Most conferences spread verbal diarrhea and visual logorrhea like viral diseases. We create toxic airborne events cluttering the conference experience with an overuse of monologues, panel dialogues and slideuments. Author Garr Reynolds coined the word slideument referring to presentations that have enough text that they can “speak for themselves.” While a presentation that speaks for itself seems like a good idea, the research shows that slideuments are a distraction for the audience. No … [Read more...]
How To Be A Bodacious, Wicked, Totally Tubular Technical Presenter
Highly specialized technical complex topics are often associated with boring, butt-numbing, brain-draining, hum-drum, buzzkill presentations. So how do you tackle complicated technical content head on and still deliver an engaging, memorable and bodacious presentation? How do you move your audience from saying, “I thought that presentation would never end,” to “Booyah! That was totally awesomesauce!” Our Need For Technical Presentations Trade organizations depend upon accuracy, … [Read more...]
It Is Time To Hold Conference Speakers More Accountable
It’s time to hold speakers accountable for attendee learning, not just completed evaluation smile sheets! It’s time to encourage conference speakers to consciously improve. And if we want our conference speakers to improve, we need to provide them with information that shows where they need to improve and how to improve. What Product Does A Conference Sell? Too often, conference organizers and hosts DO NOT focus on improving the primary product they are selling to potential registrants: … [Read more...]
Just Because You Speak Does Not Mean Your Audience Learns: Eight Presenter Principles To Master
Most speakers are really good at talking! But talking to your audience does not mean that your audience is learning. Our Brains Have Limits As speakers, we have assumed that talking to an audience results in their learning. We think that their minds are like sponges absorbing what we are saying. But just hearing information does not equal learning it. You know that from talking to your kids and spouse. Just because you spoke it doesn’t mean they heard it or did it. Plus, if just … [Read more...]
Helping Speakers Move From Dispensers Of Information To Facilitators Of Learning
The greatest sign of success for a speaker is not a full room and positive smile-sheet summaries that only indicate attendees can successfully sit through long lectures. The greatest sign of success for a speaker is to be able to say, “The audience is now working on the content as if I did not exist!” (Paraphrase, Maria Montessori). Too many professional and industry speakers judge their success based on whether the client and the audience walked away with temporary cotton-candy feel good … [Read more...]
Conference Audiences To Speakers: It Is All About Me, Not You!
Me, me, me, me, me! No, it’s not the latest Sesame Street song sung by Beaker. Nor am I talking about the “Me Generation.” I’m talking about today’s conference audiences focused on their own ROI and not the speaker as entertainer. Me, Me, Me! Today's audience's see conference keynotes and education sessions differently than in the past. The emphasis is shifting. We are shifting from a speaker-centric, expert-emphasis conference to attendee-emphasis and learner-centric … [Read more...]
The Job Of A Speaker Must Drastically Change For Successful Conferences Today
Today's audiences expect more from a speaker than the traditional lecture. They want to be inspired, motivated, entertained and learn relevant take aways that they can apply immediately. They are not satisfied with sitting passively listening to monologues and panel platitudes. They want to actively participate in an education session. The End Of A Speaker-Expert Era For the past 10-20 years, the focus of conference education sessions and keynotes has been on the speaker. Speakers acted … [Read more...]
Why Audiences Detest Presenters That Abuse Or Avoid PowerPoint [Revisted]
Revised and updated from original post about presentations and images published on October 25, 2011. Presentations are the business currency of today. PowerPoint is often the legal tender of those presentations. We trade and share PowerPoint presentations like baseball cards, stamps and money. And SlideShare is the largest online community for sharing great presentations! When you create a presentation using great design and learning principles, ande you upload it to SlideShare, your … [Read more...]
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