A Movie I Have to See!

When it comes to being on the cutting edge of cinema … I’m not your guy. Case in point: Slum Dog Millionaire was the first movie in perhaps 20 years that my wife and I saw in the theatre before it won the Academy Award for best picture. Still, I do enjoy a good film […]
Excellent Interview with Chris Anderson of TED

Those of you who have been reading this blog for some time will know that I consider watching TED Talks to be one of the best ways to spend time on the Internet. The curator of TED is Chris Anderson. In an interview with Bizmore, a business website, Anderson offered some insights into the workings of […]
Be like Carl Sagan

In my series entitled “Making it Stick”, one of the posts discusses how to be credible as a speaker. One of the pieces of advice is to put things, especially statistics, into context for our audiences. Failing to do so can result in a presentation that is overwhelming or mind-numbing or both. As Chip and […]
Quotes for Public Speakers (No. 16) – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Quotes for Public Speakers (No. 15) – Dale Carnegie

“There are always three speeches for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.” Dale Carnegie
Analysis of a speech by Sir Ken Robinson

This TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson is one of my favourites. Robinson is an internationally recognized leader in education, innovation, creativity and human resources. In his latest book, The Element, Robinson states: “The element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most […]
What Yanni can teach us about public speaking

I have been writing this blog for a little over eight months now. I recently looked back at some of the posts that I have written. Most of those posts contain advice about things that we should, or should not, do as speakers: look at the audience; don’t read your notes; use the stage; don’t […]
Why Too Much Data Can Be Bad

Seth Godin is the author of ten books about marketing, change and work that have been bestsellers around the world. His blog is one of my favourites. The post below appeared on his blog on 21 January 2010. In a previous post, I quoted Margaret Thatcher who said that a statistic should tell a story. The problem with […]
Quotes for Public Speakers (No.12) – Margaret Thatcher

“A statistic should tell a story.” Margaret Thatcher
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