Friday, April 4, 2014

Top 20 Tips for Successful Public Speaking from David Meerman Scott



















On his Web Ink Now blog David Meerman Scott posted on April 2nd about More top ten tips for incredibly successful public speaking. His previous post in 2009 also had ten, so in summary his top 20 are:

1. Take it seriously.
2. Know the conference organizer’s goals.
3. Tell stories.
4. Nobody cares about your products (except you).
5. Prepare and practice.
6. Don’t use PowerPoint as a TelePrompTer.
7. Arrive early.
8. Bring an electronic copy of your presentation.
9. Don’t go long.
10. Be aware of body language.
11. Learn from the best.
12. Find out about the audience.
13. Test the technology!
14. Prepare for things to go wrong.
15. Help the MC to find an interesting way to introduce you.
16. Have fun!
17. Work the entire stage.
18. Include real-time elements.
19. Get photos of the event from the organizers.
20. Ask for honest feedback.


David is well-known for his 2007 book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, which now is in its 4th edition. Both of  his posts are excellent and well work reading for the details. His items #13 and #14 are related. Even when you check out the equipment the day before you may still be surprised, and be heading for a worst moment.

For example, back in 2008 I spoke in one half of the split ballroom at the Sun Valley Inn. The previous day everything had worked fine - because the other half was not being used. When I got up to speak, the sound from the speaker now using the other half took over. They had forgotten to split the sound system when they split the room with a movable wall. So, ask the A/V person what’s going on next door too.

No comments: