I just took the Miami Writing Institute class. It’s a 4-5 hour online “taste” of what Miami University has been teaching teachers about writing within each academic discipline and genres through their nationally known Howe Center for Writing. A few weeks ago, I was on panel with its director, Elizabeth Wardle, Ph.D. and had some …
When a client tells me they want to do a group presentation, my first instinct is to say DON’T DO IT! They take a lot more time. (I mean a lot!) It’s harder to make the presentation cohesive. The increased complexity means more risk of things going wrong. Long story short, they are just harder …
For over a year or more as I walked the halls at a large executive speaking coach client organization, I’d been told about an executive with the UM, AH and LIKE problem. You know, those filler words people use when speaking, and in public speaking in particular. They were correct but not complete. After a …
A while back a friend was invited to speak to the Board of Trustees at his institution. We discussed that while he knew the topic well, he didn’t know the exact question he was answering. “Does there need to be a question?” he asked me. You decide which pathway would bring him to a more …
I attended the TEDSummit 2016 conference in Banff, Alberta, Canada, listening to an array of provocative speakers for four days. The proliferation of compelling ideas, experiences, data, story and more is still processing in my overstuffed brain. While I work through the ideas presented, It should come to no surprise that I have an observation …
Wow, what a way to start the year. I didn’t take my own advice. Mid way through a recent assignment (an event featuring 5 different talks from the same company), I was told that I offended an executive by what I thought was a simple suggestion. The suggestion was, “Have you ever recorded yourself?” I …
So a few years ago I wrote this blog post on how I thought the Pecha Kucha (Japanese for Chit-Chat) was a fun format for an audience but a really tough one for a speaker. It dictates you deliver a talk with 20 slides on a timer for 20 seconds a slide. MXLLS So last summer when I …
While we have been involved in hundreds of keynote addresses over the years, I thought it was time to document the pathway of one from start to finish. Each is different of course based on the speaker, event and audience. We adapt for each and in this case, we’re working with the founder of a …
Rose Smith, during her highly provocative poetry performance at TEDxColumbus, challenged us all to betools. You know, as in a conduit for helping others, making change or doing good. While my tip this month isn’t as deep, her challenge made me think about the tools that the speakers used during TEDxColumbus in their variety of preparation pathways (and …
They say once is an event, twice is a coincidence and three times is a trend. As we organize the third TEDxColumbus event, we’re definitely feeling the trend. Consider our first year when no one knew what TED or TEDx was. I had to explain, clarify, demonstrate and explain some more. Last year, we had some awareness but still needed to …
