University of Rhode Island GSLIS Keynote: Influence When You Have No Power or Authority

Here is the slidedeck from my recent keynote, Influence When You Have No Power or Authority, given at the University of Rhode Island GSLIS Conference in Kingston, Rhode Island, March 23, 2013.  Note that the text of my talk is available in the notes field of the powerpoint which can be downloaded from Slideshare.

Influence When You Have No Power or Authority from Peter Bromberg

Indiana Library Federation Conference Keynote: FrameChanges (How to Be Effective)

Please note that the full text of the talk is available at:
http://peterbromberg.com/indiana/FRAMECHANGE.pdf 

 
FrameChanges (How to be Effective) from Peter Bromberg

PLA Presentation: Now What: 12 Steps to Thriving in a Different World

Now What: 12 Steps to Thriving in a Different World

View more PowerPoint from Peter Bromberg

Allen County Public Library's "Conversation Series" Video

I am honored to have been included in Allen County Public Library's Conversation Series, "a collection of interviews about the future of libraries, technology and the role we play in shaping the libraries of tomorrow."  Thank you to ACPL's Sean Robinson and Kay Gregg for inviting me to participate in the series and for creating such a beautifully produced video.

PALA Presentation: TEDx and Libraries: A Partnership for Community Engagement

Here is the slide deck for our talk: TEDx and Libraries: A Partnership for Community Engagement, Presented by Peter Bromberg, Janie Hermann and John LeMasney for the Pennsylvania Library Association Conference, October 27, 2010.  (Download the powerpoint deck and look in speaker’s notes for content.)

TEDx and Libraries: A Partnership for Community Engagement

View more presentations from Peter Bromberg.

Video/Slides from Adult Services Forum Keynote: All Together Now

All Together Now
Keynote at the NJLA Adult Services Forum, October 18, 2010
Slides/Text available at SlideShare

All Together Now: Keynote at the NJLA Adult Services Forum, October 18, 2010

 

Thank you to Kelly Garwood for creating and sharing this video! Slidedeck (with full text of talk in the notes field if you download the ppt) available at: http://slideshare.net/​pbromberg/​all-together-now-keynote-for-njla-adult-services-forum-2010

Giving Effective Presentations

Aaron Schmidt has a really great post over at Walking Paper on "How to Give a Good Presentation." It's definitely worth reading through, including many super comments.

A few months back I posted a collection of links, "Talk Good: How to Give Effective Presentations". In addition to those links though I'd like to add a few of my own thoughts to this conversation. First, let me say that I prefer to frame this as giving "effective" presentations rather than "good" ones because effective implies that you're actually trying to, well, have an effect. And I think that one of the most important elements of any presentation -- the element that makes it much more likely that your presentation will be effective -- happens before you've written one word or found one cool image for your powerpoint. The most important element is asking the question, "What do I want people to do as a result of seeing/hearing my presentation?"

Should your slides be graphic heavy? Text Free? Should you provide handouts? Should the presentation be posted, and if so in what form? Should additional information be included in the posting? My answer is, it all depends. I think it makes absolutely no sense to dictate the answers to these questions without first asking, "what am I trying to achieve?" The next question of course is, "and how can I best achieve it?" How you answer this question dictates your content and sequencing.

There are also many variables that will affect how you craft your presentation: Just a few variables of the top of my head:

• Who will be in the audience? Is it heterogeneous or homogeneous? Are there certain people in the audience with more influence that I would like to reach?
• How large is the audience? Will I get to mingle? Am I miked, or is it more intimate?
• What is there outlook?
• What is their predisposition to change their behavior? Are they a friendly or resistant audience?
• What is their knowledge level?
• How much time will I have to present?
• How much other information is being thrown at them (am I the main act, or one presentation of many?
• What technology tools do I have at my disposal? Live internet? Projector? Just a microphone?
• What is the room setup?
• Will the presentation, or parts of it, be archived or made available online after the fact? Do I intend this to ever be seen again?
• Is the presentation intended to be instructional? provocative? informative? heretical? inspiring? challenging?
  

I'm sure you can think of more variables that you've considered when crafting your own presentations. The important thing while preparing is to continually refocus yourself on what you are trying to achieve and critically evaluate the content and sequencing of your presentation to make sure everything supports and nothing detracts from your goal.

A few other ideas that may enhance the effectiveness of your presentation:

• Share your presentation with others before you do it and get feedback to see what's working and what isn't. Inevitably, you will have written things that are clear as crystal to you, but clear as mud to others.
• If it's appropriate to the presentation, try to make it as interactive as possible. Ask questions. Encourage audience members to talk to each other. Doing this early in the presentation with a provocative question can create an immediate buzz and get a lot of energy flowing.
• Conclude the presentation with a challenge or a request. Ask something of the audience. Ask them to commit to doing one thing differently.
  

What are your tips? What's worked for you?

Talk Good: Giving Effective Presentations

Note: See related post from October 2008

Since I started doing Toastmasters about two years ago I've been Furling every good piece of information I could find on how to be a better speaker and presenter. I mentioned this recently to some of my fellow Toasties and they asked me to share my links.

The pieces speak for themselves (no pun intended), so without extensive annotations, here are my top 10:

1. Garr Reynolds (see also: his great blog, Presentation Zen):
   • Preparation Tips
   • Presentation Tips
   • Powerpoint Slide Tips
   • Sample slides
   • Gates, Jobs, and the Zen aesthetic
     
     
2. 10 Tips for a Killer Presentation, Neil Patel
   
   
3. Get Your Message Across by Creating Powerful Stories, Kevin Eikenberry
   
   
4. How to Change the World: World's Best Presentation Contest Winners There are some great examples of how to effectively use powerpoint.
   
   
5. Bert Decker (Also see his blog, Create Your Communications Experience)
   • 6 Do's to Open Your Presentation
   • Giving Good Introductions
     
     
6. How to Get a Standing Ovation, Guy Kawasaki
   
   
7. Kathy Sierra (See also: her blog Creating Passionate Users which, sadly, is no longer being updated; but there's great archived content!)
   • Better Beginnings: How to Start a Presentation
   • Add Graphics to your blog, book or presentation
     
     
8. Effective Presentations: More than one way to impress an audience Dave Pollard
   
   
9. All Presenting is Persuasive Guila Muir (see also: Guila's other training/presenting resources)
   
   
10. A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods From Visual-Literacy.org. Great ideas for how to use visually represent your ideas.
    
    
11. BONUS LINK: The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging, Brian Clark.
    Ostensibly written for bloggers, I'm finding that the "5 Laws" (provide value, have a hook, etc.) are also helpful in organizing talks and presentations.
    

I'd love to get feedback on your favorite resources and tips. What's helped you be a kick ass speaker or presenter?

Tags: presentations, speaking, public speaking, toastmasters, blogging, writing, effective presentations, libraries