In the digital age, speakers need to have the right apps
Image Credit: Pixel Fantasy
Welcome to the 21st Century! Even as we enter into what appears to be an almost all-digital age, it turns out that the art of being able to give a speech to an audience is still in high demand and people still appreciate the importance of public speaking. What we need to learn how to do as speakers is to find ways to merge the high-tech times that we are living in into our speech in order to make them even better. Since we all now carry a cell phone or tablet with us no matter where we are headed, perhaps it is high time that we take a look at the most useful apps that a speaker can download to these devices.
SlideShark
When we show up to deliver a presentation we need to come prepared. What this generally means these days is that we have to make sure that we lug our laptop along. We’re going to need our laptop to store our presentation, and even more importantly, to run the PowerPoint software that we’re going to need in order to display our slides.
SlideShark is an app that has been created for iPhones and iPads (not Android devices). What it allows you to do is to display your PowerPoint slides on your mobile device. What this means for you is that your laptop is no longer necessary when you give a presentation. You can show your audience your slides on your iPad if you are giving a small talk or if you are giving a larger talk, then you can hook your iPad up to a projector. All of your original formatting (fonts, graphics, videos, and animations) will be preserved when you display your slides using SlideShark.
QuickOffice
If you find yourself in situation where you need to either edit, create, or just review a PowerPoint presentation that you’ve made (perhaps you spelled someone’s name wrong) then Google’s QuickOffice app may be what you want to use. This app will only work on Android devices.
The app will provide you with all of the basic formatting tools that you’ll need in order to make changes to your presentation. This can include adding things like text boxes, changing the order in which your slides are displayed, and even adding and resizing your photos. You can save your files on a file-sharing site like Google Drive.
Presentation Clock
The one thing that all of us seem to spend a lot of time worrying about when we are giving a speech is how much time we have left. Sure, we can steal glances at our watch (if we have one), but a bigger, more visible clock sure would handy. This is where the Presentation Clock app comes in.
Presentation Clock provides you with oversized, easy-to-read numbers. It does a good job of getting the most out of the amount of space that your mobile device provides you with. As an added feature, you have control over what color the displayed numbers are and can set different times that the color should change. This allows you to signal to yourself that you are getting close to the end of your time and when you should start to wrap things up.
What All Of This Means For You
Now that we are all living in this wonderful digital age, we need to understand that giving speeches is an even more important way to communicate with people. Since we bring our mobile devices with us everywhere we go, we need to start to use the apps that can help to make us better speakers so that we can better share the benefits of public speaking..
These apps include SlideShark. SlideShark works on iPhones and iPads and allows us to display our PowePoint slides without having to use a laptop. All of the pieces of our slides will be displayed correctly. We also need to start to use Quickoffice if we use an Android device. This app will allow us to edit our PowerPoint slide decks on our mobile devices. Finally, Presentation Clock will allow us to keep track of time while we are speaking.
There is no reason to not make use of all of the tools that are available to us as speakers. Since we all have mobile phones, we need to seek out the apps that we can use during a presentation that will allow us to do a better job of connecting with our audience. Once we have downloaded and mastered these new apps, we will be able to give presentations that are better than we have ever been able to do before.
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™
Question For You: Where should you place your mobile phone while you are talking so that you can see it while you speak?
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Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!
What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
As speakers we all start out the same: we get asked to give our first speech, we may be nervous but somehow we summon up the strength to get up there in front of everyone and actually give a speech! Now that that is over, we’d like to get better at this speech giving thing because we understand the importance of public speaking. What’s a speaker to do when we want to become a better speaker?
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