Don’t Toast The Holidays: How Presenters Can Give A Toast Without Toasting A Relationship

Editor’s Note: This article has been selected to be included in Angela DeFinis’ “Public Speaking and the Holidays” Blog Carnival. If you aren’t familiar with blog carnivals, they are a compilation of blog posts from numerous authors on a given topic that are housed on a central blog. Enjoy this article and be sure to … Read more

Know Your Audience: What You Don’t Know May Hurt You

When you think of the perfect speech in your mind, what do you see? Do you see yourself up on a stage giving a speech, reaching the end, and then having everyone stand up and applaud until their hands grow tired? Nice picture. However, all too often that doesn’t happen. There are lots of reasons … Read more

Bragging Is What Presenters Need To Be Able To Do Well

Just in case you’ve forgotten it, the #1 question on the minds of any audience that is seated and waiting for you to begin talking to them is “Why should I even bother listening to you?“. This means that in order for you to have any hope of making an impact on this  audience, you’re … Read more

Dennis Quaid Gives A Keynote Speech – Real Life Speeches

I just got back from spending the better part of a week up in Chicago at a big health care conference (HIMSS09). This was an amazing opportunity for me to sit back and watch somewhere in the neighborhood of about 100 different presenters get up and do their very best job at communicating. One of … Read more

Real Life Speeches: Alan Greenspan Gives A Keynote

Even if you don’t work in the world of high-finance, you surely know who Alan Greenspan is. He was the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006. There’s no question that this guy is smart, but can he deliver a good keynote speech? Where It Happened While attending the recent HIMSS health … Read more

Real Life Speeches: George Halvorson, CEO Of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc.

We can talk about how to be a better communicator all we want, but in the end it comes down to learning – and we all do this in different ways. One great way to discover what a speaker should (or should not) do is to watch ’em in action. This time around we’re going … Read more

D.O.A.: Why Presenters Hate Bad Introductions

We spend all of this time coming up with our next speech, getting each and every word just right, practicing the speech, the gestures, the pauses, only to get killed before we even open our mouths to speak. How does this crime occur? Simple – whoever is running the show delivers a bad introduction and … Read more

How Presenters Can Give A Toast Without Toasting A Relationship

So you’ve been invited to a wedding, a retirement party, or some other celebration in which friends and family are going to gather in order to honor someone. There will probably be some sort of food served, drinks will flow, and then someone will do it – they’ll stand up and give a toast. Oh, … Read more