Ever since the Internet blew apart the old analogue job of speaker bureaus – to present speakers to their buyers, the meeting planners and conference organizers – many bureaus have struggled to clarify their real purpose in our half-online, half-in-person world. Some have indeed simply added more and speakers, trying to make up for the lack of […]
I’ve been a fan of the Presentation Summit and Rick Altman for a long time. I even spoke at one a few years ago, and I’m up again this fall at the 2017 version, so I’m very excited to renew some old acquaintances, make new ones, and see how fast Rick falls apart under maximum […]
Back in the day when I taught public speaking at Princeton, one of the bits of bad news the students found most unfair was the attractiveness bias. Basically, psychologists have found over and over again that more attractive people have an unfair advantage when it comes to attracting partners, getting hired, getting paid, being perceived […]
This post is second of two on virtual communications. The virtual world offers us two great conveniences; indeed, you can make a reasonable claim that the virtual world depends for its success on these twin pillars: freedom from friction, and freedom from simultaneity. But those freedoms create new problems. How can you solve the problems […]
The virtual world offers us two great conveniences. Indeed, you can make a reasonable claim that the virtual world depends for its success on these twin pillars: freedom from friction, and freedom from simultaneity. What does that mean? Before email, we had to write or type out letters, memos, reports, white papers – the entire […]
David Meerman Scott is an old friend and former client (back in the day when he was developing his current mastery of public speaking and the new rules of marketing and PR — also the title of his perennial best-seller on the topic). Now, he’s a pro in constant demand, and yet he somehow found […]
I’ve been reading and re-reading the basic Asian books of wisdom over the years in the hopes of acquiring a little myself. Not much has stuck, but I do find the insights fascinating and the opaque language maddening. So there’s that. On my latest re-read of The Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, it occurred to […]
After all those principles, here’s a look at an arguably lighter issue: speaker hairstyles. Here’s the problem for the modern keynote speaker. You’re most likely going to be beamed onto a giant IMAG screen, often two of them, on either side of you standing there on the stage. You may actually be overwhelmed visually by […]
With this blog post, I’m concluding a series of public speaking principles that are a summation of what I’ve learned about this fiendishly difficult art and science over three decades of practice, coaching, learning from others, and research, especially neuroscience. The final seven concern general issues of delivery and the speaker. 71.Find ways to protect […]
I’m continuing a series of public speaking principles in the next few blog posts that are a summation of what I’ve learned about this fiendishly difficult art and science over three decades of practice, coaching, learning from others, and research, especially neuroscience. Here are the penultimate seven, concerning conditions around speaking and speeches. 64.The most […]
