Conferences that Keep your Attention
July 26th, 2011
Everyone battles with keeping an audience’s attention. Fortune magazine had to capture and keep techies attention! Here’s 3 ways they succeeded at FORTUNE BRAINSTORM TECH in Aspen: 1) Great line up of speakers – Big names in the tech business and beyond and they were interviewed in different groupings in different parts of the room. 2) Reinforcing takeaways – They immediately captured a
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Prepare to be Surprised
July 25th, 2011
I just heard an NPR reporter ask an author what surprised her in her research on shoplifters. The author umm-ed and ahh-ed for too long and the delay risked the listener wondering if there was anything truly new. As a long time reporter for NBC, asking what surprised didn’t surprise me. It’s standard…a way of prompting an expert
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Pictures and Problems
June 29th, 2011
President Obama just ripped into congressional Republicans for failing to resolve the debt crisis. He provided specific examples to persuade..effectively conjured up images of business honchos getting tax breaks on corporate jets .. but in doing so, Obama showed the risks in painting a vivid picture. CNBC immediately featured critics demanding to see just how much tax breaks
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Sticks n’ Stones n’ Bachmann
June 28th, 2011
When Chris Wallace asked Michele Bachmann if she is a flake, my first reaction was to feel a little sorry for her. She looked hurt. But I don't want to feel sorry for someone who wants to be President. It wasn't a tough question, it was a nasty label that she could easily have written off as
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June 12th, 2011
Weiner’s Worst Anthony Weiner’s worst line in my book was not his lame attempts to dodge questions, but in the midst of it all, pointing out all the Twitter traffic he’d sparked! Humor is a way to lighten up a conversation but it works only after you’ve been responsive.
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May 14th, 2011
This week there was the conviction of Raj Rajaratman, the hedge fund honcho. But jurors also found his lawyer guilty..of monotone…In an interview with the WSJ, one juror, a teacher, said the lead lawyer came across as "tired," "monotone" and "repetitive." There is a saying that if you aren't enthusiastic, no one else will be.
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Fear of being too good!
May 4th, 2011
Everyone has heard that people fear public speaking worse than death. Usually the fear stems from a fear of being judged and falling short..not interesting or not smart enough. I recently heard a new fear, and from some of the smartest people in the world, doctors. I was working with a group of physician speakers,
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Questions could be the Answer to your Presentation Problems
April 24th, 2011
Anne had a big personality but her presentations were flat. If you charted them like a cadiogram, you'd wonder if she had a pulse. I was working with her to prepare for her first town hall in a huge new job. She'd been at the company for a while, but this was a larger and largely
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An F for Examples
April 7th, 2011
Cathie Black, the former Conde Nast exec who NY Mayor Bloomberg picked for Schools Chancellor resigned today. It wasn't much of a surprise. She'd had a tough go from the get go. But top execs everywhere should take note of what did her in. Black couldn't relate to her audiences. There's no question that not
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HOW TO SMILE MORE…WIN MORE SUPPORT.
April 4th, 2011
You should SMILE more. Smiling is one of the easiest ways to warm an audience to you and your message but many speakers find it difficult to do. Clients, from the CEO talking to his employees to a print reporter gearing up for an appearance on the TODAY show, tell me ‘I’m not smiling because
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