Public Speaking for Geeks

Welcome back to Public Speaking for Geeks: Communication for Technical Presenters!

Slideshare.net and ethos3 recently posted a new experiment in presentation design - Presentation Design Tennis. Of course, a presentation was created to cover the details -

Here is the final result. One of my submissions was chosen for slide 12.

Community slide design is a very interesting concept. I wonder if there is any interest in creating a community presentation on public speaking or perhaps in a technology or science topic? Post any ideas you have in the comments.

Which speaking skill is you greatest strength? Which is your biggest weakness? Vote below -

You can add you own suggestion in the "Other" box.

Garr Reynolds put together a great presentation last month on John Medina’s book "Brain Rules" and presentations.

Here is the full list of 12 rules from "Brain Rules" .

Slideshare.net is running another "World’s Best Presentation Contest".

I am going through several of the entries and will post  reviews here on my blog. I was inspired to create my own entry to the contest. I love this story, so it was a natural choice for this contest. It was an interesting experiment to apply the Lessig method and use of visuals to this old zen tale. I am surprised I could not find any other visual examples of the ancient story.

The story is based on a Zen koan I read many years ago. It goes by many names, and there or many versions. If you like the presentation and the story, I appreciate a vote!

(Read the earlier posts in this series here, here, here and here.)

Next up in this series are two videos with Andi Bell (three time World Memory Champion) from the BBC program "How to Improve Your Memory".

In this first video, Bell memorizes the order of 20 decks of cards in ten minutes. He then shows how he encodes the card by translating them into characters, then stores the images in a memory journey around London.

In this second video, Bell teaches the host of "How to Improve Your Memory" how to create his own memory palace out of his home.

This second video shows how really simple the technique of creating a memory palace out of home or memory journey out of a path through town is very simple to do. Remembering the locations is the easy part for most people. Learning to quickly create vivid, bizarre images can take a bit of practice.

Take a recent presentation you built. Write down the opening statement, the three main points ( and examples for each) and the closing statement. Now create a memory palace. For this exercise, I suggest using your home. Start your path in your bedroom, then work a path through the entire home until you have eight spots for your memory palace. Use halls, bathrooms and closets if necessary. For now, only store one vivid image scene in each location.

Next, work on creating a vivid, bizarre action scene for the opening and closing statement, and one for each of your three main points and three examples. Each of these colorful action scenes should include sounds and a  powerful smell or taste as well.

Try it out. Please post your results and thoughts on the experience in the comments.

More video examples to come…