Successful Speech Making
Eye contact is a wonderful tool to convey sincerity. It is also useful to help you to stay aware of how the audience is reacting to you. Stay aware and adapt by changing your presentation style and content to keep their attention and interest.
From the SpinningSilk's Understanding Blog :
"I mentioned in a previous post how I learned some skills in scouting better when I had to teach them. They just stuck in my mind better. I urge you to try prepare a lesson to teach if you are struggling with a subject. Something amazing happens when your purpose is to help someone else. It's as if the specifics of the skills are forced into your brain because you have a mission."
Read the whole post
From Tom Antion:
Public Speaking Tip: Say It With Flowers
A speaker friend of mine had a deal with a local flower shop. When he had a program the next day he would buy up all the fresh flowers that did not sell for a dirt cheap price. The flowers were destined for the dumpster anyway so the florist was thrilled to get anything for them. The speaker would arrive to big fanfare throwing flowers into the crowd. Everyone got a flower to take home and depending on the size of the crowd, some would get a whole bouquet. He also sent big bunches as his thank you gift to the meeting organizer. He purposely sent so many that the organizer could not possibly take them all home. His good will (and name) was spread all over the company he was speaking for and the people in the audience had a blast.
Public speaking tip - Remembering new jokes -- Jan McInnis (Jan@TheWorkLady.com)
happy, positive, smiling, confident woman on warm tone background with space for text
As a comedienne, I usually kick off my corporate show with 20 or more new jokes I've written for the group which means I have to have good, fast memory skills.
A couple of ways I remember these new jokes:
* Starting a few nights before the show, I review 5 or 6 jokes each night before I go to sleep. When I wake up, I know the jokes. (A friend of mine at a university is actually researching sleep and its effect on memory. It really works.)
* I go over them out loud as fast as I can. I also do this with the jokes in my act. It sort of "ingrains" the joke into my head so that when I say it, it rolls off my tongue without my having to stop and think about it.
* I group the jokes according to subject -- all jokes about the people together, all jokes about the industry together, etc.
* I use notes. I carry them up to the stage with me, but I make sure I know the first 2 or 3 jokes cold, so I don't have to refer to the notes in my hand. Then if I do, it's not as obvious as pulling the notes out of my pocket and I just glance at the sheet, saying, "I took some notes on you guys." I'll have a key word or two written on the sheet. And, even if I wrote the jokes ahead of time, it looks like I just wrote them that morning.
From Dorai's Learnlog
Blogs are a great source of ideas. Some of the bloggers are the smartest people I know. They comment about products. They track trends. They predict future products. They compare and categorize. And they share it all free.
So how about mining ideas from blogs? And using them to improve your products, projects. For example if you look at a list of mashups, you will certainly get ideas for other mashups. If you enjoy using Web 2.0 products, you already know a specific user interface you like. By tracking the most popular Web 2.0 products, you are getting some free market research.
All these are talked about in the blogosphere.
