Journalist and language expert Erard believes we can learn a lot from our mistakes. He argues that the secrets of human speech are present in our own proliferating verbal detritus. Erard plots a comprehensive outline of verbal blunder studies throughout history, from Freud’s fascination with the slip to Allen Funt’s Candid Camera. Smoothly summarizing complex linguistic theories, Erard shows how slip studies undermine some well-established ideas on language acquisition and speech. Included throughout are hilarious highlight reels of bloopers, boners, Spoonerisms, malapropisms and eggcorns. The author also introduces interesting people along the way, from notebook-toting, slip-collecting professors to the devoted members of Toastmasters, a public speaking club with a self-help focus.
According to Erard, the aesthetic of umlessness is a relatively new development in society originating alongside advents in mechanical reproduction, but it may be on its way out already. http://bit.ly/XZdPfe
Use humour if you can, create vibrant word pictures and tell stories to reinforce concepts. These will allow you to avoid presenting a continuous flow of theory which will kill audience attention and it will give vividness to your material that will make the message last in the minds of your audience – powerful impact.
Welcome to this guest post from Jim Harvey. Jim helps speakers with his very practical approach, an approach he has developed for himself and his clients through years of research and experience. Enjoy his insights on creating the big picture with Prezi.
A big picture is what makes Prezis immediately stand out from all other presentations, and lets your audience know they’re in for a different type of presentation. Because of its zoom functions, Prezi allows you to put images at the heart of your presentation – even incorporating all of your information into one picture.
No matter how you’re structuring your presentation, there’s probably a way to incorporate a big picture which makes it easier to understand and more interesting to watch. Here are three big picture techniques I use when designing presentations for myself and my clients.
1. Set the scene
Pictures have the power to make us think and understand things which we’d need hundreds of words to convey. It might be a landscape photograph which reminds us of a place we love, or a diagram which shows us how a manufacturing process works. Sometimes one image can explain exactly what your presentation is about – making it the perfect backdrop to your introduction, or window into the subject you’re explaining.
In Prezi, a big picture has the power to set the mood of your entire presentation. You can begin with it filling the screen, giving exactly the message you want to begin with, and even structure the rest of the presentation in and around that image.
A Prezi with an Informative Big Picture
For this Prezi: http://prezi.com/ow8zo7rbkt7v/raise-the-rate/
2. Show the structure of your presentation
A big picture can act like a map – showing where your presentation is going, and giving context to each point you make. This makes your whole presentation work, because it shows how everything links together and relates to your overall message.
It’s a great approach to delivering both short and long presentations, and particularly useful if you’re building up a series of points, for example to argue “3 reasons why xyz”. At the end of the presentation your audience should be able to look at your big picture, and pick out the three reasons you’ve identified.
Prezi with a Clear Structure
(for this prezi: http://prezi.com/y3f0vwjfiayl/we-day/ )
3. Present in a different way
Prezi allows us to plan presentations in an entirely new way – instead of creating an inflexible path through the information in advance, you can simply decide how to structure your presentation on the day. We’ve used this method before by creating infographic type big pictures, which cover all of the information a client may like to know.
When we come to present, we deliver a short introduction and then ask the client, “what would you like to know?” In present mode, you can click anywhere in a Prezi and be taken to that point – from there you can follow a linear path or carry on moving around organically.
Prezi Made for Exploring Naturally
For prezi: http://prezi.com/xtthuex5lynq/prezi-faq/
Jim Harvey is a presentation skills coach and blogger. His aim is to help people to tell stories – about themselves and their products – better. Take a look at his presentation skills blog, or find out more about using Prezi.
Own the Room: Business Presentations That Persuade, Engage, and Get Results: How to Deliver a Presentation to Get What You Want
by David Booth
Don’t Just Present. Persuade, Inspire, and Perform!
Powerhouse presentations that engage and move your audience
Own the Room is written by a unique set of authors with the expertise perfect for creating vivid narratives. Own the Room shares how to excite your audience’s emotions and intellect. And Own the Room will give you a communication toolkit to make any presentation lively, compelling, and memorable. => http://bit.ly/OIMYh4
Own the Room: Business Presentations That Persuade, Engage, and Get Results: How to Deliver a Presentation to Get What You Want
by David Booth
Don’t Just Present. Persuade, Inspire, and Perform!
Powerhouse presentations that engage and move your audience
Own the Room is written by a unique set of authors with the expertise perfect for creating vivid narratives. Own the Room shares how to excite your audience’s emotions and intellect. And Own the Room will give you a communication toolkit to make any presentation lively, compelling, and memorable. => http://bit.ly/OIMYh4
“Be interesting, be enthusiastic … and don’t talk too much.”
– Norman Vincent Peale
We all have short attention spans. This is exacerbated in these days of communication delivered in truncated, rapid-fire bytes.
So you have to set up your presentations so that you do something frequently to keep attention.
Change your delivery style.
Support your words with a new visual.
Challenge with an activity for audience involvement.
Tell a story. Whatever techniques you use, introduce them often and vary them.
Each will have its own impact, but make sure that impact supports your chosen image and message.
“Be interesting, be enthusiastic … and don’t talk too much.”
– Norman Vincent Peale
As a speaker, when you introduce a story, you have instant engagement. People stop to listen to stories. People are drawn to stories and take the time to tell their own. This works in conversation … and it will do the same in your speeches. Mention a story and people’s attention snaps on and they are immediately engaged.
Studies have shown that when people listen to stories, their heartbeat slows, their eyes glaze and the brain releases chemicals that make them relax. Their brains switch from a factual processing of information to the storytelling mode. This is sometimes called the Listening Trance or the Storytelling Trance. It activates different centres of the brain and the result is to reduce disagreement, and to activate the search for the moral of the story – turning on focused engagement.
This is the response that stories evoke, and why the brain is so predisposed to record, so easily, the stories it hears and the points the storyteller associates with them. And it is what makes stories such a powerful tool in engaging your audience.
Stories are also a great way to change the direction and pace of the speech. They give the audience time to relax, as people do when listening to stories, and to absorb the points that have just been made. At the same time you can be creating another point, or reinforcing points you made earlier.
People participate in our stories. They take ownership of the story. Stories that are well crafted let the audience anticipate where you are going. Giving just enough information about the characters and the setting also allow your audience to fill in the details for themselves, thus creating their own version of the story and continuing that participation …. and engagement.
And finally, if we choose them well, our stories can elicit their own stories from our audience members. Look for examples and points that your audience also will have a story about. Your story will elicit their own stories- a further engagement level.
© Bronwyn Ritchie … If you want to include this article in your publication, please do, but please include the following information with it:
Bronwyn Ritchie helps speakers to be confident and effective. In just 6 months time, you could be well on the way to being admired, rehired as a speaker, confident and sucessful, with the 30 speaking tips. Click here for 30 speaking tips for FREE. Join now or go to http://www.30speakingtips.com
Apple CEO Steve Jobs was well known for his electrifying presentations. Communications coach Carmine Gallo discusses the various techniques Jobs uses to captivate and inspire his audience — techniques that can easily be applied to your next presentation.
