I was asked to conduct a deepdive at the Dotconf this week on this topic. What if you get an unexpected opportunity to make an important presentation? A slot at a big conference? Some major investors roll into town and someone in your network gets you 30 minutes with them? You’re asked to demo your [...]
50 years later, the JFK Inaugural speech still resonates with anyone who appreciates fine writing. A stunning piece of rhetoric from a bygone era. A great article here in the New Yorker about a just-discovered draft of the speech. I’m always fascinated to see or read about the evolution of a piece like this. I [...]
Christopher Hitchens with an interesting text-based presentation on that most non-controversial and easily agreed of subjects, the Ten Commandments. RSS Readers may need to click through to the post. Twitchy body language, but easily eclipsed as a distractor by Mr H’s impeccable pronunciation, intonation and clarity of thought. I really liked his tagline at the [...]
Hang on a second Robo, isn’t a presentation without pictures just a speech? Well yes, it should be, but not in this case. In this case we have Mike Rowe (from the Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs) giving a highly evocative and visceral [you'll see what I mean in a moment] presentation about shooting an episode [...]
Max Atkinson found Peter Sellers’ great content-free political speech a few weeks back and I thought I would riposte with my namesake, Rowan Atkinson’s speech on purposeless. Ness. Less. A true classic written by someone who has obviously sat through one too many of these … RSS Readers may need to click through to the [...]
Love Actually was the midweek on RTE this week. Good Bob Dylan homage in this scene. Yes, thank you, I noticed that it’s schmaltzy. But it’s still clever. And a bit poignant. Nice language too. And anyway, it’s Christmas – so shoot me: RSS readers may need to click through to the post. (Click here [...]
As someone who has spent far too many nights in far too many hotel rooms around the world, these words of John Cleese’s have an all-too-familiar ring to them. Come to think of it, it sounds like I’ve stayed in some of these hotels: RSS Readers may need to click through to the post You [...]
Superb post by Andrew over at Six Minutes on the topic of working on your speech or talk until it’s much tighter and better expressed editing. A must-see, make sure you scroll down to the before & after example in the table – click here.
I am a sucker for magic. There, I said it! I guess I must be left-brain dominant, because since childhood I have always loved using logic to work out when and how the effect has taken place. In particular, I have always admired the skill, verbosity and discipline of the close-up prestidigitator; so as you [...]
Ladies and gentlemen … the extraordinary Rives. [If you're looking at this on an RSS feed you'll need to click through to see the vid - it's a TED thing.] Every time I hear Rives open his mouth, I have only one thing to say: “More!”
