Presentation Keys

Here’s a short list of why presenters and presentations fail:


• Lousy body language

• Lousy vocal variety

• Lousy gesturing

• Lousy choice of words

• Lousy smiles

• Lousy attitude
 
Credits -Jeffrey Gitomer, -geedavey, -vsaentertainment, -baltimorebookworm

Avatar

A little summary about "Avatar"

Ostentacious it might be, but it is definitely a must-watch incandescent masterpiece that is believed to be the indelible movie ever since Titanic.

The film is Lightstorm Entertainment's latest project, and focuses on an epic conflict on a far-away world called Pandora, where humans and the native species of Pandora, the Na'vi, engage in a war over the planet's resources and existence

The film is being touted as a breakthrough in terms of filmmaking technology, for its development of 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specially designed for the film's production.

Jake, a former U.S. marine was selected to participate in the Avatar program in a land called Pandora. Jake is paralysed from his waist down and he is promised that he will be able to walk once again on the grounds of Pandora. However, there lives another race in Pandora, the Na'vi, they are way more agile and adroit as compared to the human beings on earth. The Na'vis being threatened by the encroachment of humans into their territories are all-ready to launch a counter-attack that swears to obliterate the human race.

Since humans are unable to breathe the air on Pandora, they have created genetically-bred human-Na’vi hybrids known as Avatars. On Pandora, through his Avatar body, Jake will be able to walk again.

Overtime, Jake fell in love with Neytiri. He's placed in a major conundrum now as he tries to decide which team he wants to defend and battle against.

Credits -avatartrailer, -cropcircleconnector, -dhingana, -wikipedia

Criticisms

Do you actually believe this? Criticisms are actually results of insecurity? At times, we are constantly griping about how people are so stupid and ignorant. How can they not know this? To better illustrate this idea, I will put forward a scenario below.




One day, Chris and Tom were having a conversation.



Chris: So Tom, do you think “white spaces” are going to improve our accessibility to the internet globally in the future?



Tom: I’m sorry? What are white spaces?



Christ: Are you kidding me? How can you not know white spaces? Are you actually living under a rock or something? You seriously need to do more reading up.



Tom: Oh okay.

From the above scenario, one flagrant point is that till the end, Chris did not answer Tom’s enquiry about “white spaces”. Rather than talking more about “white spaces”, it almost seems as if Chris was merely showing off to Tom that he knows about it and Tom does not. He wants to prove that he is superior in knowledge as compared to Tom, and knowing more than Tom puts him at ease. Once comfortable, he gets off the topic because he feels good now. The point is, Chris is actually insecure about himself, this point is subtle but many of us commit this mistake time and again.



Another relevant example is the one shown below.



John: Hey Andrew, long time no see, so how’s life?



Andrew: Great man! I’m having so much fun nowadays and living my life to the fullest. How about you John?



John: That’s nice to hear. Yeah, I’m doing fine, life’s pretty boring for me. By the way, which faculty are you entering?



Andrew: Oh, I’m going to the arts faculty.



John: Wow, impressive, so are you going to be some journalist or artist or some sort? That definitely sounds fun man! For me, I’m going to Medicine, it’s going to be dead boring, how I wish I can go into the arts as well.



The above conversation might sounds typical as compared to the ones we had. But this is what insecurity is all about. Being jealous of Andrew’s life, John is trying to bring himself up by bringing up topics that are favourable to him, topics that can possibly accentuate his greatness so that he does not seems boring in front of Andrew. It might even comes across as being rude at times but we, men, are so used to doing this without being fully conscious of it.



The above point is actually related to the point about exploiting other people’s weaknesses to reinforce one’s strength. We do this because we are not sure whether we are really good or not. Whenever we feel so insecure about ourselves, we have the propensity to criticise others to make us feel relieved. However, criticisms are de facto worst than the conduct which we are trying to correct. In layman terms, we, in person, are actually worse off than the person in many ways. But by criticising him, we delude ourselves.

So the point is, rather than mocking others about how ignorant they are or how dumb they can possibly get, why not take up the role of enlightening the rest, sharing your knowledge with them in a positive manner. What’s the point of criticising them when they fail to answer your question when you can answer your own question and at the same time, teach your peers too? Why do you need to highlight someone’s weakness to reinforce your own strengths when you already know it’s in you? You simply have to have faith and believe in your own aptitudes and abilities. Trust yourself and let go of that insecurity in you.




Credits -tailored, -partnersinpolicymaking, crowspeaks

Body Parts you must SEE

Did you know?

Photos of people are actually super-effective during presentations.

Even pictures of body parts are useful as well, for instance your hands, legs, butt, stomach.

To show you the power of people, look at the picture below.

Take a glance at it for 5 seconds, okay no peaking scroll down now.

The question is, how many poles are there behind the pool?

Most of you are going to answer : "OMG WHAT THE FUCK? HOW WOULD I KNOW MAN?"

That's exactly right! How will you know?

And why wouldn't you know? Simple. That is because you know this. That the woman was wearing striped bikinis with rainbow colours and a blue hairband.

I won't blame you because we human are easily fascinated by human bodies even though we see them every single day.

But at the very least, now you see the effectiveness of having human bodies in your visual aids, they are really useful, especially if you want to bring across a point.

Use a human body to bring across a point if possible.

Alternatively, you can use body parts to promote your products too. You can use hands to promote accessories, stomach to promote food products or even your feet to promote massage equipments!

Now that you know more about the human body, do use them in your presentations for the added impact you can make on your examiners !

Credits -yorkstudentrn, -

Power of Visual Aids

Do you know that in a presentation, if you lack visual aids, you are considered a failure?

It's true you know, and the frequency of the use of visual aids must be at least 1 per slide. No less than that.

It is very easy to test it out. Let's say you want to talk about explosion and you show this image to everyone.

You are bound to get their attention immediately without fail. It shows a middle finger, a controversial picture no doubt but it depicts a brobdingnagian explosion that is jaw-dropping.

When you capture their attention and then you start talking about explosions. They will be listening because this time round they are focused and very interested in what you say.

Conversely, if you talk about explosions using a point form slide with facts going on and on, no one is going to care and trust me, they are not going to listen to you. Why? Because they think they know more than you already.

But if you show them an image they have never seen before, they will know that what you are going to say is fresh and new.

Another example is the use of charts.

More often than not, we are so used to rambling on and on about statistics and datas but honestly speaking, these facts should be shown to them in a visual manner, not read out because they are drop-dead boring and people will shut off on the spot.

What they want to hear is how did those statistics come about and some pictures to get a better idea of the sudden plummet or surge in numbers.

A good chart appears to be much more visible and it highlights the terrifying fact more readily as compared to your ramblings. Just throw it in their face and let them see the magnitude of the rise and they will come to realisation that it is time to listen to you.

All in all, remember to use visual aids in your presentations to further enhance the effectiveness of it. As the old adage goes, "A picture speaks a thousand words." It can speak a million words sometimes so do make full use of images. It will be perfect if you can find intriguing images that highlights the salient points you are about to mention to them.

Credits -midlifeslices, -thinkquest

How Colours can save your company

As mentioned by Chet Holmes in his book "The Ultimate Sales Machine"

Colours do wonders, they really do.

Notice how I try to use colours so much as possible to highlight important points? Because they work !


I'm sure you guys know that

RED

is a colour that symbolises danger and importance.

But it is also used to symbolise energy, action and enthusiasm.

Notice how most sales books are in red? That is simply because it is prominent and shouting to you!

Now, how about

ORANGE

It says value. Think Howard Johnson's or Home Depot - they use orange because studies show it denotes good value. Stores that provide real value have a proclivity to use orange to show that their products are of top quality without a shadow of a doubt!

Let's move on to

PURPLE

I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with this colour. In the ancient past and even now, purple symbolises royalty, prestigious people.

It is the colour of purpose. It is the colour of dynamics and figments of imaginations.

The best example out there will be YAHOO! which is so famously known for its signature colour, purple.

Lastly, my personal favourite

BLUE

This is actually the calming colour. It symbolises peace and equanimity.

It has the power to open your mind and broaden your perspective when you exposed to new information.

HP uses blue! Isn't it ironic? A complex digital firm on top of the technological world, making use of a colour that symbolises peace when the industry is so hectic and busy.

Credits -crystal-cure, -cheapoair, -imagecache5, -topleftpixel, -wallpaper-s

Twitter

I have seen that a recent report on Twitter where they questioned the CEO about his business models and why hasn't it made any money till today, after 3 years of hard work?


I am utmost impressed with the answer he gave. All in all, he mentioned that he does not want Twitter to be a fad and that he is looking towards the long-term goal that is sustainability through the improvement of technology and management.

That is very important I believe and that I will wait for as long as Twitter needs to get that done, which is projected to be in 2011.


Let's look at a pertinent example, namely Facebook. We have all seen results from Facebook as a social network and it's powerful impinge it has on both teenagers and adults. Everyone is posting videos, status messages, events, advertisements, projects on Facebook and it spreads all these information like wildfire.


The fact that it is attracting almost all the users from Friendster goes to show that it is not just a fad and that it is impeccable as a social network media. However, we do notice that people are now experiencing problems, viruses, website links breakdown or even risk of being hacked by the others.

So, the problem here is that the problems facing the users are exacerbated as a result of neglect by the administrators. They are moving at god-like speed and they tend to leave some of the users behind along with their instrumental advices. They focused too much on money-making and they abandoned the needs of its target market. There is no doubt they are already reaping in a lot of profits but I worry that it is not at all sustainable.


That is precisely why I am an advocate of Twitter right now because of what it's CEO said. It is not about money-making now, not about business models or even recruitment. It is more about the supporting the growth rather than faciliating the growth. A lot of companies feed on their hyped up start and they ended up in a disaster because they lose their focus and direction after a while. They cannot support the growing demand and they soon imploded from the growing complaints and demands.


Hence, the key here is to create a system that can consistently manage the growing demand that the CEO sees in the near future rather than going with the flow because we all know that it is not possible to go with the flow today. Fluctuations in demand is too unpredictable and an organic structure is imperative for the company to sustain themselve in today's whimsical economy.

Credit -hongkiat, -howstuffworks