Happy New Year!

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Posted on 31st December 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Uncategorized

I hope you are enjoying the holidays!   It is freezing here in Scottsdale, Arizona, so I’m tempted to pour a cup of steaming hot chocolate and pull out my latest book – Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth – read the sequel, World Without End a few months ago!

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for all the wonderful reviews, press and good words about my book, Boring to Bravo: Proven Presentation Techniques to Engage, Involve, and Inspire Your Audiences to Action.  And we have some GREAT  news:  We  just sold out our first printing!  Must have been all those Christmas orders ;-)

Thanks again for all your wonderful support, and have a FABULOUS new year!

Kristin’s Top 15 Tips

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Posted on 28th December 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Closing Activities |Engaging Mindset |Facilitation |Group Interaction |presentation skills |Uncategorized

www.boringtobravo.comSo here’s my request of you, dear readers.  When you prepare your presentation, keep in mind:

1.     Your presentation is about them, not about you.

2.     Engage early, even before your presentation begins.

3.     Be relevant and unique; more than what they can find on the Internet.

4.     Remove any physical barriers between you and the audience.

5.     Use PowerPoint to complement your presentation, not supplant it.

6.     Create a handout or takeaway with all the detail enquiring minds want to know, which is different from your slideshow.

7.     Know your speech, inside and out, so you can go with the conversational flow and deal with any obstacles.

8.     Have a mini-conversation with the audience using your eyes.

9.     Have a real conversation with the audience starting with engaging questions.

10. Tell a “Me Too” story.

11. Embrace the technology in the room but only if it enhances the participants’ experience.

12. Involve the audience by letting them do as much for themselves as they can.

13. When appropriate, facilitate the conversation.

14. Ask for the order with a compelling call to action.

15. Deliberately think through how you are going to engage, involve, and inspire your audience to action.

All this happens because you aren’t winging it.  When you prepare to be engaging and interactive, you are not boring at all.

Use a Microphone for Presentations with More than 75 People

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Posted on 20th December 2010 by Kristin Arnold in presentation skills |Set The Tone |U R #1 Visual |Visuals/Props

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I have been doing a fair number of presentations to different chapters of the National Speakers Association.  Some fill up the meeting room (Go Ohio and Northern California!) and some are more intimate (Yeah Pittsburgh and Tennessee!).  Like most people, I like the more intimate conversations and don’t want to be bothered with a microphone.  HOWEVER, if you are presenting to more than 75 people, do us all a favor and use  a microphone.  Lavaliere or handheld?  No one really cares.  Use a microphone.  Even if you think you have a loud, booming voice.  Use a microphone.  It is not about your voice; it is about the audience’s ability to hear you.  So put away your pride and speak into a microphone.  Even in an audience of fifty it’s pretty nifty for everyone to be able to hear you!

Better yet, learn a little something about microphones.  How to turn them on.  How to turn them off before you go to the restroom.  How your mouth needs to be relatively close to the microphone to be heard.  And how to fish the little wire down your shirt so it doesn’t distract the audience by flopping all around.  (BTW, I use a Samson SE50 Omnidirectional wireless headset – and I highly recommend Bill Johnson at SpeakerTools.com)

While I’m on my micro-rant, please be nice to the A/V people.  Okay, be nice to ALL people, but especially the A/V people.  Find out their first name and use it.  Say thank you every once in a while.  Do your sound check with them.  Wander around the room while you do a sound check.  Note the “hot spots” (too much feedback) with masking tape on the floor – and don’t walk into the hot spots!  Then make sure the A/V person takes a piece of masking tape and notes your sound level on the mixer board – and then writes your name next to it.  If there are multiple people on the program, you will sound perfect – and the audience will be able to hear you!

You are the Number One Visual in a Presentation

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Posted on 13th December 2010 by Kristin Arnold in U R #1 Visual |Uncategorized

In the early days of staged performances when there was no electricity, the light on the performer was cast by burning chalky lime in pots at the front of the stage.  When performing downstage close to the pots, you were considered to be in the “limelight.”

While we have electricity these days to power the lights, sound systems, and multimedia projectors, never forget that the audience is coming to hear you.  YOU are the number one visual in any presentation.  While you are in the limelight, your connection to the audience, your energy, and your message are more important than any other visuals you may use.

Refering to a Well-Known Person AND Callbacks

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Posted on 2nd December 2010 by Kristin Arnold in presentation skills |Stories |Video examples

TWO techniques today! Watch how Ian Percy, CSP, CPAE involves a well-known person into his story. You can also watch Emory Austin, CSP, CPAE, who later on in the same program, refers back to the comment Ian made! This “callback” is a much more spontaneous technique which requires you to be attentive to what goes on before your speech – and then you integrate and build on a bit that all would remember.

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