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Archive for the ‘Presentation skills’ Category

presenting skills physics professor and strong man

Presenting – The Physics of Engaging Presentations

Posted by Matteo Trevisan

When I talk about presenting nowadays a strong image often comes floating back from my past life as a teacher.

Standing close to a large ruler… a look of serious concentration on my face… goggles safely on… arm outstretched… holding tightly onto an elastic band. I have a volunteer gradually add weights…

50 grams! 100 grams! 150 grams!

As each mass was added the elastic stretched and the new length was entered as a data point by another student. The results were plotted instantly and projected on the wall.

The mass kept increasing…    1.1 Kilos! 1.2 kilos!

The students can see the line on the graph behind me is levelling off. They know what is about to happen but they can’t know when…

Read more

glass chandelier

The two crucial questions we need to ask when it comes to public speaking

Posted by Liz McKechnie

We all know about the importance of key messages. It’s one of the first questions we ask ourselves when we agree to a “public speaking” engagement. Or it should be.

Quite often the question comes out as:

What shall I speak about?

That’s great. To sort out a theme. To know if we will be talking about dogs, or moon landings, or ballet, or chandeliers…But it doesn’t answer the key message question. For that we may need to ask something like:

What’s my point?

Because any one of these subjects might be artfully used to illustrate a particular point. An angle. An argument. A belief. A passion.

The theme is not the point. The theme is the conduit for the point.

The point is the point. Read more

lorries can give anxiety or stress

How to be calm and cool in a crisis (or a presentation…)

Posted by Liz McKechnie

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs….

This famous quote from Rudyard Kipling’s “If…” poses the question so many of us face on a daily basis in our work lives but also at home as the stresses and strains of domestic life pull us and push us sometimes to breaking point.

How do some people seem to remain calm so much of the time?

On our Presentation Skills courses and often on Personal Impact and Assertiveness courses people ask us for advice on how to handle nerves and anxiety when facing intimidating or downright scary situations.

Well here’s one practical thing you can do that you probably already exercise elsewhere in your life.

You can change your focus. Read more