Choosing a Presentation Remote Control

If you deliver electronic presentations using PowerPoint or other programs, you can manually move forward to the next slide with the keyboard or the mouse. One way, however, to deliver more effective presentations that improve your connection to your audience is to add a remote control to your presentation tools. What features should you look for when selecting a remote control?

Remote Features

Many projectors come standard with a remote but features vary and may not always be easy to use. A better choice is to buy your own personal presentation remote control. When evaluating a remote, look for these features and decide what is important to you:

• Ergonomic and easily fits in your hand. Keep in mind that you might be using the remote for an hour or an entire day. Plus, a smaller remote will usually have fewer and more accessible buttons, fits in your pocket, and is great for travel.
• Simple to use. In most cases, a smaller, ergonomic remote is easy to use but test it before buying. One of my friends loves her small remote which is only about the size of a matchbook. The tradeoff is she needs to press 2 buttons together to make the screen go black, a feature that does not always work. I was reminded of the importance of an easy to use remote recently when I watched an excellent presenter pull out a huge remote that looked a price scanner gun from Home Depot. As he fumbled with a large panel of buttons, the remote dropped to the floor and broke open with batteries flying across the stage.
• Transmit distance. Remotes operate with three different technologies: RF (wireless radio frequency), IR (infrared), and Bluetooth. A huge drawback with IR remotes is that you need to point the mouse directly at the receiver for it to work. Bluetooth remotes use the latest technology but currently have a maximum range of about 30' while many RF remotes have a range of 50 to 100 feet. With some remotes, you can have your back to the laptop and move to the middle of an audience. What do you need for your presentations?
• Built-in mouse. Some presenters will sacrifice a bit in size to get a built-in mouse, usually a small button like you see on some laptops. The Logitech Cordless Presenter, for example, combines a full-size mouse and remote with a 30' range and is priced under $200. Other remotes have a track ball or a touch pad. I prefer a separate wireless mouse that I use for portions of my presentations. I find a built-in mouse to be too awkward but it might be great for your purposes.
• Visible laser pointer. If you would like a built-in laser pointer, make sure to test it for visibility and practice moving it slowly. Some of the pointers have such a small laser dot that it does not show well on screen. Would an animation be a better way to highlight parts of a slide or a process?

When evaluating features, it is still not that common to find a wide range of remotes at your local computer store or office supply outlet, and so, your best option is to find someone who has a remote and try it out. My favorite is the RemotePoint Navigator from Interlink Electronics which is easy to use, fits comfortably in my hand, and gives me up to 50' of movement from my laptop. Another top model by the same company is the RemotePoint Presenter, with up to 100' of movement, a mouse button, and 32 MB of storage for your presentation; it is priced at about $150. The Phaser Mouse from IOGear is a budget-minded model for as little as $60.

There are many other models and brands to consider. Personally, I do not like remotes loaded with tons of features that you might not need; these remotes are typically bigger or more complicated to use. Remember, you should be using a remote so that you do not call attention to the technology and your audience can focus on your content.

Practicing with a Remote Control

After you buy a remote, practice with it before you use it. Do not just try it at your desk, you need to also setup your laptop and remote and actually run through your presentation. The first time I did this, the screen kept going black or I would accidentally advance to the next slide. The problem wasn't with the remote. The problem was that I was holding my presentation handout in the same hand and accidentally hitting a remote button through the handout. An easy adjustment but not obvious if my only rehearsal was in my office. I personally like to choreograph my slide actions into my presentation notes to avoiding looking back at the projection screen to check my location. Or, setup your laptop in the meeting room so you can glance at the screen and still keep the connection with your audience.

Practicing with your remote should be a built-in part of your presentation rehearsal to avoid distracting your audience and accomplishing the goal of communicating your message.

Bonus Tips: Always bring extra batteries; many speakers change out batteries for every presentation. To protect your investment, label the remote or put several business cards in the carrying case in the event that your remote is misplaced.

© Dawn Bjork Buzbee Dawn Bjork Buzbee is The Software Pro® and a certified Microsoft Office Expert and Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor. Dawn shares smart and easy ways to effectively use software and technology through her work as a speaker, trainer, and consultant. Discover more tips, tricks, tools, and techniques at http://www.SoftwarePro.com

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Public Speaking Without PowerPoint - Three Ways to Engage Audiences Without the Screen

If you have seen many speeches in your professional life, you have probably seen a boring PowerPoint presentation. It contains of a great host of slides that form a bullet-pointed outline of the entire presentation. The speech consists of little more than reading the bullet points. If you were in a darkened room, a nap might have overtaken you.

If you have given many presentations, you may be a perpetrator of such boredom. Challenge your self and give your audience a break. Next time you present, leave the projector at the office and try one of these techniques to engage your audience.

ENGAGE THEIR IMAGINATIONS WITH WORD PICTURES

Long before visual aids became common, speakers, storytellers and authors used words to trigger the imagination. The faux Martian invasion staged by Orson Wells through radio broadcasts caused a panic. People are very capable of conjuring up compelling images from their own mind; you can use this as a speaker.

Creating a word picture is not difficult. Start by imagining for yourself what you want your audience to see. Make the image as vivid as possible with colors, motions, sounds, scents and textures. Next, put it in words. Write down what you imagine including as many senses as you can.

You will probably need to revise your word picture to keep it short enough. Organize it, pare it down and tighten it up. It only needs to be detailed enough to evoke the imaginations of your audience; they will do the rest.

ENGAGE THEIR EYES WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

Before there was PowerPoint, speakers used photographic slides, chalkboard, white boards, flip-pads and fingers in the dust to provide visual aids for their presentations. These tools can be just as misused, too. The interminable travel slide show is cliché. So is the droning lecture accompanied by squeaking chalk.

Hand illustration has the advantage of being slower than clicking through electronic slides. You have to be selective about what you write or draw on your board. Write or draw selected words or images to reinforce the most important points of your presentation and show how they related. Focus on creating visual aids; if you are just producing an outline of your presentation, you could have used PowerPoint.

We are attracted to motion and color. Your use of hand illustrations can bring this into your presentation, adding interest and drawing additional attention from your audience at critical moments.

ENGAGE THEIR BODIES WITH MOTION

An important part of learning is doing. Look for ways you can get your audience to do something, even if the task is more illustrative than practical. It provides you with one more pathway to their mind.

Motion may also be a way to reengage an audience that is tired. People can only sit still for so long. If they have been sitting in a dim room for a while, they may welcome the chance to get up and stretch.

Activities can be difficult in large groups. You can get much of the benefit by drawing a few audience members up to perform the activity. This supplies a visual aid and stirs up the sympathy of the audience who will feel for their fellow who were unlucky enough to be picked or foolhardy enough to volunteer.

Be careful that your activities are not embarrassing or injurious to those participating. You want your audience to feel good about what they have done.

Preparing a presentation using these techniques can take more time and effort than typing your outline onto electronic slides. However, if your audience is not attentive to your presentation, it is a waste of effort. Think of the extra effort to use one of these techniques as an investment in your audience and the effectiveness of your message. Challenge yourself try your next presentation without PowerPoint and use these techniques to connect with your audience.

Keenan Patterson is a manager at Infra Consulting LC in Jefferson City, Missouri. In addition to consulting and he provides training to nonprofit and association boards, governing boards of municipalities and special purpose districts, and regulatory commissions, and speaks to diverse audiences.

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How to Organize a PowerPoint Sales Presentation - 7 Easy Steps For a Perfect Pitch

Like any good performance, a presentation must have a beginning, a middle and an end. Plus, it must be easy to hear, so your audience "gets it" and responds positively. Let's be clear; you present to sell.

To deliver a winning sales presentation you must:

* differentiate yourself from your competitors 
* convince your audience you are worth listening to--by being easy to hear 
* deliver information so that it is understood and appreciated 
* keep your audience listening and engaged from the very first word.

Too many presenters waste their most important opening minutes with the standard "Thank you for inviting us" quickly followed by the "My name is..." and sailing right into the "I'd like to introduce you to our team." If that's what you do, you are achieving the exact opposite of what you intend. First, you sound like everybody else. Secondly, your beginning is instantly forgettable. And finally, you have given your audience good reason to disengage right from the get-go. Indeed, you are seriously out of tune with the needs of a listening audience.

When you want to win, you need a perfect pitch. Here's the how and why in 7 easy steps.

Step 1

Begin with your Big Message--the one you have polished until it sings.

Benefits

Research tells us that most people confronted with a stream of information forget almost all of it. In fact, you'd be lucky if your audience remembers two or three specifics from your presentation. In reality, the details you present are not the essential factor in making the sale. Your Big Message is. Open with your message and your audience will remember it.

Your Big Message is the main thing you want your audience to know about you. It is the strong statement of fact that sets you apart from your competitors and resonates with your audience so they listen up and respond positively.

Your Big Message is the big reason--in sentence form--that convinces your audience they need you. Polish it, refine it and open with it before you get to a word of content--even before you introduce yourself. Once you state your message--if it's a good one--your audience is engaged. Now you may introduce yourself.

Step 2

Organize and deliver your content around three--maximum four--main topics. These are the topics or subjects that support or prove your message.

Benefits

People understand information only when they can organize it into a coherent structure so it makes sense. Make remembering easy by organizing information into three distinct topics.

Imagine your message is something like: Our equipment is better built, more reliable and easier to use than any other on the planet. The topics you then choose must support or prove that message. So let's say for this message your three topics are technology, design and return on investment. That's it. The rest of your content must go under those three headings.

Now, whether you are asked to present at warp speed, or are expected to speak for twenty minutes or considerably longer, you can bet your audience will forget the detail, the minutia, the facts and the figures. Short or long, a well planned presentation follows a three-topic structure. The difference between them is in the amount of detail you put under each heading.

So--and this is the kicker--no matter how long your presentation is, when it is structured in three sections--or maximum four--your audience remembers your message because you opened with it. What's more, even if they forget all the details, they will remember you talked about three big concepts that prove your message: technology, design and return on investment. And after all, that's what is really important.

Step 3

Reinforce your big message with a visual metaphor.

Benefits

Pictures are more memorable than words. Pictures can instantly engage your audience and subliminally reinforce the message you want to convey.

Words matter. Visuals make a difference. The more careful you are in tieing everything together with an underlying theme, the more memorable your pitch becomes. If, for example, your big point is that you are the best at putting all the pieces together, you might use a carpentry image as a background throughout and reinforce your message with titles that tie in to the image--titles that begin with words like Building or Crafting or Cementing. Or if you want your audience to know you have a specialized team to work on their behalf, you might use a sports metaphor with a team picture as the background on your slides. Your topic titles should then fit with the sports theme.

Picking appropriate titles to match your theme adds a touch of creativity while highlighting your underlying message.

Step 4

Use your slides as a visual aid, not a reading exercise; eliminate as much text as you can.

Benefits

Good eye contact is the key to connecting with your audience. You cannot connect when everyone is reading from the screen. If you must, use bullet points to keep yourself on track or to point out key features or benefits. Eliminate sentences or anything else that requires reading.

Do not give your audience text to read while you speak. Research explains that people process visual material and verbal material in different areas of the brain--on separate channels. Listeners can digest information on only one channel at a time--which means that if they are reading, they cannot listen to you.

Research also reports that the more senses you can stimulate, the more you improve information retention. If you can stimulate the visual cortex with a striking picture while you orally deliver information to stimulate the hearing sense, you have doubled the chances of your audience remembering anything you say.

Don't worry about forgetting something. This is your stuff and you could talk for hours about it. What's more, if you do leave something out, your audience will never know.

Step 5

Do not print your PowerPoint slides to use as handouts. Create separate, reader-friendly documents.

Benefits

A well written handout is proof that the presentation you delivered is valid and true. PowerPoint slides are designed to be visuals--the exact opposite of reading documents. Slides are horizontal; documents are vertical. Slides are on dark backgrounds; documents are on white paper. Slides use huge fonts; documents use reading fonts no bigger than 10-12 point because bigger than that is actually harder to read on paper. There's lots more, but you get the idea.

And while Microsoft suggests you use your slides as a handout, it's a big mistake to do so. Handouts that look and read like real documents provide a huge advantage because they are readable and people actually read them. Imagine that! Feel free to include all the facts, data, detail and minutia you want, and distribute them before the Q and A.

Step 6

End your presentation by returning to your opening Big Message.

Benefits

Your Big Message is the hook on which everything else hangs. Once you finish delivering content, repeat the Big Message you began with--to remind your audience what sets you apart. What's more, when you end where you began, your presentation has the seamless and satisfying quality of a good performance.

When that's done, it's time for Q&A.

Step 7

Practice with a coach to be sure you present with warmth, energy and real language. It's all about your "likability factor."

Benefits

A good coach can make the difference between an amateur performance and a professional one. Remember, your goal is not to be slick, it is to be likable--which requires a careful blend of confidence, energy and enthusiasm.

It's hard to assess your own performance. It's nearly impossible to gauge how likable you are to an audience. A coach will check to be sure you make good eye contact and speak conversationally, that your body language is open and welcoming, that you appear warm and friendly. A coach will make sure your voice is pleasant, that your passion shows, and that your delivery hits all the right notes.

When making the sale is important, you want a professional's insightful feedback to help polish your delivery.

Follow these 7 steps and become the likable, memorable, easy-to-hear presenter you know you can be. That's a perfect pitch!

When companies need a dynamite coach to help them reinvent or polish their presentation, they call Fern Lebo--because it pays off big time. Author, consultant, trainer and coach, Lebo is President of FrontRunner Communications, adjunct faculty at Auburn University and a frequent keynote speaker at conferences, retreats and meetings.

When companies need a dynamite coach to help them reinvent or polish their presentation, they call Fern Lebo--because it pays off big time. Author, consultant, trainer and coach, Lebo is President of FrontRunner Communications, adjunct faculty at Auburn University and a frequent keynote speaker at conferences, retreats and meetings. For nearly 20 years, Lebo has helped Fortune 500 companies create and deploy star performers. In seminars, workshops and individual or team coaching sessions, participants master the skills they need to compete and win more often. Whether it's a presentation renovation, strategic business writing, or improving presentation delivery, Lebo's clients learn the secrets that set them apart; they master the professional techniques they need to achieve outstanding success. Find out more at http://FRcommunications.com

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PowerPoint Tip - Create a Video Effect

You think of most presentations as being made up of slides, and most presentations look like that. But you can create a presentation that looks like it's all one slide. You do this by making the end of one slide (after animation) the same as the beginning of the next slide (before animation). It can be a black background, for a fade to black effect, or an image that covers the entire slide.

The technique is time consuming, because you need to get the timing just right, but it's not difficult, and it's a lot cheaper than making a video. It's excellent for sales presentations.

The key is animation and timing. In essence, you create a presentation that could be on one slide, but you use several slides for ease of animation. Then you add timing to the slides to move the presentation to the end automatically. Usually, you add narration as well.

You can use many techniques; here are the steps to create a fairly simple video-effect presentation:

1. Decide on a story line and photos to illustrate the story. The story I used is a plane trip from Iowa to California and I took the photos from the plane. In my case, the photos drove the story, but you could start with a story (let's say, about your company), and then find visuals to match.

2. Write a script and decided which photos would match with each section. Then divided the script into about 4 or 5 slides. This would work for a presentation lasts a few minutes. Add more slides for a longer presentation.

3. Attach a mic to your computer and open a sound recording program. I used Audacity, a free audio recording and editing program. I highly recommend it; it's used by many professionals. It's also easy to use. If you download it, be sure to also read the instructions for, and download, the LAME MP3 encoder, which lets you save files in MP3 format.

4. Record and save a separate MP3 file for each slide.

5. In PowerPoint, insert the appropriate MP3 file for each slide, by choosing Insert> Movies and Sounds> Sound from File. (In PowerPoint 2007, Insert tab> Media Clips group> Sound drop-down list> Sound from File.) Choose the Automatically choice when you see this dialog box. The sound will start to play as soon as the slide appears. Drag the sound icon just off the slide.

6. In Windows Explorer, right-click the MP3 file, and choose Properties. In the Properties dialog box, click the Details tab to find the length of the sound.

7. Once you know the length of your sound file, decide at which point you want your images to appear. You can double-click the sound on the slide, listen to it with a stopwatch, and find out the timing for each word that you want to introduce a new image.

8. Open the Custom Animation task pane by choosing Slide Show> Custom Animation (Animations tab> Custom Animation in PowerPoint 2007). You'll see the sound there. If you add other animations, the sound will stop as soon as they start, so click the sound's down arrow in the Custom Animation task pane, and choose Effect Options. In the Stop Playing section, choose After Current Slide, so that the sound will continue throughout the other animations on the slide.

9. If you want the first slide to fade to black as it goes to the next slide, right-click the slide and choose Format Background. Choose a solid fill background of black and repeat for the second slide. If you want instead to use an image, format the background of the 2 slides with the same image, or insert the image on the 2 slides and send it to the back of the order. (Right-click, and choose Order> Send to Back, or just Send to Back.)

10. Insert the images that you want to use for that slide. Move them (stagger them) so you can select them individually. Click the first one. Generally, you want it to take up the entire slide, but it doesn't have to; resize it if desired. Choose Add Effect> Entrance, and add an effect. Change its Start option to With Previous. For a slight delay instead, choose After Previous, click the item's down arrow in the task pane, choose Timing, and set a delay.

11. If you want this image to disappear before the next one enter, choose Add Effect> Exit and choose an effect. Set the Start to After Previous and set the delay equal to the time when you want the next image to enter.

12. Select the second image and add an entrance animation. If you want it to enter while the previous image is exiting, set the Start to With Previous. Otherwise, set it to After Previous and set the delay according to the times you worked out in your script. You want it to enter when a specific word is being spoken. You may have to try the result and make adjustments.

13. Continue until you've animated your images, exiting them at the end, so you see the background color or image.

14. Set the timing for the slides. Choose Slide Show> Slide Transition (in 2007, Animations Tab> Transitions to This Slide group). In the Advance Slide section, check the Automatically After check box and enter the number of seconds, which should be equal to the length of the sound. Again, you may want to adjust the timing slightly after viewing the result. Do this for all the slides.

Ellen Finkelstein, is the best-selling author of How to Do Everything with PowerPoint 2007 (and previous editions for PowerPoint 2002 and PowerPoint 2003) Her award-winning Web site features loads of free tips on PowerPoint, the monthly PowerPoint Tips Newsletter, and the PowerPoint Tips Blog - http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com

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5 Ways to Develop Presentation Skills

Here are 5 Ways that will help you develop your skills of presentation.

-Confidence is the Key 

Before anything, develop a certain degree of confidence about your own abilities. Don’t go out there with the feeling that everyone is your enemy and is just waiting to rip you apart. 

You can also build a certain degree of confidence by being well prepared for the presentation. Don’t leave any facet out, and make it a point to have a script that is tightly edited. Even if you don’t make all the information at your disposal, a part of the presentation, make sure that you have an in-depth understanding of the topic.

-Be Engaging and Do Not Lecture 

Develop an interesting presentation. This is a significant aspect of developing presentation skills. Learn to interact with your audience while giving a presentation. Don’t just stand and dump your data on them. 

Be compelling enough, so that the people hear your presentation, without giving you a bored look or without showing disinterest in the presentation. It’s important to understand that, you don’t know more than the audience, and even if you think you do, you are giving the presentation for their benefit and not yours.

-Knowing Your Audience 

Make it a point to know your audience. Meaning, you must know the basic characteristics of the audience. You must also know the number of senior people that would be a part of the audience, or what would be the initial attitude of the people vis-à-vis the topic. 

If the people in front of you are intelligent and well-informed, you must be prepared accordingly and try to mold your presentation skills accordingly. Each presentation is different, and needs a few common skill sets in conjunction with skill sets that have been developed for a particular audience.

-Keep it Short and Simple 

Don’t go in for a lengthy presentation. A simple and short presentation does not mean a presentation that falls short of expectations or does not provide important information. 

If you try and integrate simplicity, you will develop an orderliness, and will also know what to select and in what amount. You will also become better organized, and not meander away from the topic.

-Anticipation 

You can develop presentation skills by learning to anticipate any eventuality, especially with respect to the questions asked. If you do not learn to expect the unexpected, you might just lose your credibility in the process.

Always identify the questions or problems that your might face, and form an adequate response for the same.

The Time and Patience Factor

Developing presentation skills takes time and no one is born with such skills. You need to practice, and hone your skills, by not shying away from the thought of giving presentations. After a period of time and due diligence you will develop presentation skills that will give you unmitigated success.

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How Do You Reach Everyone in the Room?

Presentations or speeches can be a wonderful experience for the person talking at the front of the audience and for the audience as wee. This is a technique usually used to get information to people and also to entertain people in some circumstances. There are many ways to do this such as Powerpoint, hand outs, or using writing on boards which are the visual aspects of presentations. But let's face it, most of the time it is talking and the audience listening to many words.

Because any group is composed of different types of people with some who listen well, others that are visual learners, some that talking puts to sleep, and others that just want to talk, different ways may be used to attempt to reach everyone.

If at all possible to not get behind a podium. This separates the speaker from the audience and gives a feel that the speaker is unreachable. In this scenario it is unspoken that the audience role is to listen only. It may be untrue but it is an unconscious feeling and interpretation.

Walk around a little. This makes the audience follow you and keeps there attention. At the same time eye contact with different members of the audience shows that you are engaged with them. Don't linger too long on one person though but it is OK to see if you can get a nod or a smile.

Bodies make a lot of expression so to use your hands is great. A cordless, hands free mike would be best for this. There are many places using these now and is a good investment. A good one even picks up a whisper.

The voice when speaking should change in tone and emphasis at time but there is no need to shout. It is much like a conversation though one sided mostly but people listen to conversational tone better than feeling it is simply orders. It is also terrific to smile and tell some related stories. Stories people remember and this gives a reference for the information given.

Presentations are meant to help people so give it in a manner that says exactly that.

Liz Cosline- Life Ownership Coach - Speaker
Author of:
Transcendental Sojourn - Arrival to One Journal (xlibris.com)
One Voice (publishamerica.com)
Unexpected Knowing (publishamerica.com)
Notice for Arrival (publishamerica.com)

In business management for over 23 years.

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The Two-Hour Sales Presentation Vs. A Seven-Minute Attention Span

The average decision-maker has an attention span of just a little over seven minutes. I’m convinced that adult attention spans have been carefully programmed by network television, by the seven to eight minute time segments of entertainment, wedged between commercial breaks. On the other hand, the average sales presentation in the United States runs from one and a half to two hours in length. As a sales manager, you should easily figure out what’s wrong with this picture.

Those of you with complex products or services, or with large product lines may be saying to yourself, that it takes at least an hour to demonstrate all of the features and benefits of what it is you sell and another 20 to 30 minutes for questions and answers, right? Well, if you want more sales, help your staff to cut the length of their presentations down appreciably.

The $elling Edge®, Inc.’s Sales Success Strategies workshop, teaches a six-step selling process that can be completed, no matter how complex the product or service, in 30 minutes or less. We speed up the selling process, not only because of a decision-maker’s lack of attention , but more important, so that a sales professional can make more presentations in a given time period. And, the more presentations made over time, the more sales that are consummated.

You do the math. If a sales representative averages one and a half to two hours for each presentation as compared to an average of 30 to 40 minutes, how many more presentations can your staff make each year? How many more sales?

The six-step selling process, taught in the Sales Success Strategies workshops, is outlined in detail in a self-directed learning manual of the same name. You can learn more about it at: http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/manual1.htm

VIRDEN THORNTON is the founder and President of The $elling Edge®, Inc. an Ohio consulting firm specializing in sales and sales management training, personal coaching, advisory services and publishing. Clients have included Sears Optical, Eastman Kodak, IBM, Service Linen Supply, Bank One, Jefferson Wells International, and Wal-Mart to name a few. Virden is the author of the “best selling” Building & Closing the Sale, Prospecting: The Key To Sales Success and Close That Sale, a video/audio tape series published by Crisp Publications a division of Thompson Learning. He has also authored a client acclaimed Self-Directed Learning series of sales, coaching, telemarketing, and personal productivity manuals. To obtain a substantial discount on two of Virden's latest books, 101 Sales Myths or Organizing For Sales Success, go to: http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Virden_Thornton

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Presentation Planning - 5 Easy Ways to Streamline the Process

Practicing for presentations can waste more of your key personnel time then almost any other business activity. The possible exception being useless meetings! To maximize your planning efforts just follow these 5 easy steps. You will find that you can streamline the process and make Presentation Practice much more productive.

- There must be One Person in Charge. This person has responsibility for scheduling, coordinating and, perhaps most importantly, communicating with all of the presentation team members. Preferably this is a staff position working in Business Development who can be assigned the job. Never put a busy executive in charge of the day to day process.

- Select the Presentation Team Early. Be sure to determine who is required to be a presenter. Almost always the client wants to meet and hear from the people working directly on the project, not just the sales group.

- A detailed presentation schedule is mandatory. Everyone must understand what the plan is. At a minimum the schedule needs to show the following: Presentation date and time. Team practices and who needs to be present along with where and when practices will be held. A block of time needs to be allocated for preparing visual aids. They can be power point slides, presentation boards, handouts, leave behinds, or anything else that may need to be created for the presentation. The schedule needs to be distributed to all team members as quickly as possible to allow maximum time for individuals block out times in their personal schedules.

- When practices are scheduled everyone must be prepared to practice. This sounds redundant but I can't tell you how often I have heard people complain over what a waste of time a practice session was. Having a room full of people waiting for someone to finish the power point presentation slides is not where you want to be.

- Communicate everything pertaining to schedule with everyone as quickly as possible. Again, numerous times I have seen practice sessions rescheduled without letting everyone know. The result is always a conference room of senior staff with nothing to do! They didn't know the practice had been rescheduled.

Try these steps and you will be surprise at how much more productive your Presentation Planning will become.

Allen Jossim is a retired executive and freelance writer with much presentation and public speaking experience. Please go to his blog Public Speaking - You Can Do It! Where helpful information is always available.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Allen_Jossim

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Better Presentation Skills - Don't Care Too Much About What Happens!

Caring about your audience and how you do as a speaker is a good thing. If you don't care about what you do, how well you do it, or what the audience takes away from it then you are just apathetic and probably shouldn't be speaking to this group.

However, caring too much can be just as bad as not caring enough. By caring too much you actually reduce your ability to perform well. It sounds ironic, but the more importance you put on succeeding, the less likely you are to succeed.

Caring too much is the number one reason people feel nervous before they speak. There are many reasons you can care too much: you are afraid of being embarrassed, the speech is important to your career so you want to do well, you think the audience is hostile, etc.

Allowing these nerves in makes it very hard for you to perform your best. It is hard to speak naturally when you are freaking out!

This happened to me in my early speaker days, during one of my first "big" speeches. I walked in to the event with my speech prepared. However, before my speech I spoke with several of the attendees. I found out that the year before that had a world champion boxer as their speaker. Here I was, this young guy going to do this little comedy speech, when they were used to speakers who had been on the world stage! "There is no way they are going to like my stuff," I thought.

On top of that, I started discovering that a lot of these people were very successful. Way more successful than me. Also, this was my first "big" speech and I wanted to do really well so I could get referrals and follow up business. I was counting on it.

I got up to speak, but it was too late. I cared too much, and psyched myself out. The speech was ok (they didn't ask for their money back or anything) but I got zero referrals or follow up. Nada. Zilch.

I realized afterward that the problem was that I put too much importance on what the audience would think. I wanted to do a great job and give great value to the audience, but I realized that all I could do was worry about doing my best, and if they didn't like it, too bad.

Now, whenever I start to get nervous about a speaking engagement, or anything else for that matter, I remind myself to do my best and not care so much about what the audience thinks. When I do this, my nerves immediately calm and I am able to perform much better. I encourage you to try this before your next presentation.

To read about six more mistakes speakers make, and to watch a free 20 minute video on how to be authentic and natural as a speaker, and to download a one-hour MP3 on how to be a better speaker, check out http://www.avishparashar.com/speakingschool/ Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Avish_Parashar

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Public Speaking - Five Awful Ways to Open a Speech

The opening of a speech is one of its two most important parts. There are many great ways to begin, and for each great beginning, there is an equally awful opening.

Here are five awful ways to begin a speech:

• "Hi there, I'm happy to be here..." Please! This is the most bland, boring, badly overused speech opening. By the time you reach the word "here", half of your audience is already asleep. The other half is looking at their watches, wondering "When is this going to be over?" Don't waffle: just start!
• "I'm very nervous right now..." Who cares? Why do you think it's so important for us to know that you haven't prepared, you haven't practiced, and you aren't ready? The audience does not need to know how you feel. When you announce that you aren't at your best, you are automatically setting expectations that you will be bad. It doesn't matter how well you perform. If you do the best speech of your life, they will leave while thinking to themselves: "I wonder how much better it would have been if he/she had been feeling good."
• "Did you hear the one about..." Oh boy! Whenever people start their speech with a joke, it's usually sign that they are just following "public speaking rules." These "rules" allegedly state that you must start a speech with a joke. The problem is that jokes are rarely related to the topic at hand. They are only there to make people laugh. Nothing wrong with getting people to laugh, as long as it doesn't seem forced. Otherwise, after the laughter, people will wonder: "What was the point of that joke?"
• "Here is a story you all know..." Ugh! The starfish story, anything from Chicken Soup for... any story you received over the Internet, all have the same basic issue: many people have heard it already. Stay away from stories that everyone has told, unless you bring a twist to it. For example, I once heard the story of the tortoise and the hare which contained, not one, not two, but three different endings to the story. Now, that's a twist!
• "The great philosopher A. Nonymous once said..." This is another one of those public speaking "rules": start with a quote. Avoid this, once again, because it sets up your audience with the wrong expectations. The expectation is the following: this is going to be another boring speech filled with information we already know. Use quotes, just not at the beginning of your speech.

The two most important parts of a speech are the introduction and the conclusion. The introduction sets the tone for your speech, while the conclusion determines how the audience will feel when they leave. Don't set yourself up for failure from the start: drop these awful openings from your repertoire.

Laurent Duperval helps professionals become influential communicators. He publishes the "Bring Out The Speaker In You" electronic newsletter, which aims to help readers improve their public speaking and communication skills. You can reach him at http://www.duperval.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laurent_Duperval

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Motivation Presentation - It Wasn't Only the Egyptians Who Built Pyramids!

When giving a motivation presentation, audience analysis is essential. You must think of your presentation from your audience's viewpoint. Chances are your audience has been asked to attend your presentation (they have not come along voluntarily) and many well be thinking: "What's in it for me?"

Don't take that personally. When giving a motivational presentation, that "What's in it for me?" question should be your call to action. For your presentation to succeed, that is the question you need to answer. A motivational presentation should be structured in a way that takes your audience from where they are now to where you would like them to be. You first must engage your audience's attention at their current level, and then demonstrate through your presentation how you can fulfill their natural desire to move up to the next level of motivation. Depending on the goals of your presentation and the intended audience, whether a sales force, production personnel or a football team, you must give them a reason to listen to your presentation. A reason that relates to, and builds on, their own experience.

Way back in 1954, American psychologist Abraham Maslow developed the idea of a hierarchy pyramid of human needs. That hierarchy pyramid has been the foundation of motivation presentations ever since. He demonstrated that there are five basic levels of needs that all people have in common: basic, safety, social, self-esteem and achievement. These can be visualized in a pyramid-type structure with the basic level at the base, up to achievement at the apex.

In the business environment for example, Maslow's hierarchy from the basic level upward is:

• Basic needs, which can be met through, attractive salary, holiday entitlement, etc.
• Safety needs, met by safe working conditions, good pension, health cover.
• Social needs, such as company fitness and sports club, planned social events such as office parties (my favorite!)
• Self-esteem needs, by prestigious job titles, sales-person-of-the-year award, etc.
• Achievement needs, through promotions, interesting job assignments, and so on.

Maslow suggested that people can only be motivated to move up to the next needs-level when they have satisfactorily met the main requirements of their current level. In other words, you are unlikely to have much success in your motivating presentation in telling you audience they have been selected to work on a prodigious new project (self esteem) if their pressing concern is their cut in bonuses (basic).

Interestingly, Maslow found that that when the lower-order needs have been fulfilled, the desire to reach the higher-order needs (self-esteem and achievement) dramatically increase in strength. The ideal motivating presentation should therefore focus more on the higher-order needs. Needs that excite people to develop their talents to the best of their abilities and enable them to finding greater meaning in their work.

A Certified Technical Trainer, Ian has over 10 years experience in the coaching, training and development of personnel in the hi-tech sector. For more presentation tips, ideas and resources, visit http://www.presentation-power-tips.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_W_Hay

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