A final small thought for a Friday afternoon

" There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practised, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave."
Dale Carnegie

Questions worth asking

Here are just three things that should be going through your head when preparing a presentation.

Why me?

Why them?

So what?

Just keep these rolling the whole time and you'll be fine!

There isn't only one right way

I am a strong advocate of finding your own way to good presentation technique, I hope anyone who has worked with me would confirm that. Sure there are plenty of rules and tips and good ways to do things, but nothing is of much use at all if you can't be yourself and make a genuine contact with the audience. The video below is a very good example of how a whole bunch of rules just fade into insignificance when the message and the feeling are really good.

In this video posted on TED.com in April 2010 Dean Kamen gives an informal kind of a presentation which on first glance, and for the first few minutes, doesn't exactly give the impression of something you may remember for the rest of your life. He looks very modest, looks down a lot, holds his hands in front of his bodyand even starts playing with his fingernails. His talk feels a little unstructured and you almost feel nervous for his sake. But by the time he's got to the end of the story I wonder whether anyone would not be affected by it and would not remember it for a long time after. His own passion and interest become more and more apparent and this is what it's all about. Truly reaching out to other people with your story and conveying emotions and experiences to them in a way they'll never forget.