In the video, as he describes his experience, notice how Michael also outlines the three main issues that he’ll be talking about in the rest of the presentation. Climate change, health statistics, and energy use are pretty abstract concepts. Michael set out to do the research, and we started thinking about the best way to make a statistic “stick” with the audience. Duarte had the distinct pleasure of working with bestselling author Michael Pollan to turn his ideas about sustainability and food systems into a visual presentation for the PopTech conference last month.

When put to the test, most statistics about public speaking are a Before using a statistic in your speech, research the statistic yourself. There are a lot of myths disguised as statistics. Always put statistics in context. Every year, I challenge myself on my birthday by doing consecutive push-ups push-ups to match the birthday I’m celebrating.

Key Message: Here’s the main thing I want you to take away from my presentation: [give key message of your presentation] Refer to a shocking statistic Tags: Content Attention-getting presentation Presentation opening quotes statistics storie I get frustrated at presentation advice which says you have to do something clever or dramatic at the beginning of a presentation to grab your audience’s attention. That’s for three reasons:

Here’s an example of how I use this technique: “Here’s the main thing that I want you to get. Let the slide speak for itself. “Here’s the main thing I want you to get:” [click - silence] This is also effective for single numbers and statistics. There’s a revolution in the design of PowerPoint slides, but not the delivery. Most speakers still rely on their slides to cue them.

8220;The Power Gap” (a new animated infographic by Airslide) is a great example of making a complex story look effortless… “Demos came to us with an intensely detailed statistical study, which rated every single constituency in Britain according to a number of different social and economic aspects. Over the course of several meetings with Demos, Airside wrote a script that communicated the main concepts behind Demos’ survey, as well as showing the practical significance of the survey results. Simplicity does not necessarily mean skimping out on the meat of your presentation.

Slides containing mainly text. It’s probably the main reason most presentations go on too long. Now out of the material that you have left, identify the main points that support the key message. There are four main types of evidence: In a perfect world, every new presentation would be prepared from scratch, tailored exactly to the specific audience. But in reality, you sometimes have to cobble together a “new presentation” from pre-existing material.

For more details on this study including the “conditions” of the experiment and the statistical results see Michael Alley’s article ). They help the audience grasp and remember the main points because of the visual emphasis they’ve been given. You’ve read Presentation Zen and Slideology and you’re convinced about the benefits of using visually-engaging PowerPoint slides when you present. But everyone else in your organization stubbornly sticks to the bullet-point slides.

How will my main points address their needs? Structure your main points so the speech isnt one long amorphous diatribe. (I Give the audience "road markers" to let your audience know where you are in the speech and reiterate main points. Support your arguments with evidence: facts, naratives, statistics, metaphors... Boing Boing Home Gadgets TV Boing Boing Offworld Suggest a Link Archives Subscribe Mark Cory David Xeni John Moderation Policy Excellent public speaking advice Posted by Cory Doctorow , March 8, 2009 4:01 AM | permalink The inestimable Duncan Davidson, photographer laureate of the OReilly tech conferences, has distilled his experiences watching thousands of speakers on thousands of stages into a pithy, useful article about how to be a better

Flesh our each agenda item with examples and statistics but keep it brief. Summarize your main points. MEMBERS LOGIN Home SPEAKER SERVICES Speaker services Membership info Proposal generator Profile listing service Coaching services Video trailer ads Interview transcripts Teleclasses Online shop MEETING PLANNERS Planner services Find a speaker RESOURCES FAQs about CJ Free articles Useful links TOOLS Subscribe to eZine Search this site GENERAL INFO About us Testimonials Advertising

Check your web statistics regularly and this will show you how long your visitors are staying on your site, if you start seeing a trend where visitors are leaving your site rather quickly you may want to take a look at your site and revamp it a bit. Adding your URL to everything! Blog marketing is part of a technique called �buzz� marketing and can drive additional traffic to your main website. MEMBERS LOGIN Home SPEAKER SERVICES Speaker services Membership info Proposal generator Profile listing service Coaching services Video trailer ads Interview transcripts Teleclasses Online shop MEETING PLANNERS Planner services Find a speaker RESOURCES FAQs about CJ Free articles Useful links TOOLS Subscribe to eZine Search this site GENERAL INFO About us Testimonials Advertising