We all know Sean O’Sullivan from Dragon’s Den and on first glance he seems the very epitome of an ‘entrepreneur’: tough New York childhood, single mother, family of eight, self-taught computer programmer, purchaser of first computer with savings for work as computer programmer, starter of first company in early twenties, founder of ‘Jump Starter’ programme …
The biggest presentation failing has got to be the put-loads-of-bullet-points-on-screen-and-then-read-them-out syndrome, so if you want to learn why people persist in doing this – and more importantly how to put it right – you can find out in chapter 1 of my new book which is available free through the publisher’s website here. Let me never …
Listen to my interview with super-fast-talking, rock-dj-legend, Irish-John-Peel (only better!!) broadcaster Dave Fanning on the October bank holiday edition of the Tubridy show. Interestingly, after a previous radio interview, a friend of mine commented that I reminded him of Dave Fanning. In the light of this observation, I thought maybe I should slow things down, but in …
This article, for the Engineers Journal, looks at three hidden mindsets that wreck technical presentations. You might be surprised at what you didn’t realise you were doing wrong. It describes how the ‘curse of knowledge’, a ‘reluctance to be inaccurate’ and a ‘loss of creativity’ (reversible, I hasten to add) that can lead you to …
Most presenters don’t give much thought to what PowerPoint template they use but they should. Stock templates like the one shown below fight with the content of your slides and diminish its impact. Also, they add no value. Often companies insist that you use the in-house template but, as one of the guest lecturers on …
I was recently told about a wedding speech that was delivered in the form of a PowerPoint slideshow which, apparently, went down a bomb. PowerPoint? Going down a bomb? I was intrigued so I emailed the groom’s sister, who I knew, to find out more. Firstly, the presentation was mainly pictures, and pictures, in fairness, …
Awful presentations are the norm, with swathes of text on-screen, presenters speaking over everyone’s heads, little interaction, no stories, poor images and a bored audience. Why? Why do otherwise competent people give hapless presentations? Invariably nerves are blamed but nerves are not the problem and generally do more good than harm. Buy book The real …
Did you turn your head to look at the picture above? Eye contact begins are a very early age is one of the most potent elements of communication. But, critically, it is the one element of communication that can fail in a presentation. Around presentations, there is a lot of talk about body language. However, …