New Webinar Series – Vote Now On What Do You Want to Learn

0 comments

Posted on 12th January 2012 by Kristin Arnold in Polls |presentation skills |Questions

You asked for it and now I’d like your help.  Based on client feedback, I decided to conduct a quarterly webinar to help you continue to develop your teams.  (See what happens when you do a little business planning?)  Beware of what you ask for as the 2012 Extraordinary Team Webinar Series is coming soon!

I intend to schedule a webinar in March, June, September, and August of this year.  As far as topics go, I could talk for days about teamwork, but we’re only looking at a 45 minute webinar!

So here are some titles/topics I was thinking about, and would like to have your opinion as to what top four webinars you would not only be interested in attending, but would actually sign up!  2012 will be complementary, as I’ll be getting the kinks out of the system.  I’ve done a few, but I wouldn’t exactly call myself an amazing webinar presenter – yet.

TeamSpeak: Words to Use or Lose to Inspire Better Teamwork

Boring to Bravo: 10 Tips to Make Your Presentations Extraordinary!

Beyond Consensus: 3 Little Known Secrets to Achieving Solid Agreements Among Your Team Mates

A Team Leader’s Toolkit for Handing Difficult People

The Do’s & Don’ts of Teamwork & Collaboration: 5 Critical Skills to Take Your Team to the Next Level

Are you a Light Bulb or a Flame Thrower?  How to Manage the Inevitable Conflicts in Teams

Team Player or Spectator?  3 Critical Insights to Building a High Performance Team

Go Beyond the Ordinary: 5 Critical Decisions Every Team Leader Must Make

Any other topics/titles you have in mind?

Thanks for voting now on your top topics and helping me crowdsource the best titles/topics for 2012!  You have until Sunday, January 15th to let me know.  Thanks a bazillion!

The Short List of Presentation Bloggers

2 comments

Posted on 7th January 2012 by Kristin Arnold in Polls |presentation skills |Speaking Trends

, , , ,

I was talking (virtually) to fellow blogger Vivek Singh about the plethora of blogs talking about presentation skills.  He and I contribute to this specific space in the blogosphere.  So does Andrew Dlugan who put together an amazing list of 118 fellow bloggers and Ian Griffin lists 43 bloggers plus 58 from his National Speakers Association buddies.

Alltop is another site which is supposed to help us. The problem (again) is the number of blogs it lists. More than 50. Wouldn’t it be spiffy if we had a link to a small list of 10 to 15 blogs? Blogs that are great?  Blogs that do more than rehash stale content?  Blogs that make you think?

What blogs do YOU follow regularly? Blogs that have helped you become a better presenter?  Blogs that you absolutely love to read?

Share some names with me by leaving a comment here:

Speeches are Back…

0 comments

Posted on 1st March 2011 by Kristin Arnold in Polls |presentation skills |Questions |Set The Tone |Speaking Trends

Or so says Peggy Noonan in a Wall Street Journal article this weekend.

Contending that “the speech as a vehicle of sustained political argument was killed by television and radio.  Rhetroic was reduced to the TV producer’s 10-second soundbit, the correspondent’s eight-second insert, ” she asserts that the Internet is restoring rhetoric as a powerful force to connect with the American public.

Why?  Because anyone can go online and view the video and or a transcript of the speech and see for ourselves what was actually said.  Noonan points to two cases: Gov. Mitch Daniels and Gov. Chris Christie, as well as the plethora of speeches on YouTube and  TED conference speeches.

She exhorts our politicians to “settle down, survey the technological field and get serious.  They should give pertinent, truthful, sophisticated and sober-minded speeches.  Everyone will listen.  They’ll be all over the interwebs.”

Wish I could be so optimistic.  We still live in a Twitter-world where everything is boiled down to 140 characters to get the public’s attention – in order to inspire then to search for more meaning.  Why would I want to listen to a sober speech if there isn’t something that grabs my attention?

Sorry, Peggy.  I usually agree with you, but in this case, I think you need both.  The substance AND the sizzle.

What do you think?  Take our monthly poll just to the right of this posting!

Embrace Technology During Your Presentations

0 comments

Posted on 30th November 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Polls |PowerPoint |presentation skills |Questions |Speaking Trends |U R #1 Visual

Newsflash:  You no longer have to stand in the dark.  Any multimedia projector packing at least 2500 lumens has enough candlepower to project a visible image in a brightly lit room.  You should know this by now, but oddly, many people still stand in the dark while the PowerPoint plays on.

If your eyes glazed over at the mention of lumens, then hold on to your seat because the Luddite in you isn’t going to like this: You should know the capabilities of every type of technology in the room.  At the very least, you should know how to turn the projector on/off, sync up your computer, and advance your slides using a remote control.

For example, If 90% of your audience has cell phones (common enough these days), then let the audience know how they can use their cell phones to respond to a poll or feed questions to you. If you are brave, project the feed onto a screen behind you (this is called a “twitterfall”.  Ain’t that cute?) so all can participate in the “back channel” discussion – the conversation going on in the room while you are speaking.  [Note:  I was just quoted in article about this at ragan.com - check it out here!]

Can’t make it to the meeting due to a volcanic dust cloud covering European airspace?  Skype it in – but only if you are extremely comfortable using the technology.   That means practice using the technology – not just once, but a few times.  Oh, and have a backup plan for ANY technology that you intend to use as good ol’ Murphy might have different plans for you!

New Poll: What do you do after your Presentation?

0 comments

Posted on 6th September 2010 by Kristin Arnold in Polls

Last month, I asked about the placement of the screen in the room during the last presentation you witnessed.  Interestingly enough, 77% said the screen was in the MIDDLE of the room, with 9% saying to the right and 9% saying to the left, with the remaining 6% saying there was no screen in the room!

Find out why this is so darn interesting at an earlier blog posting: Projection Screen Madness in your Presentation.

Check out this month’s query about what you do after the presentation to improve your presentation skills!

Enjoy your Labor Day!