Reviews of presentations or of software or hardware to help you make better presentations. Anything from a big political presentation to a new piece of software.
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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As Saturday, June 1st is officially #SaySomethingNiceDay, I thought it might be “interesting” to research (and blog about!) something I’ve personally always found difficult – how to give feedback on a presentation. As that’s a significant part of my work as a presentations trainer, it’s something I’ve done a lot of, but I’m not really …
It’s nearly conference season, so here we go… I have to confess I’ve been driven to write this so that I can sleep better and let my frustrations somewhere to go. Last year I attended some conferences where I wanted to scream at the presenter “I’m sure what you’re saying would be helpful but I …
A bit of a change here in this blog! This is a a guest post from Meetupcall and therefore very different from the usual presentation genius stuff! At Meetupcall, they’ve been looking at some famous speakers from history and sharing their thoughts on what makes them effective. Don’t try too hard to do exactly as these …
I’ve been writing and providing presentation wisdom(?) for a few other people recently! Here are two for the marking guys Andrew&Pete. Firstly, here’s a tongue-in-cheek look at using powerpoint templates. (Caution – large does of sarcasm are involved) https://www.andrewandpete.com/powerpoint-templates/ And more recently I look at how to structure your presentation using an analogy taken from …
Cicely Berry died on the 15th of October this year (2018). This is not an obituary because she needs me to add to the pile of adulation in the same way as Jeff Bezos (net worth $112b) needs my spare fiver. On the other hand, I can’t claim this is purely personal either, because I …
Presentation software “Prezi” recently ‘upgraded’ to Prezi Next. The original is now called Prezi Classic. (I reviewed it on the old presentation skills blog a while ago.) New users can’t get to Prezi Classic and presentations made on Prezi Classic won’t play on Prezi Next. So is this a good restart for the one-time New …
Being able to move around when you make a presentation is a god-send. I’m not suggesting you wander around as you present, but being able to move around and not being tied to your laptop gives you a lot of options. Remote controls are pretty much a requirement for a serious presenter. A fellow presenter …
If you’ve not heard the phrase “jumped the shark” it means to have gone so far down the line that things have become silly, past their best and so on. It comes from (I’ve been told) and episode in Happy Days when Fonzie goes waterskiing. In short, it’s the beginning of the end because things …
Sometimes you don’t need to say much… This is taken just before France go out to play in the World Cup Final
The StoryMaking System is the result of reading (in mind-numbing detail) over 400 peer-reviewed research papers, dozens of books, thousands of ours of observational research and blood sweat and tears!
It's the framework for designing a presentation which gives you the fastest way to getting something is (almost) guaranteed to work. It gives your audience what they need - and only what they need - to be impacted.
The key elements are:
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