Best Public Speaking Articles: Weekly Review [2008-08-16]

Every Saturday, we survey the best public speaking articles from throughout the public speaking blogosphere.

Topics featured this week include:

• an acrylic lectern you have to see;
• tips for designing an effective message;
• the Ignite Method of presentation;
• and more.

Week in Review: Six Minutes

The feature article this week profiled the 10 contestants vying to win the World Championship of Public Speaking in Calgary, Alberta on August 16th, 2008.

Week in Review: Public Speaking Blogosphere

Speaker Resources

• Brian Jenner displays a beautiful branded lectern that he invested in. What do you think? Is it worth the investment?

One of the problems when I was out on the road as a speaker was that often there was no lectern… The fact that it has Brian Jenner, Speechwriter on the front looks very slick and you always get some open-mouthed admiration.

Speechwriting

• John Kinde examines “12 elements of a professional quality speech,” and divides them into significant (good-to-have) and critical (must-have) elements.

What are the elements which would cause someone to watch a DVD recording and say, “I’d pay money to have that speaker talk to my group.”

• Rhett Laubach lays out his formula for developing an effective message for your audience… definitely the first article I’ve ever seen featuring Willy’s Green Kangaroo Unusually Silly (WGKUS).

There are five basic goals of every effective message and messenger. You want your audience to do these five things with your message…

1. Want it
2. Get it
3. Keep it
4. Use it
5. Share it

Delivery Techniques

• Olivia Mitchell provides 7 tips for creating easy-to-use notes. [This should be common sense, but with so many presenters still using PowerPoint slides as their personal notes, this article from Olivia is needed.]

If you use PowerPoint slides as your notes, you’re relegating PowerPoint to an administrative role – a crucial one – but still administrative. That means it can’t be an equal partner with you. Until it can break out of that role, you can’t exploit it’s full power.

Visual Aids

• The Ignite Method for presentations seems to have gotten everyone’s attention this week, including Dave Wheeler, Wayne Botha, and Garr Reynolds.
  The rules? Speakers get 20 slides and 5 minutes to make a point.
  Example? How to Buy a New Car by Rob Gruhl

Toastmasters Articles

• John Spaith encourages Toastmasters members to pay close attention to project objectives.

But the point of the manual is that you should push yourself beyond the comfort zone in TM so you know what works and what doesn’t when it matters.