presentation skills Archives – Boring to Bravo: Official Site for Kristin Arnold’s book on Proven Presentation Techniques to Engage, Involve and Inspire your Audiences to Action.

Audience-Centered Seating for Your Presentations

Posted on 20th January 2012 by Kristin Arnold in presentation skills |Set The Tone |U R #1 Visual |Visuals/Props

engaging your audience, meeting room set up, presentation skills, presentation techniques, presentation tips, presenting tips, speaking tips, visuals

You walk into the room and see a traditional seating set-up for your presentation. Theater-style with two columns of chairs, with a path down the middle. The overhead screen is at the front in the middle of the room. Looks pretty good, right?

While typical for many meeting venues, and perhaps most comfortable for you, the presenter, meeting planner, or hotelier, it is NOT the best seating arrangement for an audience-centered presentation.

So what’s wrong with straight rows?

1. Focus. The seats directly in front of the speaker are the only decent seats in the house. Everyone else has to adjust the view to get a direct line of sight to the presenter. And yet we give up this prime real estate to a multimedia projector table or vacant space for a center aisle. Whenever possible, place the chairs in front of you, the speaker:

2. Energy Drain. Any feng-shui expert will tell you that the energy flows out of the room through a center aisle. Wherever possible, keep the straight row center section right in front of you, with an aisle in between each outer seating section.

4. Safety. You may want to have some ability for people to get in and out of their seats, so you can modify the seating with some extra aisles starting a third of the way from the stage. This way, the energy won’t flow out of the room!

5. Blocked View. Unless you are sitting in the front row, there will always be somebody taller or wider in the seat in front of you. If you are lucky, you will have a semi-obstructed view of the presenter. Worst case, you have to lean one way or the other just to get a clear view. Wherever possible, stagger the chairs so they aren’t lined up like soldiers behind each other.

6. Pain. Unless you are sitting right in front of the presenter, chances are you must turn your neck slightly to see the presenter. If you are on the far reaches, then you are probably putting more weight on one butt cheek than the other and are constantly readjusting your seat! Do this for an extended period of time, and it starts to hurt! Wherever possible, angle the chairs toward the presenter.

7. Disconnect. If you want to connect with the audience, the best way is to enable the audience to connect with each other. They simply can’t connect with each other if they can’t see each other. Straight rows allow each person in the row to see only one person on either side (and the back of somebody’s head – but that doesn’t help connection!) Wherever possible, curve the seating around the presenter, so the audience can see each other.

Finally, if you can, ask for the overhead screen to be placed on the left, looking at the front of the room (otherwise known as upstage right!). Since we read from left to right, make it easier for the audience to “read” what you are saying by placing the screen to the left of the stage (downstage right in theater terms). Place the screen at the same depth as you will be standing and close enough to your center position so that your audience’s eyes won’t have to travel a great distance from you to the screen. Furthermore, should you have to point to something on the screen, you can use your right hand without turning your back to the participants!

Depending on the venue’s capability, you can transform a ho-hum, boring traditional theater-style room set into an audience-centered seating arrangement. Being able to view the presentation in comfort, as well as to see each other enhances the dynamics of the presentation. In the best of all possible worlds, orient the seats toward the front so they can comfortably connect with the presenter and with each other.

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

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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

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

presentation bloggers, presentation blogs, presentation resources, presentation skills, presentation techniques

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:

Make the Meeting Room More Engaging

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Posted on 8th December 2011 by Kristin Arnold in Engaging Mindset |Group Interaction |presentation skills |Uncategorized

engaging your audience, meeting room set up, presentation skills, presentation tips

You walk into the meeting room at least a half hour before your presentation, maybe more if you are using technology. You take a good look around the room. Yep. There are tables, chairs, a projector, and a screen. Sigh. Don’t all these meeting rooms look just about the same? Boring. Don’t be afraid to change it up to send the signal that this talk is not going to be your typical, ho-hum presentation. Part of caring is paying attention to room conditions.

Regardless of who has control over the room temperature, sound quality, or other environmental issues, you are ultimately responsible for the audience’s experience. No one else. Find out the room logistics prior to your presentation and set the room so the participants will be able to easily connect with you and with each other.

Room Size. If you have any say in the matter, try to get a room large enough to hold the expected number of attendees—and nothing bigger. If you have to choose between a room that is slightly too small and one that is slightly too large, choose the smaller room with standing room only.

Seating Arrangements. To allow participants to comfortably accomplish the activities you have in mind, set the chairs so they can be close to you and to each other.

Tables. The table configuration you use can support interaction as well: For example, with small audiences (fewer than twenty-five people), try a U-shaped arrangement where the audience fans out around the speaker on three sides. This enables the presenter to walk into the audience easily and encourages participation not only with the speaker but also with each other.

Screen to Their Left. Since we read from left to right, make it easier for the audience to “read” what you are saying by placing the screen to the left of the stage (downstage right in theater terms). Place the screen at the same depth as you will be standing and close enough to your center position that the audience’s eyes won’t have to travel a great distance from you to the screen. Furthermore, should you have to point to something on the screen, you can use your right hand without turning your back to the participants.

Lectern. For the same reasons as outlined for your screen placement, set the lectern, if you must have one, to their left (downstage right) so that you can have the center stage free to move about.

Clutter. Get rid of the clutter that tends to build up in a meeting room, especially at the front where you will be doing most of your speaking. What kind of clutter? Empty water glasses, piles of materials left over from a previous session, furniture that serves no purpose.

Want more tips? Click here to sign up for my newsletter and receive my free speaker tools!

8 Tips on the Proper Use of Visuals

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Posted on 1st December 2011 by Kristin Arnold in presentation skills |Props |U R #1 Visual

engaging your audience, presentation skills, presentation tips, visuals

Well used visuals can push a presentation to the next level. Many times I have noticed a presenter making mistakes when using visuals such as talking to the screen, chart, model, or other. If you want to create a relationship with the audience, you have to look at them rather than your beloved visual. Keep the following in mind next time a visual will be part of a presentation you give.

Focus on the Audience. Talk to the participants, not to the visual. Stand so that the visual is stage right. Practice this a few times—not just in your head, but physically practice using the visual. Do a practice run until you feel comfortable using the visual and any associated equipment.

Be Relevant. Any visual you use must be relevant and enhance your message. Otherwise, the audience will spend their time trying to figure out how the visual connects with your message.

Be in Sync. The visual should complement your spoken words and not be redundant. As you speak, the logic of the visual should be revealed to your audience. You should not have to explain its meaning in excruciating detail.

Be Visible. Your audience should be able to see or read the visual within a few seconds—even those sitting in the back row. If not, try something different.

Keep It Simple. The best visuals are simple and easy to understand. If the material is complex, or you want more impact, think about how you can do a gradual build: start with an easy-to-understand visual and work up to the more complex. You can also put more detail in a handout or takeaway.

Avoid Clutter. Remove anything in the line of sight of the participants that does not add value to your presentation.

Customize. For each visual, see if there is a simple way to customize it for your particular audience: the topic, the event, the theme, and the organization—including its logo, tagline, mission, vision, and goals. When you personalize your visuals, it shows you care about the audience and what’s valuable to them.

Fire when Ready. Show your visual only when you’re ready to use it. Introduce the visual and then reveal it—or, for a hint of surprise, reveal the visual and then introduce it. Don’t forget to put it out of sight when you have finished referring to it.

Creatively Show a Statistic During Your Presentation

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I just came back from the National Speakers Association Strategic Planning Retreat and Board Meeting. How fun to be on the other side of the table as the Immediate Past President rather than the professional facilitator!

As we were reviewing the data from our recent survey, Director of Marketing Janet Traylor effectively demonstrated the multigenerational mix of our membership:

For every survey response, she placed one of four different dried beans in a container – depending on the age of the respondent:

A Green Pea Bean for Millennials/Generation Y (born approx. 1977-1994)

A Red Kidney Bean for Generation X (born approx. 1965-1977

A White Navy Bean for Baby Boomers (born approx. 1944-1964) and

A Garbanzo Bean for the Traditionalists (born approx 1922-1943).

Janet then held up the container to show the demographic “mix” of our membership. MUCH more effective than projecting a bar chart.

What do you do to bring a statistic come alive during your presentations?

Understanding Your Audience as a Speaker

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inclusive language, presentation, presentation skills, presentation techniques, presentation tips, presentations, presenting tips, speaking tips

To be an effective, engaging presenter, you have to let go of your own internal conversations and focus on your audience. This means you have to care sincerely about and want to connect with each person in the audience. They need to know that you are putting their needs first. That means you need to know enough about them so they feel they can trust you and will want to listen to you.

Research. We all despise the speaker who delivers his presentation on autopilot, never changing a word. It is the same presentation for one audience as it is for a completely different audience. To engage an audience, a presenter needs to find out their hopes, fears, and interests. Take the time to understand the people, their backgrounds, and the collective culture—often called the “personality” of the group—so you can connect your comments with what they care about.

Content. The actual message you share should address the issues that your audience cares about, not the ones you think they should care about. This is a subtle distinction with dramatic implications. If you do not address something that helps them make their lives better or improves the life of someone they care about, you are dead on arrival.

Make It Personal. Few things can help you bond and establish a connection with a group better than knowing and using people’s names.

• Obtain a participant list ahead of time and read through the list out loud several times. If possible, learn the correct pronunciation of the difficult names.

• As you meet a new participant, say her name quietly to yourself a few times and make any associations that will help you recall the name later.

More “We” than “Me.” If you are truly focused on the audience, you will use more inclusive language. Rather than saying “I did this” and “Look at me,” you will inherently talk more about them, using either the words “you” or “we.”

Listen. As you are speaking, shift your focus from how you are doing to how the audience is doing. When you “listen” to the audience, you are much more aware of their verbal and nonverbal reactions during your speech. Are they smiling and nodding their heads? Yes; you are in the zone.

Adjust. As you listen to your audience, you can either continue as planned or adapt your speech. Because you aren’t going to hit the mark all the time, always prepare a plan B to pull out of your back pocket. Audiences are quite forgiving as long as they know you care about them. They want you to succeed. So if one technique doesn’t work, try another until you do connect.

Insights as NSA President

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It’s been a few months since I handed over the gavel of the National Speakers Association. Oddly enough, most people expected me to go through PPD – post-presidential depression – a second cousin to post-partum depression. I keep waiting for the funk to set in, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. I’m just so excited about reconnecting with clients and re-engaging into the business!

Upon reflection, I thought I would share a few of my “insights” while serving as NSA President for the past year.

Never check email after dinner or 7pm, whichever comes first. Even the slightest nuance, idea, or member concern will rattle around in your head throughout the night.
It’s the People. I am often asked, “What’s the best part of being president? Hands down, it’s the people I have met. Learning from and leaning on people who have been there before you, who are going through the same trials and tribulations, and helping those who are traveling the road you just traveled.
Experience Matters. I was chatting with a speaker who said his area of expertise was on leadership. I innocently asked, “So what have you led?” and he told me it was none of my business. I then discovered he had never managed nor led any organization! Nothing beats experience when talking about your area of expertise. Some call it practice what you preach. I call it “eat your own dog food.” If you talk about it, you should not only practice those same principles on and off the platform, but it should be so ingrained in your MO, your DNA, or tattooed on your rear end like one of my clients who manages assets. You think I’m kidding, she actually got a tattoo on her ass…ets! And I went and got myself a heap of experience at NSA when it comes to strategic planning, facilitating our board meetings and building a team!
We are living in the Era of Engagement. People want to contribute – to provide input, to comment on what’s happening in their world. As professional speakers, the more we can ask for the audience’s contributions and comments up front, the better we can create an event that really connects with our audiences – and that they will want to keep the conversation flowing long after the presentation through blogs, listservs and discussion groups. Social networking is all about starting and keeping communities connected and the conversation flowing. We haven’t even begun to tap into the possibilities to connect with our clients, prospects, and with the entire world.
Keep It Small, Focused and F2F. So here’s the curious thing. When 9/11 hit in 2001 and then when the global economy crashed and burned in 2008, the prognosis for the meetings industry was well, not so great. Theoretically, all of the meetings were going to shift to the virtual world. But that has NOT the case. What has happened is a global trend toward fewer meetings, smaller meetings and with the content more tightly focused. The value on these face-to-face meetings has become much higher as people are investing their time specifically in order to meet face to face. Meetings are also becoming smaller in number of attendees physically present, with an extended reach beyond the four walls of the meeting. These hybrid meetings include streaming video and content discussions running at the same time as the actual event so people outside the room can participate in real time.
The world is indeed flat. We are living in a global economy. NSA-US is the world’s largest and oldest association dedicated to the art and business of professional speaking. It was a pleasure to travel around the nation and the world representing the NSA-US – and seeing just how much we have in common..
Leadership is not about immediate gratification. Especially with a volunteer association steeped in tradition, suffice it to say that you won’t see immediate results. It is the long term progress to our strategic plan that keeps us focused and motivated, providing even greater value to our members.

I am thrilled with the progress NSA continues to make on behalf of our members, and I will hold dear the memories, experiences, and relationships with my speaker buddies. And, I am equally excited to get back to “work”!

I thank you for the tremendous opportunity to serve you and represent you throughout the United States as and world. See you in Anaheim soon!

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Audience-Centered Seating for Your Presentations

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

The Short List of Presentation Bloggers

Make the Meeting Room More Engaging

8 Tips on the Proper Use of Visuals

Creatively Show a Statistic During Your Presentation

Understanding Your Audience as a Speaker

Insights as NSA President

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