Today I found a little black dress. There it was hanging on the clearance rack, all unassuming, half-dangling from the hanger, slotted in the wrong size, looking plain, simple and even a bit forlorn. In my desperation to get a dress -any dress- for an upcoming special occasion, I grabbed it, raced to the fitting […]
Why a fine presentation isn’t good enough Read More »
On Wednesday this week, Jan and I attended the ‘final exam’ in Alaina Sheer’s presentation transformation. I hadn’t written about our style and delivery session that we had a few weeks ago as I knew there was some additional work to be done before she was really ready to present. Tuesday night we had a chance
A presentation transformation: part 2. Read More »
Every May and June for 15 years I’d tune into CSPAN and watch graduation speeches. Thank goodness I got married one June and now have a few better things to do with my leisure time. But hearing about graduation speakers the last few weeks brings back some of those memories and how I would look
Talk Back: Tis the Season Read More »
From fairy tales to extreme makeovers, who doesn’t love a good before-and-after story? HGTV has built an empire around ’em (with good reason) and TLC offers a veritable pantheon of makeover shows about babies, weddings and beauty. So Ruth and I thought it would be fun and, more importantly, helpful and enlightening, to feature a before-and-after story of
A presentation transformation: part 1 Read More »
In today’s New York Times, an illuminating story about multi-tasking adorned the front page. It’s disintegrating our ability to focus, the research argues (I would personally agree!). And indeed, checking email, texting, facebooking, skyping, webinaring- whatever the task- must all be but aside for the careful work that is presentation preparation. I recently queried a PR
San Diego, August, 1996: I was sequestered for a day in the speechwriters’ room behind the big stage at the Republican National Convention. I was there to “traffic” a speech. I was charged to make sure the one that was supposed to scroll on the teleprompter was the one my ‘principal’ was expecting to give,
From Ruth: 25 years in the making Read More »
This is a note to organizers. Your role in getting a speaker ready to talk is as important as the speaker’s own preparation. In the last post about the “What If” event, there was a fatal flaw on behalf of the organizers. I thought I’d illuminate our top three forget-me-nots that every organizer needs to know.
So you have invited someone to talk, eh? Read More »
Talk Back is an occasional review of talks we’ve attended or heard. Yesterday, it was a delight to attend the first “What If” conference at the OSU Fisher College of Business. It was a showcase of successful entrepreneurs and their various approaches to innovation. Each person was given 20-30 minutes to present. To keep it light,
Talk Back: “What If” conference Read More »
