Presenters, how to make your presentations twitter friendly

I recently had the pleasure of attending  TedX Melbourne .  Like all the TED events there was a great array of speakers, with an engaged audience, hungry for information.  I love the format – 18 minutes per speaker and most of the speakers went the presentation equivalent of the ‘full monty’, no PowerPoint or visuals. 

For the first time I also felt the entire playing field had changed. Right through the conference lots of participants were tweeting.  The person next to me had his laptop, his iPad and his phone out but also used a good old fashioned pen and paper to take notes…so some things never change.

Like everyone else in the audience I was both listening to the presenters and keeping an eye on twitter to see how the audience was responding, all in real time.  It was interesting and confronting (and I wasn’t even presenting!)  to see how immediate the feedback was, what people were saying almost in response to every point the speaker was making.  So as a presenter how can you make your presentation twitter friendly?

The good news is some of the rules of a good presentation haven’t changed at all, but there are some new things to consider.

One – As always it is all about your preparation, preparation & preparation.  You can never be over prepared and if you are under prepared, the twitter comments will let you know at once!  As part of  your preparation know the rules of engagement.  For example at TED one of the mandates for speakers is ‘Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage’.  One speaker who was unaware of this or chose to ignore it received a verbal bashing on twitter.  Twitter audience is quick off the mark and unforgiving in this respect.

Two – Make every word count, no fluff, extraneous padding, jargon or mindless repetition.  Like Mark Twain said ‘The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lighting and the lighting bug’.  Make sure all the bugs are ironed out of your presentation.

Three- Having a very clear structure still matters, so the audience can follow you easily.  But try not to be clichéd or too conventional with structure.  Trust your audience’s intelligence in being able to follow you without an obvious power point hierarchy (yawn, boring).

Four- Be disciplined and have 2 or 3 key messages, only.  We can never stress this enough and to be twitter friendly your message should be in the form of a sound bite that can be easily tweeted.  Remember the twitter limitation of 140 characters.  This is great discipline for presenters as if you can make your key point in 140 characters you have it nailed. When your audience engages with a message it will be tweeted over and over again by different people and then retweeted.  This is GOOD and the presentation equivalent of a standing ovation except the everyone globally on twitter can see it / hear it.

Five- Use Storytelling.  Because how else could you convey complex information quickly and engagingly?  The only time people stopped tweeting completely during TedX Melbourne was when one of the presenters, Liza Boston, started narrating a story – she had everyone’s attention in the room for the 3 minutes.  And one of the first tweets after said ‘Liza Boston’s presentation alone has made the admission price worth it!’.

Six- Don’t be distracted by the lack of eye contact.  Even though everyone is looking at their phones , they are still listening to you, except they are listening differently.  They are listening to you and also listening to what the twitterverse is saying.

Seven – Be yourself, be authentic and use your personality.  People love that and will respond to you like a real person which of course you are. 

Eight – After your presentation, take a big deep breath first, and then look at the twitter feed.  This is the best feedback you will ever receive as a presenter and a great learning opportunity.

This is by no means a complete list so please add to it.

What every presenter can learn from TED?

What every presenter can learn from TED?

I love TED Talks and can spend many a pleasant hour (ahem) watching different speakers.  I am also always trying to dissect what makes the talks so exceptional.   One of my favourites is Benjamin Zander and as soon as you watch him, you realise he has a passion and enthusiasm that is immediately infectious.  He obviously knows and loves his subject (classical music), but don’t let the subject put you off.

Benjamin Zander is able to connect with people by using humour and personal stories.  He seems to genuinely believe that his audience loves classical music too, except they might not know that yet!  Which is a brave premise, but it works!

How about if this is not your style and you are presenting on a topic that most people might know very little or even nothing about?  Rajesh Rao’s presentation on the 4,000 year old Indus script is an example.  At each step Rajesh Rao creates a modern context to help his audience understand and engage with him.  He almost immediately refers to the Indus script as the ‘mother of all crosswords’ – and you can sense the audience laughing and relaxing.  Even when he is talking about the structure of language (which is quite complex)  he is able to give us an everyday relatable example, but most importantly he uses self disclosure to tell us why this is his passion and why it’s important.

Recently, I discovered another reason why the speeches are so good. TED’s organisers send upcoming speakers a stone tablet, engraved with the ‘TED Commandments’. Amy Tan in her TED Talk described the arrival of the TED Commandments as “something that creates a near-death experience; but near-death is good for creativity”.

Here are the Ten Commandments that every presenter could benefit from:

1.     Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick

2.     Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before

3.     Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion

4.     Thou Shalt Tell a Story

5.     Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy

6.     Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success.

7.     Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods, thy Writings, nor thy Disparate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness.

8.     Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.

9.     Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.

10.  Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee

Now we know how Ted can claim its by line ’Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world’.

Do you have another Presentation Commandment that you think should be there?  As always please comment and tell us what you think.

Who else wants to raise millions of dollars?

I read with interest in a recent Smart Company post about Ernst and Young’s nominees for Entrepreneur of the year.  The research presented some surprising facts such as 60% of Entrepreneurs start off working in corporates.  It also revealed some not so surprising facts.

“Not surprisingly, funding, people and know-how presented the biggest barriers to entrepreneurial success. The difficult funding environment lends way to entrepreneurs building “ecosystems” – networks of resources – to address the barriers.”

There is another way to address the barrier of funding and let’s explain that through one of our clients success story.

Greg McClardie may be a familiar name to you as he featured with us in a BRW June 2009 Imagine That  in June 2009.  Greg needed to raise 37 million dollars for his venture aimed at consolidating the abalone industry.  When Greg came to us in 2006 he had a sound and logical business case but was frustrated with the reluctance of venture capitalists in coming on board.  He felt he had the sound logic but in his own words ‘something was missing’ …and something was missing.  Greg’s entire presentations to venture capitalists was focused on presenting the logical data.  It lacked emotional connection.

Greg’s passion was evident to us but he needed a way to get that across effectively and purposefully in his pitches for funding.  We helped Greg develop three types of purposeful business stories that he weaved throughout his presentations and he achieved immediate success.

Greg raised the $37 million dollars he needed and has recently used further stories to raise further funds to secure his second multimillion-dollar venture.

Greg is a great example of how using business storytelling purposefully and skillfully can help overcome one of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face …raising funds.

4 Questions you should ask yourself before presenting

Last week I had the fabulous opportunity of attending the opening night of  Tutankhamun and The Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition.  It was your typical VIP red carpet event with celebrities, free food, alcohol and of course speeches …four speeches to be precise. 

The audience started off very respectful of the speech givers.  The first speech was from Ted Baillieu the Premier of Victoria.  His speech was quite good, short and relevant to the exhibition.  He acknowledged the previous Government that brought the event to Melbourne and resisted any temptation to bring in politics …so far so good.  Three other speakers followed, with each one being introduced by MC of events, Jennifer Keyte.

The speeches themselves were not that bad but as the speeches continued, the background noise of people talking and drinking started to increase.  At one point my husband commented that people were not very respectful of the presenters and my immediate thought was to not agree or disagree with him but to ask ‘should the presenters also be more respectful of their audience?’

I think the answer to my own question is that there probably needs to be a happy medium of respect and it definitely needs to go both ways.

When someone stands up to give a speech, they are probably nervous or excited or a mixture of both and the audience should respect that.  Especially at a VIP event where you are receiving star treatment.  At Tutankhamun we were among the first people in Australia to see this exhibition, which will never tour again,  being provided beautiful food and quality alcohol and did not have to pay a cent to be there.  I think the bare minimum you can do is be respectful to the speakers, which most people were.  Even the Bachelor of the year contender in his gold hot pants…which by the way is never a good a look unless you are Kylie Minogue.  Just my personal opinion!

On the other hand as a speaker you need to also be respectful of your audience.  Now regardless of whether you are presenting at a VIP red carpet event or not, this rule of thumb applies.  You need to ask yourself four questions.

1.  Why is your audience there? 

2.  What does the audience want or need to know from the speakers? 

3.  What do you think their attention span is going to be?   and

4.  Will you be competing against anything?

So lets answer those questions from the point of view of the vast majority of people attending this particular VIP event. 

Why is your audience there?  The audience was there to be among the first people in Australia to see the Tutankhamun exhibition for free and without having to queue with thousands of other people for that privilege …priceless.   

What does the audience want or need to know from the speakers? Probably very little but they may be interested in some information about the event – where it has been and where it is going to.  They may be interested in knowing how and why Melbourne was chosen to host the event or other interesting relevant facts. 

What is their attention span?  Considering the above and that everyone is standing, it is probably about 10 to 15 minutes and that includes the entire 4 speeches not each speech .  This short attention span is explained by the answer to the question below.

Are the speakers competing with anything?  Going to see the actual exhibition, free alcohol, free food, talking to other guests or hosts and celebrity spotting …not necessarily in that order but probably.  These are powerful forces to be competing against.

We were once invited to speak at an organisation’s Christmas lunch.  Big mistake on our part because we did not consider the above four questions.  Well we probably did but answered the first one incorrectly.  No one was there to hear about organisational storytelling.  They were there for the big Christmas lunch  …the big social event of the year and the only one which was a full sit down lunch with alcohol provided.  A lesson learnt the tough way.

Presenters need to be aware of these four questions to avoid all temptation to talk longer than necessary.  To make their speeches short, relevant and hopefully interesting or funny.  It is worth noting that the only time a hush came over the progressively chatty crowd was when Dr Patrick Greene told a story about being part of a queue that snaked around the block outside the British Museum on a cold and rainy night to see another Tutankhamun exhibition 37 years ago and here he was opening the Melbourne exhibition as a very proud CEO of Museum Victoria.

If presenters are more respectful of the audience and aware of the environment they are speaking in, then 99% of the time that respect will be returned.

Lets us know what you think by leaving a comment below.

What Would You Remember In 48 Hours?

One of my favourite Saturday morning activities is reading The Good Weekend magazine in the The Melbourne Age.  One of the pages I read had three standard segments. 

The first was about ‘Ordinary People with Extraordinary Jobs’ and I read about a man who was a snake catcher.

The second was Danny Katz’s Modern Guru, where every week he answers modern day etiquette questions and this one was in response to someone asking if they should have asked for their change when they handed over $30 for two drinks at a top end bar and the bar tender pocketed $5 for tips.

In the middle of those two articles was the ‘By Number’ section, where ten interesting number facts were listed.  All three articles were really interesting including most of the number facts.  When I finished reading the page, I thought to myself, ‘What I would remember in 48 hours?’.

So here I am in the office on Monday and I can still recall the information about the snake catcher.  That he makes more money cleaning up people’s backyards after the catch, then he does catching snakes.  Because even though he doesn’t charge a lot, most people still think that a shovel is cheaper.

I remember Danny Katz’s advice on how we should switch the whole tipping situation on its head.  So instead of tipping in high-end establishments we should only tip in cheap and cheerful places where the staff probably need their wages subsidised more.  He suggested that the more we pay the less we should tip.

I cannot, for the life of me, recall one of those facts that I found extremely interesting at the time.

Now I am not saying that no-one remembers facts and figures but the vast majority of people do not remember them, regardless of how fascinating it is at the time.

Worth remembering the next time we have to communicate something or do a presentation, because  one of the acid tests is what your audience would remember in 48 hours.

So take the challenge and tell us what you remember in 48 hours.

Julia Gillard’s US Congress Speech – OTT or WOW?

We woke up again this morning to a country divided about Julia Gillard’s inaugural speech to the US Congress.  Many Australians are suggesting she went over the top with her praise for Americans while others are saying she absolutely wowed her audience.

The divide is not surprising it is almost expected because The American Congress and the Australian public are two very different audiences. To be successful (and this doesn’t just apply to speeches) every communicator needs to focus on their purpose and their audience.  So how did Gillard measure up on those two counts?

First of all the purpose of  Gillard’s speech was to strengthen the Australian and American alliance.  Her audience was the joint US Congress, although knowing she would be judged by a default audience the Australian people.

So with purpose and audience in mind, did she get it right?  By all reports she did.  She received 16 spontaneous rounds of applause with 6 of those being standing ovations.  That is fair few in a 30 minute speech.

AM’s North American Correspondent Jane Cowan reported “that afterwards one senior congressional staffer remarked that the speech had gone down so well that they thought the Australian Prime Minister could probably get ‘whatever she wants’ from this congress now.”  

That is achieving your purpose.

So how did she do it?

She used words, emotion and symbolism that were right for her audience. 

She used words like ‘be worthy’ and ‘be bold’ that appeals to the US congress, while not necessarily the Australian public.

At the end of her speech she shared how as a child she had watched man land on the moon. “I firmly believe you are the same people who amazed me when I was a small girl by landing on the moon.  On that great day I believed Americans could do anything.  I believe that still.  You can do anything.”

Julia Gillard also used symbolism.  She shared the following story about a group of Australians who spent 2 months in New York training for potential terrorist attacks at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

“They worked hard together and became more than colleagues – they became mates. So when it was time to go home the Australian commander gave Rescue 1′s chief his Australian Army “slouch hat” and the chief presented the Australians with a battle scarred fire helmet.  Dated December 1998 and signed by members of the Rescue 1 crew, including Kevin Dowdell. Three years later, Kevin Dowdell was one of the hundreds of New York firefighters killed when the towers came down. Kevin led his men in. His remains were never found.  But that helmet was found … in Australia.  And Aussie firefighter Rob Frey found Kevin’s sons.  James Dowdell is one of New York’s bravest, a firefighter like his father before him.  Patrick Dowdell is wearing his country’s uniform in Afghanistan

Rob came to America to give James the helmet his father signed.  A precious possession.  A last link to a father lost.  And I give you their story. A precious possession too.  These two men are here today. Rob, James – good on you.

We are so proud of what you represent, your story says it all about the friendship between Australia and the United States.  Together in the hardest of times. Friends for the future.”

At this point James Dowdell and Rob Frey who were present in the gallery stood up, with James holding the helmet his father had signed.  By all reports it was a standing ovation that almost lifted the roof off.  

Symbolism and emotion are so powerful and memorable that is no surprise that the overwhelming sentiment from journalists present, was that it will be the emotion that the Americans will remember the most.

You can click through her to view the full video.  (Click from image to video at top left hand corner)

What are your thoughts?  Do you think she achieved her purpose?

Who wants to be a better presenter?

If you want to learn how to deliver more engaging, powerful presentations then we have some exciting news for you.  We have just released our first eBook titled Eliminate Death by PowerPoint and even better it is absolutely free.

In the work we do with leaders around storytelling they often ask for tips and techniques to be better presenters.  This combined with our professional goal to eliminate death by PowerPoint was the catalyst in writing this book.

Survey after survey shows that people fear public speaking over death.  More people would prefer to be the person in the coffin than the person delivering the eulogy.  That is very sad …because with preparation and practice everyone can get better at presenting …and the better you get at it the less you will fear it.

In the book we have pulled together over 20 years presentation experience.  Now there are countless books out there on presenting and this is not a summary of that information.  This book is about what we believe works and what we have seen work.   The focus of the book is on the content, helping you determine what you say and how you present it.

But don’t take our word for it, this is what  others had to say about  our e book:

“To get to the top you need to be noticed.  Every time you present you have an opportunity to impress people or bore them to death.  This is the best book I have read on the do’s and don’ts about PowerPoint.  It explains that what you don’t do is just as important as what you do do.”

John Stewart, Chairman, Legal and General, London & Director, Telstra Corporation, Melbourne

 

“Reading ‘Eliminate Death by PowerPoint’ spoke volumes to me, as a professional event director I have seen time and time again the exhausted and emotionless expressions on conference delegates at the end of a long day of presentations especially those who have been inflicted with PowerPoint torture.  This book points out some fundamental but often forgotten truths that all presenters need to know and confront before planning any presentation.  A poignant and great resource for anyone who wants to be heard and most importantly remembered!.”

Taren Hocking, Director Champion Events

To get you free copy right now, simply supply your name and email on our website home page and you will be sent a link immediately.

Also, we would love to know what you thought about it, so once you have had a read come back and leave us a comment.  We would really appreciate it.

Regards

Gabrielle and Yamini

Frank Lowy please ring me! Business Storytelling and Australia’s bid for the World Cup

Every four years  like a lot of people, I am gripped by soccer fever, thanks to the World Cup and  turn into a complete soccer tragic!  Given our time zone differences, here in Australia this involves setting our alarm for the earliest hours of the morning to watch the games ‘live’.  But it is absolutely worth it!

Like most people in Australia I am deeply disappointed that Australia won’t be hosting the 2022 World cup.  Life is a tough teacher.  You have the experience first and then you hopefully learn from it.  So what did we learn?  I am of course going to be looking at this through the lens of storytelling.   Caveat: We all know the whole bidding process is complex involves many strategies, and many players, political wrangling etc. So this is in no way a solution but something to consider as part our learning.

Using the storytelling lens and comparing Australia’s bid with Qatar’s three things to consider:

  1. The emotion each pitch was tapping into
  2. The audience
  3. The audience’s objections

Every time  I heard Frank Lowy pitching to host the World Cup he talked about Australia being a ‘safe pair of hands’.   The Australian bid tapped into a negative emotion, fear.  It looks like the FIFA committee (the audience) was not looking for a ‘safe pair of hands’.  Their decision to go with South Africa for the previous World Cup indicates this.  Another plank in our bid was ‘Make a country’s dreams come true’  which could apply to every country bidding for the World Cup.  On the other hand ABC news reporter Emma Alberici said Qatar presented a bid full of emotion, imploring the executive committee to make history by sending the World Cup to the Middle East for the first time.  Compare ‘Safe pair of hands’ with ‘The opportunity to make history’. 

 But what about the audience?   Any narrative we engage with has to be right for the audience.

On their web site FIFA states ‘For the Game. For the World’.  It is interesting to note the Qatar bid tag line states  ’For football, for the Middle East, for the world’.  Perfect alignment.  Qatar was telling the committee you have the option to unite the Middle East and the world through football …compare that with making a single country’s dreams come true.

In their bios on the FIFA website one of the questions for the Executive Committee is ‘What does football mean to you?   It is interesting to note the range of answers from  ‘Unity and friendship’, ‘Responsibility, service and joy’, ‘Team spirit and social responisbility’, ‘Unity and teamwork’.  Again the Qatar bid taps into this.

How do you in storytelling overcome the audience’s objections? One of the key hurdles for Australia was the time difference.  The Australian bid website states ’A time zone for more than 60% of the world’s population. Australia will work closely with FIFA to ensure that the match schedule is designed to maximise total television audience numbers around the world’.

 All necessary statement of fact but compare how objections can be handled in a compelling and emotionally engaging way.  In one of Qatar’s bid presentations a child is heard saying ‘So say the Israeli teams and the Arab teams go to the world cup and they play against each other.  Israelis would come to cheer their team and the Arabs would also come, then they would get to know each other’.  An adult voice then adds ‘Indeed what we saw in South Africa was harmony between all people there’. 

 Giving a speech after the wining host was announced, Qatar 2022 Bid Committee Chairman Sheikh Mohammad bin Hamad Al Thani said “On behalf of millions of people living in the Middle East, thank you,” he went on saying “Thank you for believing in us, thank you for having such bold vision. Thank you also for acknowledging this is the right time for the Middle East. We have a date with history which is summer 2022. We will not let you down. We will make you proud.” 

He was letting the panel know this was about  football, but it was also about the Middle East and the world. The legacy they would leave the world with this decision.

Congratulations  Qatar on the historic win.  Frank Lowy please ring us and let’s start working on Australia’s bid for 2030.  The time is now …

Struggling with launching into your stories? Easy story segues for business storytelling

We are often asked ‘How do I launch into a story in the middle of a meeting or in a presentation?’.  In this video Yamini provides some practical advice on smoothly launching into your story and what segues to avoid…like the plague.

Business Storytelling – The Myth of the Natural Born Storyteller

In the work we do with business leaders on organsiational storytelling, we are often asked about ‘natural’ storytellers.  Granted some people are better at it than others, just like some people are better at tennis or singing than others……but everyone can get better at it with preparation and practice.

In this our first video blog, Yamini Naidu explodes the myth of the natural born storyteller. ..and shares their success secrets with you.

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