Welcome to the better presentations blog!
I do my best to make this blog a resource for presenters - not pro-speakers, but real people who need to make presentations as part of their 'day job'. If there's something you really want to know about, just email me and I'll see what I can do (no promises except that I'll read your email - use simon@ and you can guess the rest of my address. :) )
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This month's most popular (and useful?) blog posts are:
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I recently spoke at the course creators engergize conference, hosted by Zenler giving tips on how to make your videos and presentations better for online courses. Why? Let’s face it, most of them are rubbish! 😉 In my presentation I made the observation that to make your videos really pop you should embed yourself as …
Read more “Recording yourself in a PowerPoint slide”
Storytelling is a big part of presenting… and frankly of our whole culture. When we go to the pub we don’t sit around in silence, and a lot of that time is filled with sharing stories. Gossip is a story after all. Back-in-the-old days is nothing but stories. When-I-was young… you get the idea. From …
Read more “Stories (and authenticity) in Presentations”
What should you put on your first slide? You know the one, the one that’s up there before your presentation. It might be there while your audience come in or just for a few minutes at the start of your turn, if there’s a speaker before you. Your mileage will vary of course because of …
Read more “The first slide of your presentation”
Presentations are often thought of as being rubbish ways to get over lots of messy information – the complex and complicated. Here’s how to handle it.
That’s not a big blog title at all. Nope! 😉 Ah well, go big or go home, I guess. There are a few things I need to look at here and I can only go over them at a top level in a blog but with a bit of luck you’ll be able to see …
Read more “Keeping audience attention in presentations”
Easier online presentations? Yes please! Here’s a simple hack for PowerPoint and Keynote that helps you stay on top of things hugely!
I’ve seen a lot of presentations recently… and I mean a lot of bloody presentations!… that pretend they’re offering proof that ‘the system they’re presenting about’ works. What they hide are sales pitch/presentation illustrating that the system in question can work. Not does work, just can do. When I say “sales pitch/presentation” I’m being unkind. …
Read more “why your presentation doesn’t contain proof”
Better presentations can change your world. And props can make a presentation better! Or screw it up badly. Here’s 6 thoughts on how to use props properly in your next presentation.
I often get asked how to make ‘stand out’ moments in presentations. People want/need presentations to be memorable, and moments that make your audience go “Wow” are a great way of doing that. But there’s a problem. Presentations with stand-out (wow) moments mean that’s what people will remember! That’s true almost by definition. Why? Because …
Read more “what’s wrong with wow momets in presentations”