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

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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

I'm building a PowerPoint for a client who will be speaking at a conference this summer. She asked me in several places to put multiple points on one slide and have them "fly in" as she clicked the remote. Tags: Technology Public Speaking Techniques and Strategies PowerPoin My suggestion to her was to put each point on its own slide with its own image. That way, each individual idea stands out on its own.

So let me share another of my favorite tools , the wireless presentation remote . The remote allows me to move around the stage or speaking area unhindered by my equipment. Some remotes are tiny and invisible in your hand. Some are as big as a TV remote control and have a ton Since we've been talking about coming out from behind the lectern , let's talk about coming out from behind the computer . PowerPoint users are frequently seen standing in one place, pushing a button on their computer to advance their slides.

Get a remote. But others are four hours long, where we delve deeply into public speaking and talk about the whys and hows of doing what we do, with discussion, activities and practice. Tags: Speakers Public Speaking Techniques and Strategies PowerPoin Seth Godin recently posted his Nine steps to Powerpoint magic . Some of his "steps, not rules" are cheeky, like this one: "4.

This may be the case in the professional speaking/PowerPoint design world, but in the real world, I have yet to see a speaker use an image-based PowerPoint in a presentation. Step away from the laptop As I mentioned in this post last year, a wireless presentation remote will free you up from standing stiffly beside the computer, pressing keys to advance your slides. Tags: Public Speaking Techniques Inspired by Laura Bergells' recent PowerPoint propaganda post about changing fashions in PowerPoint, Olivia Mitchell pulled together a group of bloggers to participate in a group writing project about what we'd like to see in PowerPoint slide design this year.

Most presenters click on the next slide, and then speak about what’s on the slide. 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 Let the slide speak for itself. “Here’s There’s a revolution in the design of PowerPoint slides, but not the delivery. Most speakers still rely on their slides to cue them.

Here are just a few examples of what they've done: Raced full-size cars using remote controls Raced three cars as far as they would go on one tank of gas Raced a car to the top of a mountain against a rock climber climbing the cliff face Raced a car to the airport against a boat and a bike And one of my favorites: Placed one car on top of the other, with the steering wheel in one car and the brakes in the other. Tags: Engaging the Audience Public Speaking Techniques and Strategies Top Gear Entertainer If you want your presentation to be informative and fun and memorable, take a lesson from the hosts of Top Gear.

It is a great way to both practise your impromptu speaking skills, and to have some practise with PowerPoint. Draw for random speaking order also gave them 3 minutes to prepare – basically while the previous speaker was speaking. If you are feeling nasty, give them a topic just before they speak, On Monday evening, I ran a PowerPoint Karaoke contest at the Cape Communicators Toastmaster Club. This is the first one that I have ran, and it was a fantastic evening!