Last night I attended an open speaking event, that wasn’t Toastmasters, where speakers were tasked to give an interesting 5 minute presentation. One of the presentations was a fabulous demonstration of drawing the audience in with an interesting story, making good use of PowerPoint to reinforce spoken points, and dressing to fit the speaker’s speaking style. However, the presentation was ruined when I got home, Googled the speech topic, and found out that the presenter lifted the major points of his speech from a British business writer without citing the source.

Evil Genius Media + Events – Write it…so you can read it.

4. Insist that the lectern has a lip or a rest at the base to sit your presentation on so it doesn’t slip off.
5. Ask ! Is there a lectern ?
6. Be a prima donna. Insist on enough time in the room, with the lighting set to how it will be on the day. ( So you can tell if you can see your notes or the audience if that’s important. )
7. Make changes to the lighting if you need to. It’s your presentation ! Better still, insist you speak with the event organiser prior to the event and tell them what you want. If they can’t supply or organise it, you can adapt your presentation to suit the circumstances.
8. Have a pristine copy of the presentation that you are going to read from. It’s a nightmare when you pull the pages from pocket or bag to find them crumpled so they won’t sit on the lectern.

Biz Asia — BBC’s Tasmin’s “breathtaking” on-air moment [with audio]

BBC Three news presenter Tasmin Lucia Khan left viewers gasping for more after reading a bulletin hopelessly out of breath.

The show in which Tasmin gives a minute-long current affairs update from around the world in ’60 Seconds’ was terminated on Thursday after just 30-seconds due to the mishap.

During the embarrassing episode, she was not seen on-screen but was audible only. Seconds into the bulletin, she was heard gasping between words before giving up after the first item.

Rexi Media — How do you present to multitaskers?

A friend recently described to me how his 12-year old son did his homework and I admit I was a little shocked by how much times have changed. The boy would type frantically on his computer with his I-Pod in his ears blaring hip hop, constantly shooting IMs to his friends, while periodically being interrupted by beeping text messages from his cell phone. Apparently the youngster actually got his work done, but I have no idea how. When I was a kid, we had TV, the stereo and the (one) family telephone, and we certainly didn’t talk on the phone with one I-Pod earpiece in the other ear while typing on our MySpace pages at the same time.

Daily Writing Tips — The Chief Justice’s Prepositional Slip

The preposition switch may not be evidence of parapraxis, but the fact remains that Roberts did mess up the oath. Poor guy! He’s earned himself forever the distinction of being the first justice to to stumble over the 35-word oath in the course of sixty-four years and eleven Presidents.

Webinar Wire — Giving Demos Via Webinar

I’ll make one last recommendation. If you choose to do a live demo, have a hot backup of everything ready to switch over during your session. Log in as a presenter on a second computer (preferrably on a separate network) and have the demo software fired up. If something goes wrong on machine number one, abandon it and carry on from machine number two. Audiences are sometimes bemused, but almost never assuaged by watching presenters try to fix things that are going wrong in their demos.

Jay Raskolnikov — half hillbilly, Demi-Culture — Some Thoughts

She was fine, but managed to unplug a cable leading to a special which was the only light on an actor later in the show. Got that fixed for the next scene. Show went pretty well other wise.

Fortify Your Oasis — Phil Schiller’s keynote – how to not confound expectations

In a word, he was over-anxious and under-rehearsed. Yes, I felt some empathy for him; but he did nothing to win me over with his opening. And he was under-rehearsed. If you have your material down cold – particularly your opening – you simply don’t have to refer to your prompt screens that often, and certainly not that obviously.

Overnight Sensation — Public Speaking Myths: You Should Never Open With a Thank You

In the event that you start a speech with a thank you and everyone in the audience comes up to you afterwards and says you lost them at the onset, please let me know as I’d love to know which planet your audience was from.

Presentation Zen — Apple’s Keynote Remote: first impressions

It won’t replace my Keyspan (the Keynote Remote app does not have a black-out-screen function and the iPhone is a bit bulky in the hand compared to a tiny, plastic remote), but if I ever forget my remote control, my iPhone will do the trick just fine.

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"The Weekly Might Have Missed List (01/25/09)" was originally posted on Breaking Murphy's Law on January 25, 2009. Copyright 2009 Lee Potts and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

]]> http://www.breakingmurphyslaw.com/2009/01/25/the-weekly-might-have-missed-list-012509/feed/ 0 http://www.breakingmurphyslaw.com/2008/12/31/obligatory-year-end-retrospective-post-2008/ http://www.breakingmurphyslaw.com/2008/12/31/obligatory-year-end-retrospective-post-2008/#comments Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:35:16 +0000 Lee Potts http://www.breakingmurphyslaw.com/?p=1038 Most popular guest post based on bad search engine assumptions: The world’s worst wet T-shirt contest — Laura Bergells was kind enough to share this story that is still getting getting a lot of hits (for all the wrong reasons).

As I do, a man with 2 steaming coffees in his hands walks briskly towards me. However, his head is turned over his shoulder and he’s yelling to someone far behind him.

Twelve ounces of scalding coffee hits the front of my white blouse. I howl in pain and run to the washroom as the man tries to initiate a conversation about how sorry he is.

Worst anthropomorphization: Toshiba TLP-X200U: Watch your mouth… –The TLP-X200U uses audible messages to interface with the projectionist.

Unexpected things projectors will be heard saying in the future:

• “Hey Butthead!!! Yeah, you at the lectern. Time to change my filter.”
• “You never take me anywhere nice anymore.”
• “Sorry, I just can’t stay focused today.”
• “Poor Uncle Sony, they said it was death by PowerPoint.”
• “Stop pushing my buttons!”

Best product placement: But I can’t find a Pepsi anywhere…

It’s sort of like this: if you need to have Pepsi, and you’re headed for Atlanta, be sure to bring your own. The hard part is knowing that you’ll need to do so.

Post most likely to cause retching when read during lunch break: Don’t Kick the Bucket

They were all pros and they all knew the show had to go on. A number of buckets were placed as discreetly as possible around the ballroom for use while the stage was built and the equipment was set up. The smell was pretty bad he said. The sounds were worse.

Post that caused the most comment conversation (perhaps due to the Star Wars tie in): Jedi Knights With Frickin’ Laser Pointers — This was also BML’s first real post. It’s been all down hill since.

The little red dot slides across the audience like he’s a nervous hit man looking for his target. It’s lucky he doesn’t burn out a couple retinas. Whoops, he’s turning back to the screen. Good thing he’s not a Jedi Knight. That evil Sith lectern would be toast. I could almost hear the sound effects from that scene when Luke…

(sorry, got carried away)

Anyway, I think you see the point. If you’re going to use a laser pointer, use it correctly.

Post in which I use the word “Buttwipe” not once, but twice: Breaking Murphy’s Leg — Mom was so proud.

At a previous job, we had a roll of toilet paper, affectionately known as “Buttwipe,” that was thrown into the box with the rest of the  art department’s supplies and shipped to every meeting we worked. The consequences of not performing this act of raw superstition, though unspecified, were too too horrible to consider.

Looking back on the last eight months and 21 days I’m amazed at all the ground covered and all the topics touched on. I’d like to thank everyone who had a hand in getting this thing off the ground — especially those who linked to it, took time to comment or contributed a guest post. Your support for what I’m trying to accomplish is greatly appreciated. I’d also like to wish everyone a happy New year!

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"Obligatory year-end retrospective post 2008" was originally posted on Breaking Murphy's Law on December 31, 2008. Copyright 2008 Lee Potts and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. All other rights reserved.

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