Hello from PPT Live in Atlanta.  I have been having a great time meeting the fine people down here.  I have had a couple of chances to meet folks and get some pictures taken which you can check out by watching my presentation below.  Just in case you are wondering the music is called Jump the Shark and was created by my friend Mark.

Have a Sharktastic Day!

Tibby

Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to host a great web conference. Marshall Makstein from eSlide and Jordan Rich from WBZ and Chart Productions joined me in presenting a Best Practices session on script writing, slide design and narration. The content was very well received, we've split the replays out into the three presentations below so they're more digestable. I hope you enjoy these presentations and have a Sharktastic Day!

Scripting
http://www.brainshark.com/brainsharkinc/vu?pi=433775124

Slide Design
http://www.brainshark.com/brainsharkinc/vu?pi=897367490

Narration
http://www.brainshark.com/brainsharkinc/vu?pi=533703282

Below is a wonderful presentation created by Nancy Duarte of Duarte Design.  It appears in her slide:ology blogand the reason I share it is because it lives and breathes best practices.  Nancy uses rich media to tell an impactful story in less than 3 minutes.  The blog entry is about a unique story board method that helped Nancy bring the story to life.  The aspect I appreciate is the forethought of the audience impact of the design.  All too often, in business we skip this aspect.  Sales and marketing content can be designed around what we want to say instead of from the perspective of what our audience will likely hear.  Her presentation follow my 4C mantra of being clear, concise, consistent and compelling and that is because it is designed and delivered with the audience in mind.  Click on the image below and scroll a little bit the blog to watch the presentation - you will be glad you did.

Have a Sharktastic Day!

Last week I wrote about using tone of voice to set the tone for your audience.  I thought an example might help.  So below are two presentations.  They are substantially the same with the exception of the recorded voiceover.  Take a moment to watch them both and then ask yourself which one is more impactful.

Bad

Better

When people hear your voice in a multi media presentation like Brainshark they are emotionally impacted by the tone you use when speaking.  You can use your tone of voice to set the tone for the presentation.  Your tone will either convince people that you are enthused, interested and confident and they will stay to listen to more or it won't and they won't.  

Here are 10 things to consider when recording your presentation

1.                  Be familiar with the script.  The best way to not sound like you are reading when you are reading is to have read the material at least twice before recording.  When you are familiar with the text you can focus on delivery and you will do a better job.

2.                  Practice out loud.  The presentation will be listened to and so it is important for you to practice it and hear it out loud.  This is usually the time that you discover words and phrases that should not be put together because they are difficult to articulate.

3.                  Be upbeat.  Enthusiasm is contagious, so spread it liberally.  An enthusiastic tone communicates interest and confidence.  People like to listen to interesting, confident people.  The converse is also true.

4.                  Smile.  It may feel silly at first, but it is hard to not to be upbeat with a smile on your face.  Your audience will no­tice the difference.   If it helps, put a mirror on your desk to see if you are smiling.

5.                  Sit up straight.  Or even stand up if it helps.  The point is to make sure that you are breathing deeply by having good posture.   Breathing from the diaphragm helps you speak with a stronger more confident tone.

6.                  Speak conversationally.  You are giving a presentation so speak as you would if you were standing in front of an audience.  Speaking too quickly or slowly will make the audience uncomfortable and they will choose not to listen.

7.                  Speak clearly.  You want to make sure you pronounce your words correctly however; over articulation is also a big mistake.  Your audience will appreciate clarity but they will take over articulation as the communication of a condescending tone.  If you follow hint #6 you will be fine.

8.                  Drink water.  Lubricate your vocal chords and they will perform better.

9.                  Listen.  Record the presentation, listen to the recording and then answer this question: "Does it sound like I care?"  If the answer is "Yes" then you are done.  If the answer is "Maybe", or "No", then you have to record it again until the answer is a definite "Yes".

10.             Have fun.  If you are enjoying yourself then your audience will feel it by hearing it in your voice and they will listen to more of what you have to say and believe it when you are saying it.

Have a Sharktastic Day!

In the 10 years that we have been helping clients communicate, we have found that there are clearly a set of keys to the best and most successful presentations.  When I boiled it down we had the Six Steps to Success.  Each step indicates a critical piece of the communication process and comes with a set of questions that need to be asked and answered.  I have written about this in earlier blog entries, but now there is a Brainshark that quickly presents the 6 steps and the key questions that need to be answered in order to build great content.  The presentation below is not about how to use Brainshark as much as it is about how to communicate successfully.  It is a strategy for approaching and executing a quality communication.  Whether you are training a channel, providing rapid elearning to the sales force, selling a new product, generating leads or orienting new hires, you will find the Six Steps to Success will guide you to create the right content for the right audience at the right time.

If you prefer and audio podcast of this content then click on the Brainsahrk logo!

Have a Sharktastic Day!

For the third time this year, we went on the road to visit customers. The first week of  June brought us to Rochester and Toronto for 10 meetings. In Rochester, CEO Joe Gustafson joined us in briefing executives of a key Brainshark customer. 

Then a 2.5 hour drive to Toronto--Imagine Chicago meets San Francisco with a touch of London. Meetings included an on-site User Group meeting with 15 authors at one of our banking customers. We also visited the local office of a partner, Intercall (see photo from their office of the Old City Hall). The tour is a great opportunity to strategize on projects, talk about new features, review customer presentations..... In 2009, we have been to San Francisco/Silicon Valley and Texas and email me if you would like to nominate your city for a Customer Connection Tour.

I spoke to the marketing director of a mutual fund firm this week and she was asking me if I had any ideas on how they could get a couple of high profile fund managers to record a podcast.  She knew Brainshark had a button called "Create a podcast" but she wasn't sure how it worked or if it would help her. 

Her problem was that the fund managers were not based in the same city and neither had the time to fly to the home office to sit in a recording studio to create the audio files.  She did not have the option of saying it could not be done because her VP instructed her to find a way and get the content posted.

"No problem", I told her.  Then I explained to her that all she had to do was get the fund managers on a conference call.  She would conference in the Brainshark IVR to record the call.  When the call was over all she had to do was click the enable podcast button in Brainshark and we would give her the finished podcast in .mp3 format ready for posting, or if she preferred she could link to the audio file.  The hard part would be preparing the speakers to deliver a quality podcast.

She went back to her VP and was pleased to announce she had a solution and would get the podcast done and posted this week.  And she did.

Have a Sharktastic Memorial Day!

In an interview published in yesterdays' NY Times, "Meetings, Version 2.0, at Microsoft" Steve Ballmer describes what a meeting with him is like at Microsoft. 

As he describes the "old way", many can relate to the typical way that meetings are delivered across organizations every day - someone delivering a PowerPoint presentation in which a room full of listeners follow the presenter's path to the conclusion.  Is this really the most productive way?  Neither presenters nor listeners maximize their valuable time together that could instead be used on informed discussion and interaction. Time is money, spending face-to-face time on information delivery is very costly.   Read about his version of a better meeting. 

The Brainshark leadership team holds its weekly meetings in 2.0 style - but different from Steve Ballmer's approach, we deliver Brainshark presentations to update our peers on each of our functional areas, and we share them with each other the day before the meeting.  The updates provide operational results and progress reports, and raise discussion topics that should be covered as a group.   Compared to Steve Ballmer's flat PPT decks that don't have the presenter's voice to explain, clarify, and paint a picture; I think that would make our approach a 3.0.   In this way, we can start preparing and thinking about important topics before walking into the meeting; instead of spending costly meeting time simply delivering information.  Try this new approach for your next meeting; and let us know how it goes.

     If your company has purchased the Brainshark Marketing Campaigns module, then this certification program will prepare you as a Campaign Manager. Once you have completed the certification curriculum, you will be prepared for creating, managing and distributing custom campaigns through Brainshark.You will be well versed in users, groups, reports and administration.  And finally, you will be educated on the best practices that we have put together for the Marketing Campaigns module.   To access the certification program for Marketing Campaigns, just click on the image below.

Once you have submitted your scores we will send you your certificate and a gift from Brainshark.