by Alan | Dec 11, 2006 | Communication skills, Content, Delivery, PowerPoint, public speaking
Watched a speaker host a meeting and then ask an invited guest to open the business end of a large forum after the holiday pleasantries were exchanged. This second speaker, known to the entire audience as a position of authority, then got up to give a casual...
by Alan | Dec 4, 2006 | Communication skills, Content, Delivery, public speaking
Was walking through an online product demo (as a customer) in a web conference today when the demo guy said, “Let me explain this screen — it can be a bit misleading.” I about busted out laughing. As a customer, I wondered why a company would demo a...
by Alan | Dec 3, 2006 | Efficiency, Parenting, public speaking
My 5-year-old son watched his cousin play in a basketball game. She was the largest and most athletic girl on the court, scored 22 of her team’s 26, and led them to an emphatic victory. His comments revealed the impression it made on him, especially in light...
by Alan | Nov 20, 2006 | Communication skills, public speaking
In church this past week, we were leading up to the GATE (Great American Tryptophan Extravaganza, sometimes called Thanksgiving) and singing songs that were a) appropriate to the theme, and b) known to most of the audience. The second option is a trick these days, as...
by Alan | Nov 20, 2006 | Communication skills, Leadership, public speaking
Talking with a friend the other day about the importance of an audience liking the presenter. In many cases, there is no context for whether to like the presenter or not (they may not know him until he comes up to speak, for instance). But in so many cases, there is...
by Alan | Nov 12, 2006 | Communication skills, Content, public speaking
I love acronyms. They allow shorter typing and talking. I like to make them up (my favorite all-time is my acronym BCS = Big Computer in the Sky, which has nothing to do with college football and can be used to describe any application where data goes into the ether)....
