exercise goes like this: the audience picks one of a dozen different audience types (eg. Naturally, we began to use the very same exercise to find a solution for how to teach it. Last month Nancy Duarte spoke at Web2.0 Expo and it was a huge success.

Or if your presentation includes interactive exercises for the audience take those moments to look at the Twitterstream. Their answers are anonymous unless you upgrade to a paid version (the lowest price point for personal use is US$15 a month). One of their paid plans (US$65 a month) also allows you to moderate tweets before they’re displayed. 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

Speeches are often like sensory deprivation exercises. That will put us to sleep, even before you start speaking in that adorable monotone. You You wouldn't want to show any emotion -- that might wake us up, right? There are an infinite number of ways to screw up a presentation, but I see some over and over again. Here are my 5 favorites.

10 minutes exercise Many years ago, a senior manager commissioned us to run a presentation skills course for his team. His request to us was simple – but tinged with desperation “I just want to know what their message is.” Every type of presentation has its own challenges. As part of a “Public Speaking and the New Year” blog carnival organized by Angela de Finis, I’ve identified what I see as the major challenge or trend for each presentation type in 2010 and given you my best presentation tip to overcome it.

0160; It’s a high-stress time for most of us.  0160; Have had a little exercise (but not too much) to manage your adrenaline?  0160; Do you need to do some calming exercises?  You’re going to give a speech today.  0160; You don’t want to forget something really important.  0160; Following