Presentation skills

The Dangers of Co-opting Scientific Explanation

28.10.2009

As non-scientists plying our trade, I believe we should be wary of justifying our practice on the basis of scientific research. Don’t get me wrong, science intrigues me as much as it does the next layperson. But the problem for laypeople like us is that all our scientific knowledge necessarily comes predigested – usually second, [...]

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What PowerPoint can’t show you

18.10.2009

Why does PowerPoint Presentations that Changed the World rank so high on the list of books that will never be written? Perhaps the clue’s in the title. PowerPoint has been with us for over twenty years but during that time it has gained more of a reputation for sending the world to sleep than changing [...]

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UK Speechwriters’ Guild inaugural conference video

15.10.2009

Here’s a video of the UK Speechwriters’ Guild inaugural conference. It was filmed last month in Bournemouth by talented film maker and producer Tim Clague – who’s done a superb job in capturing the flavour, and excitement, of the event. Martha and I were invited to show our ‘Busting the Mehrabian Myth’ video and give [...]

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Why David Cameron is a better speaker than Gordon Brown

09.10.2009

Here’s an interesting – and visual – way of looking at the recent conference speeches by Gordon Brown and David Cameron. I visited the Wordle website and pasted the text of each speech into the Wordle “word cloud” generator. The word clouds it creates give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the [...]

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How not using PowerPoint can make you a better presenter

06.10.2009

This morning I began writing a response to a comment posted on yesterday’s blog by Olivia Mitchell but as I did it slowly evolved into a post – so here it is. Olivia’s comment can be seen on yesterday’s post – Warning: PowerPoint may cause template thinking syndrome. Olivia – thanks for some really good [...]

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Warning: PowerPoint may cause template thinking syndrome

05.10.2009

PowerPoint users – and I know there are many of you – don’t be alarmed, but there is a growing body of evidence that many of you run the risk of developing a condition known as template thinking syndrome. The main symptom of template thinking syndrome is an overwhelming tendency to begin the preparation for [...]

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Gordon Brown’s problem isn’t performance – it’s the words!

30.09.2009

Let me put myself in the firing line. When it comes to public speaking, I believe that Gordon Brown’s problem has little do with the way he performs. In fact, I’ll go further and say that when you take stellar performers like Obama and Blair out of the equation, Brown can deliver a speech as [...]

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Two lessons in public speaking from Gordon Brown

29.09.2009

Gordon Brown’s speeches are easier on the eye than the ear. Which suggests he might be doing one or two things wrong. So what can Brown’s oratorical oversights teach the rest of us about getting things right on the podium? The right length for a speech Today’s conference keynote was nearly 6,500 words long and [...]

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