I was watching John Carpenter’s classic film, They Live and I thought this was a perfect clip from the movie to show how advertisers used to (and continue to) fail their customers by not truly helping them — especially when we humans find out. This scene involves our main character who discovers a special pair of sunglasses that allows him to see the hidden messages placed their by aliens — I figure it was an amusing shot at all the bad advertisers out there who only focus on shoving their message in our faces. In all mediums too (sans the internet)!
Monthly Archive for March, 2008
I follow people who I want to influence me.
If I find people they are following who I want influence over me, I also follow them.
I learn and have fun and learn.
Am flattered by those who are following and willing to listen.
I listen, respond and try to give back.
I can’t count the number of times that I have been to conferences where presentations have been boring and people get restless. I don’t care what topic you may be presenting but if you stand up in front of a crowd and they are listening to you, you are held responsible for their mental wellbeing. Does that not make sense?
The Ultimate Presentation Formula (courtesy of simple algebra)
Mental Wellbeing = Interest + Enthusiasm - Drowsiness or Sleepiness - the “I don’t care” factor
1. Know your material inside out, outside in, backwards forwards, forwards backwards, right left, left right, diagonally, three-dimensionally, and so on and so forth. Pretty much you should know this stuff so well that you dream about it in your sleep.
2. If you have a multimedia presentation, don’t you ever ever EVER read from your presentation slides. Please stop mocking me — I can read too you know? Why am I here 8:30 in the morning listening to you read to me? If I wanted a bedtime story, sure I guess that works.
3. Be unique. I’m shy. I’ll admit it. But even shy people have their unique style to presenting. Do you love what you are talking about? Are you enthusiastic about it? Do you want to make a POSITIVE difference (not just any difference) in the lives of those you are speaking to? No one’s boring when they love the topic they are talking about.
4. Interact with the audience. There are phenomenal speeches that don’t interact with the audience but when you interact with the audience, you change the atmosphere around you and the people who are listening to you. No longer are you talking to them because you are now talking with them. Make sure you understand your audience and their needs and wants.
5. Practice until you can make your presentation in 50 different ways or more! Why? Because there are so many variables that may occur and it helps you re-learn and recall what you know in a different manner. This means there is a much smaller chance that something may knock you off guard and that you are as solid as possible in your presentation.
Oh yea … don’t use notes. At the very most, you can have an outline of what you are going to talk about. Why? Because you will be more likely to use the notes if you know you have them with you.
The people at VideoJug made this great video on How to Deliver an Oscar Winning Presentation. It’s decent…but it gets the point across at least.
Resource: Rands In Repose has an awesome blog posting on developing your presentation. I’d highly recommend reading it and Rands also highlights many of the points I made earlier as well.
Presentations have the power to change a person’s opinion or simply feel like they have wasted their time. Think of a good movie and a bad movie you’ve watched. It’s likely a very similar feeling except now with presentations — you hold the key to change.
Isn’t that brilliant?
Update: Check out Presentation Zen for tips on how to utilize Powerpoint effectively in different ways. (thanks to Melanie McBride)
- @ellenme Awesome so you’re the editorial intern! Which is funny because you’ve already impressed me by using twitter
and I’m in mark … # - @ellenme Glad you like the website — although I’m curious … which website are you referring to? #
- pondering sandbox for NatureTM… #
- my favourite sandbox-based theme for Wordpress — http://tinyurl.com/38jw89 #
- anyone actually bother with a resume these days? — http://tinyurl.com/2vb4bk — unfortunately I still do … #
- @ellenme sorry… OLC? not sure I recognize the acronym! #
- @ellenme I’m still pretty impressed considering none of my colleagues/friends have any clue. I tweet via Gtalk #
- The power of TinyURL is astounding considering that twitter and so many other services utilizes it — http://tinyurl.com/ #
- @ellenme does that mean the whole class is on twitter? oh OLC! I did not even think of that. Good one #
- Now waking up to … wow… the thought of Amazon — welcome to the book industry #
- Bored of hearing about friendfeed … which really does not do anything new imo … #
- happens at least once a year — a computer in the office dies — RIP #
- thank goodness for extra SATA interfaces — cursed RAID #
- @embalser Hey Erin, thanks for following! #
- @melmcbride I see the class is growing on twitter! I’m impressed. How is the twitter survey coming along? #
- @melmcbride thanks for following btw #
- @melmcbride Joomla and WP MU are good opensource but can get complex. Drupal also good but requires developer. EE also very good. What … #
- re-organizing the cursed computer for publicity #
- uh… wondering why suddenly all the work is coming at him at once + the computers are failing and exploding… #
- @embalser Insightful tweets? what are those?
# - Is thinking that Safari 3.1 may have tonnes of great features but we can’t implement them all due to compatibility issues … #
- err web design wise #
- woohoo … actionscripting once again with audio #
- @shinerweb thanks for following interesting blog … i’ll have to read it in more depth later #
I thought I’d share this little strip from an excellent comic — We the Robots — that I ran across during my occasional visit to the Animation Show website. I’ve been eager to check out Animation Show 3 (still in progress…)!
Art is a funny thing and from art we draw expression, inspiration, emotion, and ideas. Has there ever been such a thing as art that was wrong or right?
Similarly do we all have a right or wrong way to learn? I think we’re still stuck in a hole when it comes to education. Still stuck on grades. Still stuck on how things we think should be done rather than how things can be done. The common argument that grades are the only effective method of measuring success is overused and out of date.
The amount of information and knowledge out there continues to increase at an insanely exponential rate yet we insist that children follow a rigid method of learning that is based off of the major section of a bell curve whom receive the excellent marks. The smaller sections outside of majority manage to keep up somewhat but are they able to utilize their potential? We are not helping generation after generation of kids by defining them through IQ, EQ or whatever measurement we like to apply on to a person. You may refer to my belief as too holistic but I think in order to really determine the potential of a person, don’t we have to really get to know them?
Chris Harding the creator of We the Robots had posted this on a recent blog post that I wanted to share. I’d recommend reading the introduction to We the Robots for more fun!
- @flowingdata thanks for following Nathan you’ve got some fascinating stuff on your website #
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