Speaking

While reading Dan Roam's blog today I stumbled on this great little clip of a 1966 Kermit the Frog skit on visualization from the Ed Sullivan show. And then I found an earlier version of the skit from the 1950s below. Jim Henson truly was a creative genius and a pioneer (and either he — or Kermit — was ahead of his time). In this skit from the old Sam & Friends show — which is even before my time — Kermit and Harry the Hipster do a riff on visual thinking (I love the visualization of jazz...). Dan Roam's @ Google talk And speaking of the power of visualization, there are a lot of…

Above: A short (1:52) intro about this topic made in Keynote (link to video on bliptv). Can you learn how to make better slides by looking at a few signs around your local IKEA store? This may sound absurd, yet the lessons are all around you, and you can indeed learn a lot from a well-designed billboard, including those created by IKEA. On page 140 of Nancy Duarte's Slide:ology, Nancy says that good slides in many ways are most similar to billboards. That is, the audience should be able to get the meaning in a very short amount of time."Presentations are a 'glance media' — more closely…

In yesterday's jazz post I mentioned Ken Burns, one of my favorite documentary film makers and storytellers of our time. He is perhaps most famous to many people for the "Ken Burns effect," a technique for adding motion to still photography. In this technique life is given to a photo by slowly panning or zooming in or out to give emphasis or create drama, etc. Burns learned the technique from his mentor in the '70s and applied it in the making of the documentary Brooklyn Bridge in 1981 (nominated for an Academy Award). The effect first appeared in software (as the "Ken Burns effect" at least)…

A few days ago Mental Floss (the blog) ran a nice post that was an extension of an article they ran in their Mental Floss magazine on Miles Davis and his 1959 album Kind of Blue. Young jazz students learn early that Kind of Blue is one of the greatest jazz albums ever recorded and is required knowledge for all aspiring jazz players. I said many times before that the parallels with jazz and presentation run deep and wide. The Kind of Blue album is a great example of what's called modal jazz. It's difficult to explain what modal jazz is: according to ModalJazz.com "...in a modal jazz song,…

Finally! Nancy Duarte, the Principle of Duarte Design (the firm behind the creation of Al Gore's Oscar-winning presentations), has published a presentation book for the rest of us. It's called Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. Slide:ology is practical, it's highly visual, and it's beautiful. I love this book. Slide:ology should come bundled with every copy of PowerPoint or Keynote ever sold from now on. I received a draft copy about three months ago that blew me away — the final product is even better than I expected. I just got my copy over the weekend. At…

The Convention - Day Two Wasn't going to blog on this, but it was a heck of a night communication wise. - Governor Mark Warner started it off with a solid hit. He was the keynote, and it will not be the equivalent of Barack Obama's 2004 speech that rocketed Obama to prominence, but Warner was the first speaker to really do well at this convention: Great message - not a cliche Used the teleprompter well, by not using it much at all Connected with the audience - Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana was then a surprise - energetic, light touch and interesting, making another hit that sent Mark…

The Convention Communication Experience Every four years we see a communication experience in action at the conventions. Tonight we started with the Democratic Convention, and I'll make some brief comments on (most) of the nights. Opening Highlights. There were two: Michelle Obama - a match for Barack Obama in communicating ability. This was unlike any other potential First Lady speech ever given. She did an amazing job, hitting the right notes for the family image - with fiery rhetoric for the Obama value. This was not just the wife giving a biography - she was powerful. (And she used the…

The First Debate - Rick Warren with Obama and McCain OK, it wasn't a debate, it was better! It was historic and was what a debate should actually be - insightful, candid, conversational - where we can see the character and personality of the candidates as well as their views. And this will change the Presidential election. When Rick Warren had a "conversation" with both Barack Obama and John McCain in his Civil Forum tonight, he set a precedent. I hope the national debate forum will change to model what we saw tonight. All three came away winners - though perhaps Warren won the…

I'm into the Olympics, and there's not enough time to see it. But the Opening Ceremony on Friday - called the greatest staged event we might see in our lifetime by several observers and I think they are right - opened us all to this opportunity to see unforgettable excellence. And interesting communications insights. A great example -  did you see those 2008 drummers in the opening number smile! I mean, here are the usually serious Chinese doing an incredibly intricate and difficult task, and smiling - so unexpectedly  No doubt they were trained to do so, and it made such a…

"It takes 21 days to change a habit," according to Maxwell Maltz - and I think he's about right, give or take a week or two. But this past weekend we saw habit change at a high level happen in a couple of days at our Speakers' Roundtable meeting - and there's a great learning principle in this story. Too many leaders, and speakers talk about "stuff" , as in "The group liked my stuff," or "I gave them my best stuff. We generically and lazily categorize specific concepts or details or material as "stuff." So Patricia Fripp, renowned public speaker, coach and sister of King Crimson's Robert…

Ethos3 recently had the opportunity to chat with Andy Goodman, a nationally recognized author, speaker, and storyteller. You can read our discussion below.Andy's Bio:  Andy Goodman is a nationally recognized author, speaker and consultant in the field of public interest communications. Along with Storytelling as Best Practice, he is author of Why Bad Ads Happen to Good Causes and Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes. He also publishes a monthly journal, free-range thinking, to share best practices in the field.Andy is best known for his speeches and workshops on storytelling,…

Here is a quick "3 in 33" installment thats covers some simple presentation design tips.

SummaryI wanted to take this time to honor one of America's most recent heroes, Michael Phelps.  The Olympic all-star has been plastered all over the media lately as the greatest Olympic athlete in history.  This is a critique on a press conference that was held after Phelps brought home his 8th gold medal.ContentThis talk is short, sweet, and to the point.  The experiences Phelps talked about were honest and seemed to come from the heart."It was fun.""I'm thankful that everything turned out pretty much perfect.""Every moment that I've had so far, in and out of the pool, will be with me…

Ethos3 recently spent a few minutes to chat with Steve Glasgow, a veteran financial advisor, to discuss the role of storytelling in the financial industry.  Steve is a First Vice President - Investments and Senior Institutional Consultant with Wachovia Securities.  He works with individual and institutional investors including defined benefit funds, defined contribution plans, endowments, and foundations, and has experience working with institutions as a consultant for over $2 billion of institutional plan assets over the last 12 years.   1.  What was your inspiration for going into the…

This installment covers three different presentation approaches that are available to you.

The last webinar I did for VizThink had almost 12,000 people watch it. Man, folks are hungry for really great presentations. Here’s a podcast they did with me yesterday. It was a different experience to navigate through a PDF instead of having slides. So for the upcoming VizThink webinar, I’ll be presenting with three folks who I admire and adore. Check out their bios here. Each of us will present for an hour. You can either attend all the sessions or only one. They are charging for them this time but you’ll be completely revolutionized by the content, so what’s that…

We’ve all heard it before… “the presentation is due tomorrow, and you have to pull together the content, QUICK!” Deadlines can make you feel like you have to cut corners and eliminate some very important steps in your creative process, but try to start all projects with at least a quick brainstorm. Pulling four of your smartest co-workers together for 20 minutes will generate ten times more ideas than one person can for one hour! 1+1 equals 11, right, Marty? Whether it’s an official-’cause-its-on-my-calendar brainstorm…or a “quickstorm” (a…

I rarely treat myself to fiction due to the pile of business books looming on my desk. But this summer I read People Magazine’s must-read fiction book of the summer called The Shack. Toward the end of the book there’s a scene where the main character is introduced to what it might look like if you could see each other truly. What if you could see each individual’s personality and emotions as color and light? Here’s an excerpt where the main character, Mack, is struggling to understand the concept: Mack was listening but still watching the display before them. Sarayu…

One of my favorite books in my library is Information Anxiety 2 written by Richard Saul Wurman. Richard not only founded TED but also hosts another intriguing conference called eg hosted in Monterey, CA in early December.  In an era of exploding information, Mr. Wurman brings clarity and process to information design. He introduces the acronym LATCH which are represent ways to categorize information that are applicable to almost any endeavor. The acronym is a framework upon which most information can be organized. To illustrate his point, Mr. Wurman applied the LATCH system to man’s…

How Simple Sells Presentations are ubiquitous; they exist in many mediums, across every size of business. You can often find inspiration from what works and lessons from what doesn’t in unexpected places. For example, there’s a tiny fitness facility in a strip mall near my house. For some time, I’ve been amused by its dense hand painted window signs describing an elaborate formula for getting in shape. The panes displayed bulleted lists of things like “customized meal planning systems, exercise programming, accountability and motivation, psycho-emotional coaching, and…

Leo Babauta from the blog Zen Habits recently posted his Top 5 most inspirational videos on YouTube. I hadn’t come across this remix of a speech by Will Smith (the remix is by TeamJonny5 - I’ve edited it slightly). It’s only 1 min 19 sec so take the time to watch it because in this short snippet Will Smith showcases the elements of great speech design : OK, it’s not a corporate or business presentation. But I bet if I asked you in 6 months time “What are Will Smith’s keys to life?” - you could tell me.  That’s because it’s got great…

Slidesharing sites like Slideshare and Slideboom are a great place to get inspiration on PowerPoint slide design. You can see different ideas and adapt them for your own presentations. Slideshare is currently running the World’s Best Presentation Contest (see footnote) which has some great examples of PowerPoint slide design. To save you time I’ve picked two sample slides from the 5 most popular entries. They’ll offer you inspiration for the design of your own slides. (To see the whole slideshow click on the link I’ve provided for each set of slides). 1. Play with text…

Networking events which group together a number of short presentations are creating a buzz. There’s Pecha Kucha Night, which started out to allow young designers to showcase their work: Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each - giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show. There’s Ignite which has more of a geek flavour: If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically…

In my last post The lost art of notes I suggested that you have your own set of hard-copy notes so that you’re no longer reliant on PowerPoint for your notes. The second step to break free of PowerPoint as your autocue is to have a printout of your PowerPoint slides. The benefits of a printout of your PowerPoint slides Having a printout of your slides means that you know the next slide before you click your remote. No longer do you have to click before you open your mouth. You can introduce slides, you can take turns with your slides - you can dance with your slides. Your audience will…

In my post The PowerPoint Revolution hasn’t gone far enough I said that PowerPoint should be an equal partner in our presentations. There’s a major obstacle to implementing this principle. That’s using the PowerPoint slides as your notes. If you use PowerPoint as your notes, PowerPoint always cues you. You click, you speak, click-speak, click-speak. 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…

Many video files today come to us in Apple's QuickTime MOV file format. And that causes a problem when we want to insert it on a slide since PowerPoint for Windows does not natively play QuickTime files. One solution is to convert the file to a format that PowerPoint can play.Geetesh Bajaj of www.indezine.com recently wrote a great article on converting QuickTime MOV files using a free video tool program. Read the whole article at: http://www.indezine.com/products/video/convertquicktimetoaviwithradtools.html . I downloaded the tool he suggested and tried it on one of my slide makeover video…

Just a quick note to let you know that a new Slide Makeover Video Podcast based on the ideas in "The Visual Slide Revolution" is available for your viewing through the iTunes Store or online. When presenting numbers that were calculated in Excel, don't just copy and paste part of your spreadsheet. This makeover shows a table of numbers transformed into a concise summary of the key issues that decision makers need to know.This slide was suggested by one of the subscribers to the newsletter - someone just like you who is looking for a way to make their presentations more effective. If you want…

Next month I am presenting at PowerPoint Live on how to design and deliver a web based presentation and the differences from a presentation where the audience is in the room. I was looking back at the webinar I did for SpeakerNetNews that covered some of these topics and one area I am not going to cover at PowerPoint Live is the area of selecting a web presentation service. So I'm going to share some of my thoughts on that topic today.The objective today is not to convince you to lean towards one particular service or another. It is to give you some criteria to consider when you have to make…

I don't know about you, but my wife and I love the Olympics. When they are on, as they are now, we devote a number of hours each day to watching the competition. We rejoice at the great performances and feel bad for the athletes who miss a medal by a fraction of a second or point.What is common to every athlete who is competing is that they have trained years to become the best at their sport. They have had great coaching, encouragement from family and friends and access to the best equipment and facilities.So how does this apply to us as presenters? More than you might initially think.Let's…

Just a quick note to let you know that a new Slide Makeover Video Podcast based on the ideas in "The Visual Slide Revolution" is available for your viewing through the iTunes Store or online. Just adding a visual to your slides is not enough - it must have context so the audience can understand it. This makeover shows a visual and how it can be recreated to have a much better impact on the audience.This slide was suggested by one of the subscribers to the newsletter - someone just like you who is looking for a way to make their presentations more effective. If you want to submit some of your…

Every Saturday, we survey the best public speaking articles from throughout the public speaking blogosphere. Topics featured this week include: speechwriting; speech organization; storytelling advice; speech openings; a new PowerPoint addon, pptPlex; engaging the audience; and more. Week in Review: Six Minutes The feature article this week continued the Toastmasters Speech Series: Toastmasters Speech 4: How to Say It Emphasizes the use of rhetorical devices and sensory words and phrases to add life to speeches, and includes several speech examples. Although this article series adopts the…

Does your audience need a dictionary to decipher your speeches? Do you write your speeches with encyclopedic diction? Do you draw your speechwriting inspiration from legal documents? Technical writing, essays, financial reports, and legal writings all have their place — but none of them belong in your speechwriting. Speeches which use simple, conversational language are more enjoyable to listen to, easier to follow, and more likely to be remembered. The fourth Toastmasters speech project guides you to use simple, but descriptive language in your speeches. This article of the…

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…

One of these 10 people will be crowned the new World Champion of Public Speaking on August 16th, 2008 at the Toastmasters International convention in Calgary, Alberta. Update (August 16): LaShunda Rundles is the 2008 World Champion of Public Speaking. K. Loghandran placed 2nd, and Katherine Morrison placed 3rd. Each year, over 230,000 members in over 11,000 clubs in 92 countries around the world have the opportunity to participate in this contest where competitors deliver 7-minute speeches judged on core message, speech development, language, and delivery techniques. The club contest is the…

Every Saturday, we survey the best public speaking articles from throughout the public speaking blogosphere. Wait a minute… every Saturday? Then what happened the last two weeks? Summer happened. Camping with family happened. An impromptu trip to Seattle happened. To compensate for the two week hiatus of the weekly review, I’m pleased to present the biggest and boldest collection yet — three week’s worth of the best public speaking articles. Topics featured this week include: public speaking book reviews; the presentation debate between content vs style; the innate…

According to my pal Matt Cornell, "There is no reason to blog more than once per week." He goes on to say, "...given these days of information overload there is no thinking that's so important that I should see it daily."While I'm extremely hurt that Matt doesn't find my content important enough to read every day (which means he won't read this blog post for a while -- muahahahahaha!), I'm also curious to know how often you read this blog. Please take the poll at the top and let me know how often you read, and also let me know in the comments if you end up skipping posts because you can't…

You want to see a real public speaking pro at work? Watch a few minutes of a home shopping channel.In the five minutes that I watched QVC, I saw the host do just about everything we're taught to do as speakers.First of all, don't kid yourself that you're not selling something. We're all selling something.I worked in nonprofits for sixteen years, providing community outreach and education to youth and adults for several organizations. I was always selling -- I had an end result that I was looking for, a call to action I wanted my audiences to heed, and my job was to educate, but also to…

On August 26, 1989, Bub and I got married, after knowing each other for just under two years. We met while working the night shift at Mother's Market in Costa Mesa. The decision to get married was easy; my parents said, "If you're going to get married, do it while we have the money to pay for it."Shortly thereafter, Bub and I looked at each other and said, "Wanna?" "Okay." And here we are today!As you might guess, we are not traditionally romantic, but our romantic gestures have a style all their own. My fifteenth anniversary gift was a tattoo.Together over the years we've:Drunk thousands of…

A common presenter mistake is to run out of time. Even when you've practiced, you sometimes find yourself rushing the last five or ten minutes of your presentation, wondering where the time went.Well, here's an easy solution. Get yourself a countdown timer! Sure, there may be a clock in the room or you're wearing a watch. But a clock doesn't do the math for you: What you really need to know is how much time you have left, not what time it is.I use a countdown timer with a flashing light, a vibration or a sound alarm. I can use any of them alone or together, or turn them all off. Generally, I…

I recently saw the movie, "Alice Adams," starring Katharine Hepburn as a young woman struggling to fit into a circle that has outpaced her, socially and financially. Her father, content with his low-paying and thankless clerical job, is constantly berated by the social-climbing mother, in an attempt to create a life for Alice that will ensure the security of her future -- mostly by finding her an affluent mate.Alice is portrayed both as a comical and a tragic character, where she is repeatedly snubbed and put down by other girls because of her outdated clothing and lack of social status. She…

99 percent of PowerPoint presentation sucks. So begins Presentation Zen with an introduction from Guy Kawasaki. Or I should say, the book opens with a presentation from Kawasaki. Before getting to business, author Garr Reynolds explains that Presentation Zen is an approach not a method. Don’t count on getting step one, two, three from this book. That would fall under method. An approach provides guidelines and direction. Reynolds looks back at the history of PowerPoint along with experts’ slamming the software. People forget that PowerPoint is a tool not a method. The templates,…

Maps make great visual aids in a presentation. You might want to use maps in your presentation to show the locations of your offices, where your customers are, or doing an Al Gore and showing the effects of the environment in different cities, states, countries, continents. You could also use maps to make up your own world to use it as a theme in your BBP presentation. This doesn’t mean starting from scratch or using clip art where you bend over backwards trying to add or delete text because it has no editable regions. Bruce Jones Design offers World of Maps, which are ready to use,…

When you have a complex story to tell that takes place over specific dates, a timeline can help guide your audience if you show a simplified version on screen, and a detailed handout on paper. For example, one BBP user did a presentation on Mark Twain’s route to Lake Tahoe. A presenter could start with the entire route using a timeline and then use a slide to highlight a stopping point while giving an audience a quick overview of where they are in the adventure.  But since PowerPoint is limited in its ability to build timelines, you might try a product like Timeline…

In the previous post BBP and the Back of the Napkin, Randy took a look at how the book can help with creating BBP presentations. In this post I’ll take a bit different view and look at the meat and potatoes of the book and what it’s about. I’m not good at drawing, but that doesn’t stop me from occasionally using a whiteboard to visually communicate ideas. Communicating ideas isn’t about creating a Picasso or a Rembrandt. Stick figures are welcome! After reading this book, I created these two drawings. The first gives an overview of the visualization process. I…

One of the more interesting and highly acclaimed business books of the year is The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, by Dan Roam. The book can help in the visual thinking process when planning your visuals and is loaded with sketching techniques—basic techniques that are easy to learn and fun to use. But specifically, how does the book apply to BBP? There is a tendency when planning the visual channel in BBP to want to skip over the sketching of each slide and jump right into looking for the graphics to use. But sketching your ideas is a vital part in…

Dear Figaro, I have a friend who says “you know” a couple dozen times in any 5 minute conversation. Why does she do this? How can it be stopped? Fred, from “Ask Figaro”Dear Fred,“You know” serves as a figure called a parelcon (pa-REL-con, meaning “redundancy”), a place-filler that gives the speaker’s brain a few more milliseconds to think. “Like” is a more common parelcon these days, and it has its uses in moderation. “You know” is actually a parelcon from my generation. As I say in my book, my generation was…

Paris Hilton might not be as big a celebrity as Barack Obama, but she obviously has a better energy plan.McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. argumentum ad fortiori, the argument from strength. From the Latin, meaning “argument from strength.”   New Paris Hilton video on Funny or Die! Responding to a McCain ad that likens Obama to celebrities like the airhead heiress, Paris appears in a leopard-spotted swimsuit. “I want America to know that I’m, like, totally ready to lead,” she says, announcing her candidacy to become president a mere eight years before the U.S. Constitution…

Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles. … Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in a speech made in Canada last summer, quoted by Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick.   Figure of Speech: contrarium (con-TRARE-ium), the one-two punch.   

Our dear Figarist, if you asked for the Daily Figure and wonder why you haven’t received it, the reasons are purely technical—which, in Figaro’s case, means insurmountable.  He is unable to figure out how to get past spam.We’re also sorry for the long hiatus in journals.  We’ve been traveling almost constantly, and haven’t quite learned how to manipulate goofy images of politicians on our Blackberry. But Figaro will not abandon figures. He promises.

Quote:  “Don’t assume that because I don’t agree with you on something that it must be because I’m doing that politically.”  Barack Obama, quoted in Reuters.Figure of Speech:  cacosyntheton (cak-o-SIN-the-ton), the bad speech. From the Greek, meaning “badly composed.”When the silver-tongued Obama speaks badly, it’s news.  He shows real discomfort in rebutting liberal accusations that he has flip-flopped on: Iraq  (he is slightly backing off his original pledge to withdraw troops),Gun control (he tepidly praised the…

Both Valeria Maltoni and Chris Brogan just posted about smart ways to use Twitter for business. (*I’d love to say it’s clever blogger outreach strategy, but it’s just great timing.) Chris’ post is the kind of thing your company’s Twitterers should post on the wall as they get the hang of it: full of practical ideas, examples and humorous guidance on the hows and whys of doing it right. Stick around for the comments too, which are always worth a look at his site. Valeria writes about three business reasons to Twitter: 1) potential channel presence, 2) try new…

Last night my friend Dennis (re-)tweeted that Facebook passed 100 million users. (Congratulations, Facebook.) I already knew this (it had been on Twitter a few hours) but his “does anyone care that much” got me thinking. I’m not a fan of Facebook. But certain contacts and friends in my network are much happier there, and that’s where I go when I want to see them. Life in college was very much like this. I’d drop by certain buildings and know that I was more likely to see the folks I knew who worked or studied or otherwise did their thing there. I might not go…

I like the widget that Qik and NewsGator (client) put together for DNC coverage. Widgets are a really interesting delivery model for microsharing from events, because the the content can be simultaneously sent out 1) to/via the application (Twitter, Qik, etc.) 2) at your site via the widget and 3) at the sites and social media pages of fans and followers who add the widget to their sites too. This and some business conversations this week got me thinking about my framework for how microsharing can make events more powerful: Networking Microsharing enables many different networking functions.

UPDATE 2: @lukewalker and many others just started tweeting that CNN has “semi-confirmed” the choice as Joe Biden. UPDATE 3: MSNBC and others agreeing. Twitter search starting to blow up a little, but not as expected since it’s so late back east? Good job CNN. Looks like actual journalism got the well-earned scoop on this one. UPDATE: First thing anything like “news” on Twitter is that @ksbw (NBC Local) is reporting that a leaked image of a bumper sticker suggests Evan Bayh will be veep. Hoax? Red Herring? I’m creatively testing the whole…

Twittering with excitement? Hardly. - The Boston Globe You might think I’d hate this article because I love Twitter. You’d be wrong. This is now my favorite of a very real genre of articles and posts. The “Twitter, WTH?” post. (C’mon, admit to yours if you wrote one. I did.) So I thought I’d share the note I just sent to the writer, Alex Beam. Dear Alex, I LOVED your article because it was funny, well researched, and a PERFECT capture of how the vast majority of people feel when they first examine Twitter. I enjoy articles like it because it is so very true…

You already learned how you can upload your presentations to SlideBoom -- but do you know that... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Yury Uskov is a founder and CEO of iSpring Solutions Inc., an innovative software company with... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

DesignScience announced that the new MathType version 6 for the Macintosh is now shipping. This is... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Nancy Duarte has been a Principal of Duarte Design since 1990. Her firm is in the heart of the... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Greg Friese, MS, NREMT-P is president of Emergency Preparedness Systems LLC and a paramedic,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

MEMORIES ARE SUCH FASCINATING THINGS. Do we really remember things exactly as they appeared or occurred or were presented to us? Sometimes, if the experience was so moving or transformative that it burned a clear, visceral image in our brains. More often, though, memories are established based on a feeling or an overall impression or maybe just some garish green shoes. And they rarely encompass everything that was expressed. More often, it's the highlights that remain — highlights which color opinions, decisions, and actions.        I'm not pushing you achieve…

OKAY, IT'S ONE OF MY MANTRAS — use graphics to help tell your story. But that doesn't mean that any image works. This is particularly true with diagrams or pictographic representations of technical matters. You've probably seen these — wild collections of boxes and circles and cylinders, washed over by text and arrows and a varied assortment of colors. They're visual nightmares, at least for the audience.        And that's where the disconnect happens. To the person who creates images like that (or directs others to do so) (often with the charge of "There's…

GREAT QUOTE from Henry David Thoreau: "Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not the fish they are after."        And what are you really after with your presentations or sales calls or press releases and such? Is it to hear yourself talk or see your words in print, or is it to affect and influence someone else?        Start from that and work backwards, and you'll be far more effective than if you just hurl your line out there and hope someone takes your bait.

OOOH, THE TEMPTATIONS! All those clever, stylish, even dramatic transition effects just waiting for you to go "Yesssss." Whirling cubes, starbursts, solar flares, and so on. The possibilities are endless.        Just one teeny little problem here — most of them should be avoided at all costs.        That's right. Unless a particular transition effect perfectly merges with what you've just said, or what you're about to show, then it adds nothing but visual noise to your presentation. Worse, it stops your audience's train of thought,…

RAISE YOUR HAND if you use a slide template. Okay, it's a trick question — even blank slides rely on a template of, well, blank slides. Templates are good in providing a consistent look to a presentation, which helps your audience concentrate on your message, not on abrupt changes in slide design. (There are, of course, things to be wary of. Read this and this.)        Templates make the task of creating a presentation easier, but they also can make us lazy. Worse, they can even weaken how we present our ideas, by giving us a seductively simple — and potentially…

I get so sick of the pseudo experts giving out incorrect information about Internet marketing. I just saw in another speaking ezine a tip from a guy who obviously doesn't know what he's taking about.He told speakers they should not use pop up boxes and that they were ineffective anyway because of pop up blockers.This is half baked information which is typical of the pseudo experts. They tell you either wrong information or just enough information to make you dangerous to yourself. Even worse they keep you from maximizing your Internet potential.My pop up boxes make me a small fortune by using…

This is so much fun.I keep my cell phone with me when I'm on stage and I either have someone call me while I'm in the middle of the presentation, or I just pretend the phone is vibrating and I have to answer the call.Since the audience can't hear the person calling, you could fake the entire conversation if you wanted to.Just recently I had the organizer call me on stage just as I was giving a small discount if the audience members wanted to buy my back-of-the-room package. The organizer was telling me that the discount I was giving was not good enough.We started arguing about it on the phone…

Wouldn't you know it? I just got my laptop back from getting fixed because it was locking up. That problem was fixed beautifully, but the shop must have done something to mess up the headphone / audio output jack which I never thought to check.I set up my seminar and plugged my external speaker / amplifier into the headphone jack as I had done a hundred times before. Terrible static came out of my external speakers. I tried different cables and nothing would fix the static.The fix I had to use was to put a microphone next to the tiny speakers of the laptop which were working fine. This little…

If you happen to be staying in a hotel in a room next to mine, it is very likely you would hear parts of my upcoming speech bellowing through the walls. Even after the enormous number of presentations I've done I still practice my stories and various bits of material the night before my event. I heard Zig Ziglar saying that he does the same thing.Unless you are speaking every day, it is almost impossible to stay razor sharp with your delivery. Being a keynote / large event speaker, I may go 90 - 120 days between times when I tell certain stories on stage. The last thing I want to do is flub…

I talked about using magic in your presentations a while back in v2n9 http://www.antion.com/ezinebackissues2000.htm In that article I briefly mentioned that the "patter" or what the magician says is frequently the way the fun is added to the magic trick.Let's look at patter for speakers a little more closely. Patter when you aren't using magic could be things you say while someone is participating in a demonstration on stage or it could be while they are coming up to the stage or when an unexpected occurrence happens while you are speaking.Suppose you were doing some kind of demonstration…

Photo credits to Slimmer Jimmer Let’s set things straight. There is absolutely NO way you can learn how to swim or cook from just reading a book or attending a seminar unless you are a genius. Yes? And there’s a reason why there are still a gazillion number of people who are not rich in spite of the number of books on how to get rich. Yes? If you have realized by now, the fastest and most effective way in mastering a skill is by DOING it. As the saying goes: Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skills is knowing how to do it and virtue is doing it. But Eric, I don’t deliver…

A couple of days ago, I raved about having a female winner for the International Speech Contest held by Toastmasters International. This competition is akin to the Olympics of public speaking. Anyhow, one of the readers (Simon from UK) commented that “a Toastmasters competition is not the best way to measure skills as a public speaker…” and he sees “competitions as a bit too artificial to give a decent idea”. If you are curious about why he thinks that way, check out his blog. Nonetheless, our conversation triggered a question - Can a winning speech be considered…

Two weeks ago, I wrote an article that raised some eye brow among the readers here. I brought in Hillary Clinton, Helen Fisher and Patricia Fripp as examples of how women are scoring in the public speaking arena. You can read all about it here: Are Women Any Less Capable Than Male Public Speakers?. A strange thing happened shortly after writing the article. I receive an email from my friend informing me of the winner of the International Speech Contest held by Toastmasters International. “Eric, guess what. The winner this year is a LADY!!! So yes, women are as good - if not better -…

Photo credits goes to Sifu Renka This week, we’re featuring another fellow Public Speaking Blogger, Lisa Braithwaite. She is the author of Speak Schmeak Take it away Lisa! One of my clients was talking about her initial nervousness when she gives a presentation and how much it would help her to have a better opening. We usually talk about strong openings as a benefit to the audience: as a way to engage them, pique their interest and encourage them to get involved. But we don’t talk about the benefits to the speaker of having a strong opening. Like I mentioned in yesterday’s…

Do you know that there are a total of 418 articles written for The Public Speaking Blog since March 2006? Each article contains about an average of 10 insider strategies to help you become more confident and charismatic speakers. And if you were crazy enough to read EVERYTHING here, you would have gained access to over 4180 time-tested speaking tips and tactics that would have cost you a thousands of dollars to acquire. Yet, I realize that most of my revered readers (that includes YOU!) only manage to scrap the surface and read about 10% of what’s written for you. What a shame! And then…

I was so tempted to leave the default message, “Sent from my iPhone.” As sick as it sounds, I actually feel privileged to have spent my money for this sweet gem. When my 82 year old mother asked me what it does, all I could do was smile, stroke my phone and say “everything.” So, it pained me  - pained me! - to go to the settings setting to delete their message. I want everyone to know how cool I am. I want them to know that I’ve been to the mountain. But I can’t. I can’t because I teach that email has very little to do with the writer and everything…

Some of us are visual. We need to see our stuff to know it’s there. If we archive it, it’s lost to us forever. I thought I was the only one like this - for instance, keeping my desktop full of files to work on rather than filing them neatly into the folder, also on my desktop, that says “Active” - until I read a great study that said that we’re not messy, we’re simply “divergent processors.” Here’s how Dr. Ann McGee-Cooper explained it: About one-half the population (those with right-hemisphere dominance) remembers and processes in a…

If this topic sounds plain woo-ey, it isn’t. In fact, it’s the difference between enjoying the respect and results you want, and wondering why you missed out on both. WAA stands for Winning An Argument. It’s the way losers think. They want to others to accept their point of view and win an argument. It’s loser thinking because when someone wins, someone has to lose. And that someone is usually the person who is responsible for giving you the result you want. Put them down, beat them up, show them you’re right (and they’re wrong) and you aren’t likely…

Caller ID said: US Government. Was Obama tapping me for VP? Did he hear about how great my presentation skills classes are and he wanted to improve? Was it John Edwards asking if I’d coach him on handling a difficult situation? It was TSA. They were asking permission to publish my March post about their excellent service. The TSA woman was so thankful that I had actually noticed how well they do their jobs. I was delighted to say yes, yes, yes. Actually, she made my day with her delight that I was delighted! And that got me thinking. How many people do their jobs, in fact, above and…

The 4th Annual Email Addiction Survey was released by AOL and the Opinion Research Corporation and guess what? We’re addicted. And if you live in these cities, in this order, you more addicted than the average Jane. 1. New York 2. Houston 3. Chicago 4. Detroit 5. San Francisco 6. Sacramento 7. Orlando 8. Minneapolis-St. Paul 9. Denver 10. Phoenix I’m thinking that Scottsdale, where I live, must be rolled into the more general Phoenix area. Or maybe I’m more addicted when traveling through Phoenix metro area, but I digress. Only 15% of respondents admitted to being addicted…

This evening I spoke to 50 Officers of Silicon Valley Toastmasters clubs about the value of the National Speakers Association (NSA). My talk covered the history of the NSA; its focus on the business aspects of being a professional speaker and why NSA conventions are such valuable sources of information. I shared with the [...]

How I became a magazine publisher I never thought that a chance meeting on a Boston bus would lead to me having anything in common with Steve Forbes, Oprah Winfrey and Jann Wenner. But, like the publishers of FORBES, O and Rolling Stone, I’m now a magazine publisher. It all began the day I met [...]

Professional speakers are used to being introduced at large events by the disembodied announcer “Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome…” known in the business as the VOG or Voice of God. The idea that God speaks in an amplified, authoritarian, disembodied baritone is central to the Judeo-Christian tradition. It goes with the misogyny and long white beard. [...]

Since beginning his career in the video business in 1977, Rhys Ludlow has worked in field production, lighting, engineering, editing and producing. With a talent for clear communication with strong technical skills, his work includes national TV spots, specials, documentaries and corporate video. Rhys’ work has been seen on all major US TV networks, [...]

Coverage of the Summer Olympics has included television reports of wonderful varieties Chinese cuisine. As the 2008 Games approached the Chinese government took it upon themselves to provide approved translations of menu options on offer in local restaurants. This, according to an article by the wonderfully named Fuchsia Dunlop (a name I’ll never tire of!) [...]

  What's it like to work on the world's leading presentation software program... for three months?  This episode is a bit of a change of pace, as we take advantage of a pretty geeky opportunity to talk with five guys who chose to spend their summer vacation interning on the Microsoft PowerPoint development team.  Direct from the Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus,      we sit down with (pictured left to right) Trevor Florence, Nirav Sanghani, Mike Rodgers, Jesse Harvey, and Luiz Franca Pereira Filho to learn all about their Microsoft California Summer…

The big brown UPS truck stopped by today. It always seems like a good omen when UPS rolls up the street - it's always something we want to see, to have, to share with others.  Today was no exception. A flat heavy box. Torn open... a very nice surprise: Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. After so many months of anticipation, here it is at last.  I know I've said this before, but this is a book you need. If you haven't listened to Nancy Duarte, Doug Neff, and Michael Moon discuss the origins, content, and future of Slide:ology, you should go back and…

If you remember one thing, it should be the title: Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. I've said before, you need this book. I've been fortunate enough to have read a recent draft and it's great: a visual and intellectual treat for the presenter. Whether you're a presentation novice, or feel like the podium is your home away from home, this set of tools for creating amazing slides is going to be your go-to reference and inspiration for a very long time.What role did the Las Vegas Bellagio play in establishing the structure of the book. What's with that colon? How…

Remember this title: Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations.You need this book.Unfortunately you can't get it yet, because it hasn't been published. I've had the chance to check out a pre-publication draft and it's amazing. Simply put, I can't think of any presenter who won't benefit from reading it.Nancy Duarte is the author. Yes, that's the same Duarte of Duarte Design, the firm behind the graphics and slides Al Gore uses in his Inconvenient Truth presentation and movie. Nancy Duarte   In Slide:ology, Duarte takes on the problems of presenting by…

       Just a quick reminder that the contest for a free copy of Garr Reynolds' book Presentation Zen ends on Saturday.  To put a fine point on it, we'll call the deadline Midnight, Pacific Standard time.  I'll announce the winner in a post next week.Remember, to enter all you have to do is add a comment to an existing blog entry: click the title of the entry, then scroll down to the comments section.   Good luck!

I have just returned from a camping holiday in Dorset and whilst away I had the delight of lighting and then tending a camp fire every evening.   As I was gazing into the embers one evening it suddenly struck me that there are a number of similarities between lighting a camp fire and developing someone’s presentation or public speaking confidence. As anyone who has tried to light a fire will know it is not always an easy job.   If the sticks are to thick or too damp, it is difficult to get the fire to take hold.   One has to look for a glowing ember and then feed and nurture it so…

Today I was phoned by a guy who I have met on a couple of occasions at local networking events.  he works for a company called the disc directory, a local on-line business directory covering Portsmouth and Southampton. Now I’m pretty hard on tele-sales people but his approach was so refreshing that I just had to post on it.   He called me up, started by saying something like ” Remember the good looking guy who’s been bumping into  you around the local networking scene regularly> - Well that’s not me!  I’m the ugly one and I promised to call you”  -…

Recently I was invited to give a talk on presentation skills tips to JCI Southampton.  We had a lively evening in the lovely Jury’s Inn  Hotel and I was able to record the talk so that you all could hear it to.   You can listen to it from the web or download it to your ipod.  Just click on the link here and scroll down the page till you see the audio player. The talk lasts about 45 minutes and covers a range of public speaking related topics including; handling nerves, setting objectives, slide design, & engaging your audience.   Listen to it and let me know what you think.

Olivia, One of my regular readers  posted a comment on my last post regarding  the issue of slide design in relation to whether the slides are  meant to be a backdrop to a presenter or are meant as an online presentation to be read without any audio component,   here is my reply “Thanks Olivia you make a very valid point. Often one of the reasons (excuses!) people give for wordy PPT slides is that the power point presentations they write most of the time are  are internal information dumps designed to be read rather than presented. They get so much in the habit of writing those…

I have been getting some great feedback recently regarding the quality of my slide sets.   Of course all are built using the principles I advocate in this blog and in my workshops i.e. no bullet points, minimal text, great pictures and logical story flow. At one recent talk a delegate said that he didn’t know it was even possible to construct a presentation without bullet points!   He had never ever seen one like mine before!   Based on that kind of comment I just had to post an example to show that it is possible.    Take a look and use the arrows below the player to advance…

It's a Conference. But not like we know it, Jim.The first rule of BarCamp?Talk about BarCamp.The second rule of BarCamp?Blog about BarCamp.(Here are the other 6 BarCamp Rules.) photo credit: numberstumperI attended my first UnConference last week. BarCamp Grand Rapids.(There! I've fulfilled BarCamp rule #2!)After this enlightening experience, I don't know if I can ever attend another ICAWKI (Industry Conference As We Know It).What's the difference between a conference and an unconference?The Conference: Unmitigated Commercialization. Most conferences are marked by:A carefully set agenda.

My partner Oud and I walked into a client's studio. She greeted us with,"Wow, you two look great. Do you know that show on TLC called "What Not to Wear"? Well, you two should be on it!"Oud and I were not familiar with the show. So we simply stared at her, startled at how frank she was about her disapproval of our attire. And yet she had also said we looked great...Judging our puzzled looks, our beloved client re-thought what she said and looked mortified. She stammered,"Oh, no. Oh, geez, I mean, you two should host the show, because you always look so nice." photo credit: adjustafreshMeet the…

I recorded only the spoken part of my presentation the other day. Not for posterity. Not for posting online. Not for anyone to listen to... ...except for me.I do this a lot, actually.And it's not because I adore the sound of my voice. Like most people, I don't care for the way my recorded voice sounds. I prefer the familiar, idealized way my voice sounds in my head. After all, I'm more accustomed to hearing my voice through the thick layer of my skull. photo credit: raycedBut my recorded voice? To me, it sounds repugnant. Like I'm on the verge of hysteria.Mercifully, my audience hears my…

Most fireworks presentations feature a super-explosive Grand Finale. After 45 minutes or so of eliciting audience oooohs and ahhhhs, a fabulousfireworks show ends with an overwhelming sensory display that excites and mobilizes the crowd.The masses rise, stamp their feet, cheer wildly -- and go home feeling invigorated.And maybe even a little hard-of-hearing! photo credit: empressofdirtWhat do you do for your own presentation grand finale? Let's say your presentation has achieved the equivalent of garnering ooohs and aaahs. Your audience may not have actually said "oooh" or "aaaah" during your…

If you are still using PowerPoint templates as a presentation design aid, it's time to stop. Why?Because we've officially entered the Post-Template PowerPoint Design Era.Why the Post-Template PowerPoint Design Era? With so many options available for great images, you don't need to rely on a PowerPoint template anymore. As fellow presentation blogger Ellen Finkelstein puts it in her excellent post at Slideshare, "White is definitely the new blue in presentation backgrounds..."Why did PowerPoint background fashion change? Back in the early 1990's, very few people had easy access to compelling…

The next time you speak, how about deliberately being controversial? Audiences love controversy. It brings conflict into the room. It gets people thinking about big, fuzzy issues in personal ways. Always be controversial on the issues -- never on personalities. Be the calm, rational, clearly-reasoned voice that upsets the apple cart. Pick the biggest apple cart that matters to you and your audience -- and give it a good, strong shove. You can challenge a conventional wisdom. Here's one from the headlines: raising taxes increases revenue. Wrong. Cutting taxes increases revenue because…

A presidential candidate makes an off-the-cuff remark at a private gathering and, voilà, the next day it's the lead story on every news program and website.  Then it moves from being an item in the news cycle to a recurring issue in the campaign.  This is just one example of how digital information and the Web have turned the early 21st century into an Age of Transparency.  As a senior executive and public speaker, you need to realize that transparency is an issue for you.  As soon as you say it, everyone can know it. Contrast our time with the opacity of the 20th…

As a speaker, you want your audience to understand and believe your content.  And you want to be relaxed, confident, and persuasive while you're speaking. Here's a strategy that will deliver both.  Focus on your audience all through the process.  At every step -- research, big idea, script, rehearsal, and delivery -- think audience, audience, audience.  Step #1: To develop audience-friendly content, ask yourself these questions.  “What does this audience want and/or need to hear from me?  What can I say that will resonate with them?  During my speech -- in…

Jurassic Park is a great popcorn movie.  It's got people against nature.  It's got heroes stuck on an island from 65 million years ago.  And it's got an important lesson for public speakers. This lesson is summed up in a line spoken by Sam Neill when he and the adorable moppets are about to be devoured by a T. Rex.  He tells them if they don't move, the T. Rex can't see them. We live in a new Age of Invisibility.  It started less than a decade ago and it's accelerating.  Speakers face new problems as media content outlets -- like broadcast, cable,…

As a speaker, your first job is to strike just the right chord with the audience and the occasion.  It's all about creating an audience-friendly, occasion-sensitive tone that resonates.  Once you've done that, everything else is much easier. Years ago, I saw a great example of the pitch perfect presentation.  It was at a gala dinner to dedicate the new, world headquarters of the PPG Corporation.  The event was held in the building's Winter Garden -- a large, all-glass, public space that had been donated for public use by PPG. The after-dinner speakers -- corporate…

Tell me what Death by PowerPoint is, and get a free copy of the 22-page e-booklet, 7 Steps to Great Images! I'd like your story about a presentation you've seen that was an example of Death by PowerPoint. You'll have a chance to rant about all the Death by PowerPoint experiences you've had.

Tell me what Death by PowerPoint is, and get a free copy of the 22-page e-booklet, 7 Steps to Great Images! I'd like your story about a presentation you've seen that was an example of Death by PowerPoint. You'll have a chance to rant about all the Death by PowerPoint experiences you've had. Note: The link to download the book is in small print at the end of the survey.

You get a 10% discount! Join me for my upcoming 1-hour web seminar: 10 Advanced Graphic & Animation Techniques: I've chosen 10 of my best techniques to showcase. You'll get detailed instructions and watch me create them. They include soft edges on images, a line drawing itself, an easy, flexible timer, special text animation, transparency gradients, cutouts, Bezier curves, pop-up windows, and more. The discount code is 10%OFFIPP. Wednesday, September 10, 2008 at 3:00 pm ET/2:00 pm CT.

ppted offers a wide variety of beautifully designed backgrounds for your slides.

Geetesh Bajaj is the owner of Indezine, one of the most-visited PowerPoint sites on the Web. He also owns a site, ppted, that offers templates, both free and for sale. The design of these templates is outstanding. I asked Geetesh a few questions about his site. Read on for a special free offer!

by Eric Feng, The Public Speaking Blog Why is humor so important? Have you ever come across speakers who are downright hilarious? They make you laugh on cue, with extremely little effort. And after an hour of laughing out loud, the speaker leaves you wanting more. In fact, there is a tinge of disappointment when the speech ends. Even when you are driving home, you can’t help but to play back some of the speaker’s funny lines so that you have an excuse to laugh again. Weeks after the speech, you still find yourself telling everyone about how funny this speaker is. Sound familiar?

Here are the results of the August cartoon caption contest selected by our panel of eleven judges (speakers and improv players).  Our contests feature the art of professional cartoonist Dan Rosandich. Look for our next caption contest on September 1. Our joke writing contests are announced in the middle of the month. Here are this month’s top lines. ** FIRST PLACE ** You should of told me she was your wife!      Jeanette Diss, Cowes, Phillip Island Victoria, Australia ** SECOND PLACE ** This is one expensive haircut.  In fact, I think I’ll be paying for this haircut for the…

Professional speakers who are at the top of their game are often known for their “signature stories.”  These are original, compelling stories on which reputations are built. Signature stories are usually funny.  Often they are VERY funny.  But in spite of the power of humor, a signature story of the highest level must have more than just funny lines.  And they need more than a significant message. The art of improv comedy teaches us that good scene work is centered around characters, relationships and objectives.  So it is with great stories in speaking.  In a great story…

What are the elements that make up a professional-quality speech?  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.”  What elements make a speech appeal to a business or corporate buyer.  There are many. Some elements are significant.  Some are critical.  All are important. A significant element is a “Heart-Attack” element.  It’s something that has a significant impact on the quality of the speech.  But a shortcoming in this area COULD be survived.  It’s…

Here is another example of an Observational Humor monologue presented at a Toastmasters meeting: THE SET-UP (What happened and what was said during the meeting before the monologue was delivered.) 1.  The meeting started with music reminding us of the Olympics.  The first speaker opened with:  “The music made me want to jump off a balance beam.” 2.  A speaker, who was presenting a humor contest workshop, asked who had heard his contest speech before.  About 80 percent raised their hands.  He said, “Well you’re going to hear it again.” 3.  A presenter…

I have 4 blog post series almost done(PPTPlex, Illustrator-to-PowerPoint, Animation, and more), but I am in the midst of several LARGE projects overlapping right now that have every moment at the computer stylizing presentations. So check back this next Monday for things to be back on track with a lot of great posts rolling out one after another! - Troy @ TLC

Okay, this is some pretty cool stuff! Microsoft Labs (kind of an R-&-D group that releases software that MS makes no guarantees about or support for) has made a PPT 2007 add-in that changes the way you think about slide navigation. Imagine one slide having a dozen very very small thumbnail images of other slides and then those slides having even smaller thumbnail images of more slides. View the first slide, click on a thumbnail and zoom into it. Go through the slides in order or zoom back out to go to a different topic/section! This one is easier to see explained, so click here for movie…

In searching for images for a current project I stumbled on indisain, a royalty free site that offers all images free of charge. You do need to register in order to login and download images (without a watermark). I found the variety good, but the image size varied from usable (1280px wide) to unusable (100px wide). Images are categorized, but limited search capabilities with categories. And some categories had more images than others, such as the landscapes category with 72 pages of images. If you need another image resource, you can check out indisain here. - Troy @ TLC

I run multiple versions of PowerPoint on my systems - namely PPT 2003 and PPT 2007 (although a few have all versions from 97 to 2007). If you run multiple versions, then the new set of security updates from Microsoft yesterday probably changed your default application. I still have PPT 2003 set as my default version of PPT. But the latest security updates change the default application to PPT 2007. So now when I double-click on a presentation file it opens in PPT 2007. The fix is fairly simple - just click here for a post I made all the way back in '06. - Troy @ TLC

This is a fun resource I discovered recently. Vector-cartoons.com does require registering and has a weekly download limit. I was able to find exactly what was needed - as a high-quality fully editable vector image! Note: for PPT download the .wmf version (I downloaded the .eps, modified in Illustrator and then exported as a .wmf). - Troy @ TLC

BBC Radio 4's Any QuestionsLeading UK political blogger Iain Dale has published a fascinating post about his appearance last night on a live broadcast of the long-running BBC Radio 4 panel discussion Any Questions.He mentions how he was uncharacteristically nervous in the week leading up to the recording and that although he feels that he often performs better without preparation, he had done a great deal of study of the week's papers in anticipation of questions on a number of major topics (the 'revision' for a media appearance that I wrote about here).His post goes through the whole…