Upcoming Courses

The last two Presentation Skills courses for this year are:         

•     2nd December in Central London, EC4N

•    15th December in Cathedral Hill, Guildford

Next year we start with:

• Friday 08 January 2010 Thames Valley Park, Reading 

• Wednesday 20 January 2010 Stockley Park, Heathrow

• Tuesday 2 February 2010 Oxford Business Park, Oxford

• Thursday 18 February 2010 Chineham Business Park, Basingstoke

• Tuesday 23 February 2010 Central London (EC4)

As always courses are limited to 6 people, so you may need to be quick to ensure your place.  

Unlike last year, I will be raising the price of my courses in January, to £325 (ex VAT) per delegate. If you want to ensure you get the same great price as the last two years, of only £325, make sure you book before Christmas.

For more information or to book click on your preferred location above. 

New Dates for 2010 

A full list of Effective Business Presentation course for the first half of 2010 are as follows:

Additional courses may be scheduled according to demand. You can download our 2010 Course Calendar here.

The A to Z of Effective Presentations

I decided to re-run the series of the A to Z of Effective Presentations, for all the people who haven't been receiving this newsletter for the full 5 years that it has been going. Starting again at the letter "A". This is an updated version compared with the original newsletter, which I first published back in 2005. 

A is for Animations 

Animating your slides can make them stand out, but do not go overboard. 
You do not want people watching the animation rather than listening to what you have to say.  If the animations add value and help to create a strong mental image that your audience will remember then I'm all for them.  They will make your visual aids more effective and more memorable.  But do not animate just for the sake of animation.

In particular, the repetitive use of the more flashy animations that are standard functionality of modern presentation software is more likely to irritate than enhance your presentation.  Each new slide, sliding in to view from a different direction, or each bullet point spiraling down to its position on the slide, adds nothing to the content and distracts people from what you are saying.

Just because the software provides the facility does not mean you need to keep using it!

When you are giving a presentation, remember to stop talking while the animation, sound effect or video clip is being played. You don't want to compete with your own special effects.

A is for Apologies  

An important rule of presenting is NEVER APOLOGISE.  In particular, do not start with an apology.  It is a very natural thing to do, because by apologising up front you are diverting any potential criticism.  You are in effect saying sorry in case you do not give a great presentation.  If you apologise in advance for your material you are saying you did not give it the preparation time the audience deserve.

An apology at the start sets you off in a negative frame of mind, it has the reverse affect to the one that you want.  It saps your confidence and it saps the audience's confidence in you.

The other reason never to apologise is that most of the audience will probably not have noticed.  Only you know what you were intending to say.  If you miss a bit out or repeat material the audience will never know that you did not mean to.

'Apology is only egotism wrong side out.  Nine times out of ten the first thing a man's companion knows of his short-comings, is from his apology.'  Oliver Wendell Holmes 

There will be more "A" in the next newsletter.