Article Category: Weekend Reviews

Public Speaking Tips: Weekend Review [2010-07-10]


Week In Review

Six Minutes weekend reviews bring the best public speaking articles to you.

This review features topics including:

  • recently released public speaking and communications books;
  • stories for a business context;
  • presenting as a team;
  • handling dominating audience members;
  • using props;
  • PowerPoint versus Prezi;
  • confidence as a speaker;
  • and more!

Resources for Speakers – Public Speaking Books

Check out these recently released public speaking and communications books:

Speechwriting

  • Ellen Finkelstein points to a resource for business stories that provides both a set of illustrative stories, and also identifies them according to theme.

Delivery Techniques

  • Nick Morgan lists 10 rules for presenting as a team.

Even though you’re all on the same team, nonetheless, it’s more effective to introduce other people than yourself.  It is inherently more believable for someone else to say, “What’s great about Jeff is that he’s tilled in this vineyard for 25 years; he knows everything there is to know about grapes,” than it is for you to say, “I’ve got a lot of experience.”

  • Lisa Braithwaite points out strategies for handling dominating audience members.

How many times have you sat in the audience during the Q&A portion of a presentation (either live or on the Web or phone), and felt frustrated by one audience member dominating the questions?

Visual Aids

  • Kathy Reiffenstein shows you how to be successful with props.

Hearing the word prop may evoke an image of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. And while I’d be the first to suggest that a good presentation does have an element of magic, props in a business presentation serve a much more worldly purpose: to aid the audience’s understanding and involvement.

  • Denna Jones debates (part 1 & part 2) the merits of ditching PowerPoint for Prezi.

If you want to create better presentations or are eager to learn a new and different presentation method, there is a choice beyond PowerPoint – Prezi.

Speaker Habits

  • Jonathan Thomas argues that confidence is key to public speakers.

[…] you can DEFINITELY succeed as a presenter.  But in order to do that, you must have confidence in yourself and what you’re presenting.  […] If you’re selling a product or service, you have to believe in what you’re selling.

The PowerPoint Coma…

Dilbert.com

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