I am currently flying high over Kansas City on my way back to Boston from San Francisco. Irwin Hipsman and I spent the past 3 days visiting clients and partners like Kaiser Permanente, Schwab, Franklin Templeton, VeriSign, Salesforce.com, Intercall and Premiere Global among others. We conducted a couple of Customer Success Forums among our meetings and had several opportunities to discuss Presentation Best Practices. From a high level, users were interested in how to make presentations more appealing and more interactive to increase viewing and knowledge transfer. I know that what they were referring to was the use of animations, questions and video. However, a presentation is appealing only in part because of the use of these design elements. Instead of discussing the ground level design elements lets talk about the high level appeal of a presentation to an audience and how we can achieve this level of success.

The key to making presentations more appealing is to think from the point of view of the audience.

In the Communication Strategy Best Practices delivered by our CSC's, the first step to success is to know and Specify the Objective of the communication; this is your objective. The second step is to Understand your Audience in other words what is their objective. Understanding, who your audience is, how they behave and what is important to them should be the guiding light to the presentation that you develop and distribute to them. Whether your goal is to generate leads, shorten sales cycles, increase benefit enrollment, prepare the channel for a new product or certify a user population probably does not matter to the viewer. Your goal then is to find out what does matter to the viewer.

If you make sure that every slide, every image, every bullet, every recorded sentence, every attachment, every video and every question provides value to the viewer, then your viewing rates and statistics will be through the clouds. For every piece of content that you put on the slide or record on the slide ask yourself this question - What is the value this piece of content brings to the viewer? If you cannot answer that question definitively for each content element then I suggest you leave it out of the presentation and your audience will appreciate that you have sent them a concise communication.

If you are looking for appeal - bring value.

Thank you for visiting and have a Sharktastic Day!

As you know we are now reviewing the 100+ presentations submitted for consideration for a SHARKIE Award. We’ll be announcing the Winners -Live online on March 4th. Watching dozens of presentations in a short period of time helped me solidify an idea I have been pondering recently; the combination of Entertainment and Learning. In other words, If you Entertain, They will Learn.

Now this is not a brand new concept. Just ask the folks at Sesame Street and Fisher Price or more recently at Leap Frog and Baby Einstein. For these folks entertainment and education are inextricably linked and are serious business. But of course this is kids stuff - right? This does not apply to the serious job of learning in the corporate world - right?

Wrong - There is a growing industry in the field of Edutainment.

Every presentation we reviewed was a serious business presentation. Each was trying to communicate an important piece of business related content and every presentation evoked an emotional response. I have spoken of the emotional response before when talking about audio delivery in your presentations. Audio is certainly a key component but there is also an element of overall approach that elicits the emotion. Opening slides that feel like they go on for days… don’t entice me to keep watching. Poorly structured presentations (no agenda or map or logical flow) cause me to feel confused and lost; whereas, presentations that are well organized are appreciated because I can navigate through the pieces that mean the most to me and I know where the content is going. Cluttered slides, too many animations or reading the text that is on the slide makes me agitated and I stop paying attention; whereas clear, concise slides encourage anticipation of the next bit of learning. Enthusiastic speakers elicit enthusiasm because we know that enthusiasm is contagious. And presentations that use themes or metaphors to guide them are appreciated for consistency and the fun they bring to the communication.

Case in point: One contestant submitted a presentation that was designed to educate a sales group. They used the metaphor of a treasure map. This is a great metaphor for sales people is it not? The metaphor returned multiple times and included an image of the map and the progress the viewer made as they moved through the learning. The authors had one “Pirate” male voice, complete with “AARRGGHH” and then a female voice that delivered the straight content in between. As I watched the presentation I looked forward to the Pirate and where I was on the treasure map. In the end I was entertained and I learned. If I was a sales person in that organization, I would know exactly what I needed to do in order to get my “treasure”.

Could they have done it straight? -Yes. Would I have listened? - Maybe. Would it have been as memorable? - No. Is it a good thing that it is memorable? - Yes. Will the sales organization look forward to the next presentation? You bet they will. Is that a good thing? Absolutely!

Take a risk. Make your learning energetic and fun. Your audience will appreciate it and look forward to more learning from you. Thank you for reading and have a Sharktastic Day!

Today was our last day at the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games. Special is the right word for this experience, these athletes, coaches, volunteers and parents. The effort on the part of all of the above is extraordinary. Thousands of athletes from almost 100 countries are being greeted and served and guided; coached and herded; hugged and high-fived by thousands of smiling volunteers.

I have learned a few lessons about the Best Practices for Communicating during my stay in Boise and thought this might be the time to share them with you.

The best way to get a smile is to give one. The best way to shake a hand is to reach out. The best way to get to know a stranger is to stop and take a minute to get to know them. The quickest road to good luck is to wish it to others. The best way to make a friend is to act like one.

And some other lessons I am packing in my bag. Language is not a barrier to communication. Enthusiasm is infectious. People just want to be loved. Respect is important. Winning is not everything. It is in how you play the game. It really is in giving that we receive. Praise comes from without, but joy comes from within. Being valued touches ones heart.

I have assembled some pictures of our time in Idaho. Click on the presentation to see the competition and the joy we found at these Special Games.

Thanks for watching and have a Sharktastic Day!

Day 2 from the Special Olympics World Winter Games here in Boise started with a little snow. It brought quite a bit of excitement from the athletes who come from countries where snow is a rare if never occurrence. I noticed the floor hockey team from Jamaica, who had the day before seemed quite miserable in the 35 degree air, blissfully looking up with mouth open hoping to get a taste of Winter.

I have 2 audio experiences that I took from today that illustrate the best of these Games. The first happened this morning at the Speed Skating Competition. The skater from Kuwait was more than 1 1/2 laps behind the other 3 competitors in a 3 lap race. When he had one lap to complete everyone started cheering. I mean everyone. The other racers, the fans, the athletes, the race officials, the timer, the volunteers, the police on duty and even the high school kids who were repairing the ice between races. It was the most sincere loving sound I had ever heard. The second audio moment came from the South African Floor hockey Team. While preparing for their 2pm match vs Kuwait, they began to sing a traditional song. Not only was it full of energy and enthusiasm, but it was fantastic. They sang beautifully and the enthusiasm spread throughout the entire arena. They basked in the attention they generated by dancing and smiling and facing many of the spectators who were not taking pictures of them.

Audrey had her picture taken with two more famous people today. See below for Audrey's new friends.
 

Check in tomorrow for more...

On Wednesday, February 11th, 2pm EST, Brainshark will host a Customer Connection Live Event featuring Jordan Rich. Jordan has been providing voice over services for Brainshark clients for over 2 years and will discuss the best practices for recording great narration in this Live Online Event.
Jordan Rich was born and raised in Boston and has been a fixture on radio and TV for nearly thirty years. Since 1996, Jordan has been with WBZ News Radio 1030 and his program is heard throughout much of the U.S. and Canada as well as world-wide on the Internet. Click here if you are interested in learning how to record great audio in your multi media presentations. It will be a Sharktastic On line event!

A few months ago we announced that the Special Olympics World Winter Games was our first recipient of a non-profit grant to use Brainshark in their communications. They chose to use Brainshark to orient over 3000 volunteers to the ethos of volunteering at the games and the process of becoming a volunteer. Click Here to see the Brainshark we helped them produce and was viewed by thousands of volunteers.

Today was the first day of competion of the Games here in Boise, Idaho. Audrey Polce, the CSC who worked with the Special Olympics Volunteer Services on the presentation mentioned above, and I are fortunate enough to be here for the Games. We spent the morning with Doug Brown from Volunteer Services. After picking up our credentials we had breakfast and then went to the Qwest Arena to watch the compulsory figure skating competition. The skaters were magnificent. What they lack in skill they make up for in courage, enthusiasm and effort.

We then moved over to the Festival in Boise Center where the Olympic Cauldron is located.

We said hello to Scott Hamilton who had marched the night before with the Bosnia Delegation.

We then went to our assigned volunteer posts at the Floor Hockey competition at Expo Idaho. The Floor Hockey competition has the most participants of any single event. Our volunteer job was to escort the team to the correct court for their games. We carried signs to bring them to one of the seven courts. This was a great assignment. It gave us a chance to encounter several teams and countries and have our day and lives touched by these competitors. We escorted teams from the USA, Korea, Malaysia, Germany, Honduras and Austria.

Takeaway of the day...

The first takeway is from the volunteers. They are without question the most flexible, pleasant, giving 3000 people I have ever seen. Doug introduced us to an executive with the Games who said that he had received feedback from Olympic Athletes in attendance that had made the same observation. He continued that the orientation presentation set the tone for the volunteers. It gave them the understanding of what volunteering at the Special Olympics means.

The second takeaway is a gift from the athletes.
In the process of escorting teams to and from their games I was touched by the sportsmanship of these competitors. They play to win, but never forget to care about a fallen competitor and never once passed another team from another country without extending a hand and wishing each other well.
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They fully compete, they fully support and they fully enjoy the competition and the comraderie of nations. There is a lesson to be learned there that was not wasted on us.