Geek Speaking

Presentation Q&A: What are the Best Images to Use?

Image: Mark Ramsey

Question: A lot of websites and presentation books suggest that I buy stock photography for using in my slides, do I have to use other peoples images or can I use my own?

Answer: While there are thousands of images on the internet, sometimes the perfect image is a photograph that you took. The big downside of some stock photography is that is looks too posed or fake or that everyone uses the sames images and thus they lose their power and impact.

As a general rule, as long as the image is of sufficient quality and is relevant to your message then use it.

I had an example of a person who wanted to talk about hieroglyphics who looked for images on the internet but found none that suited his talk, so instead he scanned in his own hand-drawn images and used them. They were relevant and they had the added advantage of being unique and thus probably more memorable.

Presentation Q&A: Slides as Training Materials

Question: I tried to design a slide deck to feature more images and be less text-heavy but my manager told me that I had to redesign the slides because we need to use these slides as training materials for people who didn’t attend the presentation. What can I do? Answer: Your company has a point. …

SpeakTech: How Your Smart Phone Will Help You Become a Better Speaker

One of the most useful tools available for any speaker is close at hand – your smart phone. Simply by owning and using your phone you can become a better speaker, allow me to explain: A smart phone can hold your speech script so you can rehearse it or revise it, anytime, anywhere. It can …

SpeakTech: Video, Recording Yourself Speaking

Record your speeches and presentations. Not just the speeches you give in public but when you practice as well, you don’t need to wait for the live performance for feedback instead you can find and fix problem areas in advance and eliminate them, vastly improving your final presentation. What should you look out for when …

GeekFeast: Lessons From Slideshare

Crafting Outstanding Presentations – Storytelling Techniques Tips on How to Pitch Giving a presentation

SpeakTech: Detach From the Computer

When we use Powerpoint or Keynote to present to an audience, we create an instant barrier between the speaker and the audience – the computer. For nervous speakers, they feel that they need to have the script in front of them so they stay behind the computer in case they forget something important. Even speakers …

GeekFeast: Speaking Sins, Questions and Total Disaster

Today’s articles are all about public-speaking. Learn what not to do, what questions you should ask when preparing a speech and what to do when it all goes wrong… Public speaking’s great big sin-bin According to Douglas Krugar “The division between solidly good speeches and utter clunkers is usually just the presence, or absence, of …

Presenting is Selling: What We Can Learn From Advertising

Presenting is never just about talking, it’s about making your message memorable, it’s about making your product or service desirable, it’s about selling your ideas to your audience. What better way for us to learn how to sell our ideas than to study an advertising master? One of the most successful and respected advertising executives …

Always Use Relevant Content

I’ve talked already about how important it is that you ensure that your presentation or speech is relevant to your audience but what is equally important is that everything that you say is relevant to your message. A few months ago I was lucky enough to listen to a very talented speaker give a great …

Giving Great Presentations

This has to be one of the better presentation skills books out there, not because it says anything new or radically different than the rest of the books but because of the way it puts the information together and delivers it to you. There are a lot of presentation skills and public speaking books out …