From the category archives:

Miscellany

Polishing up presentation skills

by David Hughes on February 27, 2010

Recently I’ve been giving a series of two hour talks on various aspects of social media. In the last two sessions I was lucky enough to have Lin Sagovsky as one of the attendees. Amongst other things, Lin runs Play4Real – a consultancy that takes theatre techniques into the workplace as a way of building skills and confidence in all walks of working life.

Although at pains to let me know that my sessions were full of good content Lin offered to help me improve my presentation technique. I had the cake, what was missing was the icing.

What a revelation. I knew my presentation skills weren’t as good as they could be. I just didn’t know why, or where to start to improve the situation. Very quickly Lin was able to pinpoint the areas that needed working on and offer equally rapid solutions.

In less than two hours we looked at body language, breathing, timing, staging (sight lines, lighting, acoustics), managing the audience and much more besides. All of Lin’s advice and tuition addressed my specific needs.

I can’t recommend her highly enough.

I have a few weeks to practice before my next public speaking opportunity which if all goes well will be the whole cake, complete with icing. And in time I might even manage a cherry on top.

If you think you could do with some help in improving your own public speaking you could do a lot worse than signing up for Lin’s free tips newsletter. It’s a good first step in the right direction.

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At this year’s BNI Big Breakfast the first speaker’s slot was given over to Richard Swan who had penned a new piece to follow up on last year’s pastiche of Don Maclean’s American Pie. This time around the musical backdrop was a composition of his own. Watch the home recorded version on YouTube here: BNI Beat Poem

It’ll be interesting to see if it can match the unexpected success of last year’s piece: BNI Song which to date has been viewed almost 33,000 times. What is certain is that Richard’s first piece influenced in part the decision to make greater use of video in marketing individual groups. Last year saw the start of a competition amongst BNI groups for best promotional video. Perversely our own group didn’t enter. Possibly because Richard is one of our members we felt there was little more to add.

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Twitter Twaddle

Miscellany

I gave a talk recently to introduce a group of business owners to the world of twitter. A few were already regular twitterers but most had simply heard the growing buzz around twitter and social media in general and had yet to stick their toes in the water.
This post rounds up some of the twitter [...]

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Generation text

Miscellany

This last week has seen the views of Matthew Robson, the 15 year old intern at Morgan Stanley, causing a little concern in boardrooms across the world. The reason: a three page report he had been invited to put together detailing the media and communication habits of his peer group. In some quarters, this straw [...]

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Hospital signage

Miscellany

There’s something wrong with my knee that necessitates having a few blood tests. So off I went this morning to visit the local blood-letting clinic. Hospitals are not places I spend too much time in (although recently the maternity ward has been a regular stop-off). Like many other infrequent visitors I find hospitals’ sprawling and [...]

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Mike’s Hippo-poem finds a good home

Miscellany

An idea that has been buzzing around Mike’s head for some time has finally been put to good use. His comic verse ‘Hippoparadox’ has been included in TwitterTitters a marvellous collection of comic writing that has been bundled together to raise money for Comic Relief. The book creators, Linda Jones and Louise Bolotin, used the [...]

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Photography Books competition hosted by Blurb

Miscellany

Blurb the people behind ‘bookshop-quality personal publishing’ have a competition running (closing date 16th July 2009) for the finest, most creative and innovative self published photography books and the people behind them. Get along to http://pbn.blurb.com if you fancy your chances.

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And should never be used to start a sentence.

Miscellany

But is an equally bad beginning. Both these statements express widely held views. But, are they true?
Rather than give a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer to this most frequent of FAQs, writer Mike Reed has pulled together a panel of expert witnesses to answer the question. Testimonials from Kingsley Amis (The Kings English – 1997), [...]

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PSS NIVEA KI PRAY

Miscellany

Saw this on the bus. Can’t help feeling Nivea have been short-changed despite spending longer trying to decipher their message than I spent on any other ad on the bus. I wonder if they get a special rate for restricted visibility? Alternatively, do they have to pay extra to have a special fitting of their [...]

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melo in the morining

Miscellany

Seen on welcome screen of the tills at the Sterling Cafe in the ‘Gherkin’ early one Friday morining.

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