Disqus - Latest Comments for simon_presentation_skills_UK

Re: 20 Ways to Improve Your Presentation Skills

Simon — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 17:16:02 -0000

Yesbut... ;)

I'm going to sound petty, 'cos these are great things, but can I chat about number 18? First off, don't forget to drink the water a loooong time before the presentation, so that the body has time to absorb it, use it, and create the mucus that's the actual lubricant in the throat.

Secondly, make sure the water's at body temperature, not chilled. Firstly, cold water is a shock to the vocal folds as it passes by (it won't touch them obviously!) - but secondly cold water in your mouth creates and evaporation cycle going and causes the need for more water and... so on.

There's an added advantage to water in a bottle though - reaching for it gives you something to do while you think! ;)

Re: How to live more appreciatively

Simon — Sun, 03 Nov 2013 04:35:01 -0000

Easier said than done, of course, but mighty fine ideas!

Re: Taco Bell, Icelandic pies drawn into meat scandal

Simon — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 13:01:17 -0000

That's kinda missing the point. Sure, some people are reacting badly to the fact that it's *horse*meat, but the main problem for most people is that if it's not what it says it is, how can they trust that the necessary hygiene regulations and so on will have been kept.

Can't see that they're likely to have been, myself. I mean, if you're criminal enough to label horse as beef then you're not the kind of person to worry about a few silly hygiene rules, are you....!

Re: Time Management is a Personal Problem…

Simon — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:45:40 -0000

Hi Haim. I'll drop you a line from my private email if you let me know where to send it to.....

Re: Time Management is a Personal Problem…

Simon — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:45:12 -0000

I love your CFO's approach! Getting things down to basics like that is a great delegation tool. The only time it goes wrong (it seems to me) is when things are delegated without the necessary instructions (and authority!) being delegated too.

Re: Presentation design blog Idea Transplant: How to position a data chart

Simon — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 09:20:00 -0000

While I'm with you that the latter is the better, it's the best of bad options! :)

Better would be have a graph designed in such a way that it didn't need that much legend! Apart from anything else, to make the Legend text big enough it unbalances the screen.

How about integrating the Legend labels as text boxes (say) onto the graph itself at a suitable point. That way we kill two birds with one stone.! :)

Re: I am the ONLY bloke in the world who doesn’t get Babe Station?

Simon — Wed, 09 May 2012 06:00:07 -0000

To be honest, I struggle with a lot of the free channels, not just Babestation (and the like). How many free shopping channels do we need, for heaven's sake?!?

Re: When Life Hacks You Off

Simon — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:36:29 -0000

Good point! But if you can't be honest with your friends, they're not your friends! ;)

Re: 4 Reasons Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work (And What to Do Instead)

Simon — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:34:13 -0000

There's a lot to this idea... the problem is that people tend to assume positive thinking *alone* will work. It doesn't. What works is positive *action*. My take on it is that it's easier to take positive action as the result of positive thinking than negative thinking but there are no promises.

Positive thinking might work, or it might not... negative thinking won't though, so you might as well give it a go... and back it up with getting off your ass and DOING something! :)

Re: A rant on technical presentations

Simon — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:04:22 -0000

A-bloody-men. I'm not sure I'd go so far as you 'cos I *can* see such things as interesting technical presentations but I really LOVE your comment on "lowering expectations" :)

Re: How to Avoid Panic in Presentations: Coping with Questions

Simon — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:52:51 -0000

I can see that, yes.

I wonder what it is in the audience members head that links your presentation's content to their question, though? :)

Re: How to Avoid Panic in Presentations: Coping with Questions

Simon — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:59:13 -0000

You're right about saying that you don't know. (Obviously!)

That said, I'm confused about why you say that if the unanswered question wasn't relevant you don't follow up.By definition, if it was asked it's relevant - at least to the questioner. There must have been *something* in the presentation that sparked it...

Re: Public Speaking Techniques Tested at the Front Line

Simon — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:59:38 -0000

A very sensible set of suggestions!

Something which I'd add, if I may, is the observation that far, far too many would-be speakers concentrate on what could go wrong. They have a very clear (or maybe just FELL they have a very clear) idea of what a failure would be like... but if I train them and ask them what a *success* would look like they're not so clear in their heads.

How can a person design, rehearse or deliver a successful presentation without knowing what that success would look like?!? (Well yes, I know, it can be done - but it's not easy! :) )

Re: Making Your Presentation Worth the Cost

Simon — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:15:17 -0000

Hi Cora - you're right, of course. The thing is, that slides like that simply don't work. Let's face it.. slides that can be handed out and read by people don't work as slides for presentations anyway! :)

Re: Microsoft Does NOT Call its Customers – Scam Warning

Simon — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:49:03 -0000

Good advice!

My fave one of these calls failed when I pointed out that not only was my computer not mis-behaving but was actually a Mac machine... Nothing daunted, the guy calling me then instantly switched to trying to sell me a copy of "Windows For Mac"!

Re: WordPress 3.3 – First Impressions

Simon — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:23:51 -0000

And my ISP? Can't update because the version of MySQL they use is too old... (Actually that's no longer true as my blog's just moved, for that very reason!)

Re: Nature, Nurture? No Excuse!

Simon — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:30:57 -0000

Hi Stephen - you're right in some of your observations, certainly; I plead guilty to doing a Clarkson (though you may want to check the facts of what he did, as opposed to what was reported).

Sorry if what I wrote was annoying from your perspective. Without going into details, I'll match experiences over a pint at some point! :) I didn't mean to say that *all* such labels were merely labels, though I can see it may read like that. I was suggesting that *some* were and that *some* people used them as an excuse for not taking personal responsibility.

Personally, I'm not sure that your experience of bullies being bullies out of choice is more worrying or less worrying than my suggestion! :)

Re: [Fashion] It Can Be Given Free For Poor People?

Simon — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:06:47 -0000

She wouldn't like to re-write the copy on my website, would she? :)

Re: How to Maintain Your Productivity Throughout the Holiday Season

Simon — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 02:46:52 -0000

Absolutely - I'm not pretending you should stop entirely! :)

Re: Get Over Your Smartphone Addiction

Simon — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:27:00 -0000

Good post!

I can't remember where I read it (sorry!) but a couple of years ago I came across some research into the habits of teenagers and using their phones. One of the points they made was that the teenagers in question often felt so 'engaged' via their phones that they felt, genuinely, virtually connected and that this connection was as important as the physical connection of the people with them.

With that in minde, far from being rude to the people in the room with them to use their phones, it because rude to the people NOT in the room, not to reply to them - the incoming text message held the same social significance as a face-to-face question.

Makes me feel old! :)

Re: 5 Unusual Ways to Become a Better Speaker

Simon — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:03:07 -0000

Just a word of caution - I don't know about the US but doing that in the UK without permission from the audience can lead you to being in trouble!

In any case, it's worth making sure it's done carefully, because all to often speakers change their speaking patterns when they are aware of being recorded - speaking to the camera is endemic! :)

Re: Borrowing Authority for our Presentation

Simon — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:18:33 -0000

It had to happen sometimes, just by the laws of random chance! :)

Re: Borrowing Authority for our Presentation

Simon — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 11:03:17 -0000

Fair point!

Pedantically (who me?) I'd argue we've moved away from borrowed authority to 'real authority' at that point though! :) ;)

Re: Was Clarkson’s Folly Once His Genius?

Simon — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 08:32:44 -0000

You're too generous. Self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing tosh is his staple fare. I agree he's past it - my question is whether he was ever 'with it'! ;)

Re: Borrowing Authority for our Presentation

Simon — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 08:24:26 -0000

I've avoided live testis in the past - partially because they're just so... well, frankly... crass... don't you think? Audiences see right through them these days. As tools they rate right down there with getting someone to introduce you with hyped-up rubbish that you've obviously written yourself! :)

You're absolutely right about the advertising industry though! Abso-bloomin'-lootly!