The Ideal Communicator

Last week I was fortunate to spend the day at TEDxMcGill, being inspired by a series of short presentations along the theme of “Relentless Curiosity”, by individuals in the McGill community.

‘TEDx’ is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to the mandate of ‘Ideas Worth Spreading.’ The annual TED Conference invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes (plus or minus).

For anyone who’s seen my newsletter - and gone through the ’speech video analyses’ category of this blog, you’ll know that I’m always scouring the TED website in search of the latest, greatest speakers who can really bring a topic to life. There are no shortage of amazing speakers to learn from, both in terms of their unique and masterful content, as well as the different and intriguing ways in how they delivery it.

TEDxMcGill was a great experience to watch, as kind of a ‘TED-lite;’  a place where I was able to see ‘up-and-comers’ who may one day end up on the real TED stage, thanks to the ability to recount their experiences, theories and ideas so eloquently.  Read the rest of this entry »

A lot has been said about the presentation style of Steve Jobs. Numerous books have written about it, blogs, articles and other media are continually discussing and deconstructing his finesse, his charisma, his ‘get-to-the-point’ delivery. And with good reason. This man knows how to launch a product. 

Most of us are used to this more ‘typical’ product launch presentations given by a ‘business speaker’: “Here’s our new product. These are the new features… These are the improvements on the old features… Here are the benefits… Here’s the price. Please buy it.” But Jobs does what many business speakers have a hard time doing. He intrigues his audience. He has them in the palm of his hand. He turns them into passionate Apple brand advocates.

Steve Jobs is much more than a talented, above-average business speaker. He’s a product evangelist. Not content to just launch a product or persuade us of its value, he makes us salivate for it. Beg for it. He makes us HAVE to have it – NOW. 

I looked at two of Jobs’ presentations – the introduction of the iPad in January 2010, and the introduction of the iPhone 3G in 2008. Both are very similar in style, so we can see that Jobs knows what type of presentation style works for him and sticks with it. So let’s look at four techniques that the Great and Powerful Jobs uses to bring his audience to their knees, begging for his product: Read the rest of this entry »

You have to give a presentation. You have 5 minutes to get your point across. Ignite is the place to learn how to do just that.

In my last blog post, I discussed the phenomenon of Ignite presentations. Ignite is a series of speedy presentations, where each speaker shares their personal and professional passions, using 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds for a total of just five minutes.

With up to 20 speakers sharing the stage on the same night, Ignite presentations challenge the speaker to get their point across concisely, persuasively – and most importantly, memorably.  Add to that the expectation of clear and entertaining slides, a lot is riding on these 5 minutes.

With all these requirements in mind, here are 10 surefire ways to give a rock-solid, entertaining and memorable Ignite presentation: Read the rest of this entry »

I recently had the pleasure of attending an evening of “Ignite” presentations last month. For those who have not yet heard of this speaking phenomenon, Ignite is a series of speedy presentations, where each speaker shares their personal and professional passions, using 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds for a total of just five minutes.

A 5-minute presentation is not very different from a 10-minute, 30-minute, or 4-hour presentation. The basic rules of public speaking is no less important in this context. As always, it’s crucially important to focus on the 3 main components of any speech: Content, delivery, and audience engagement.

With up to 20 speakers sharing the stage on the same night, Ignite presentations challenge the speaker to get their point across concisely, persuasively – and most importantly, memorably. Add to that the expectation of clear and entertaining slides, a lot is riding on these 5 minutes.

Let’s look at one particularly stand-out Ignite presentation – the 22-minute meeting, by Nicole Steinbok – and see what makes it so successful:

1. Relatable Topic – This is an issue that the majority of the audience can easily relate to. It seems that most of us have suffered through neverending, pointless meetings, and she capitalizes on this. Read the rest of this entry »

by John White, Marketing Communications Writer, VenTAJA Marketing

There is an art to writing slide decks that support your presentation, and an art to presenting without a slide deck. Hire a writer who can help you with both.

Have you ever seen a slide deck get in the way of a presentation? Your own presentation, perhaps?

You’re standing in front of forty people delivering an animated presentation, when it dawns on you that the members of your audience are not engaged. At first they ogle the screen and leaf through your handouts. As your presentation goes on, some of them pick up their phones, check e-mail and surf a bit. Finally, you begin to read a message on a few faces: “All right, we’ve got the deck with your information. May we go now?” If you could read their tweets, you would probably confirm that they’ve checked out (and are telling people about it in real time). Read the rest of this entry »