We had the opportunity to work recently with a group of international leaders. The accents were a bit challenging, but the perspectives from around the world were fascinating.

David Hogg, student journalist at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, speaking on CNN after the shooting at his school.

Sometimes, you need to give an impromptu presentation in conditions that are less than perfect. In that type of situation, it’s more important than ever to be yourself.

Networking events are great opportunities to meet lots of people in a short period of time. But how do you make yourself stand out above the rest? There are some great ways to prepare and have some fun too! 

Just because you assemble a large audience for a meeting doesn’t mean they’ll pay attention to everything you share with them. Here’s a true story about how a speaker’s failure to reach his listeners cost his company a lot of money.

One of the best ways to improve your presentations is to watch other effective speakers, take note of what they do well, and work to incorporate those lessons into your own delivery. TED talks are such a great resource for this type of learning. 

In the midst of this holiday season, we’d like to PAUSE to say a bit about non-words.

We constantly remind our clients that perception plays a huge role in whether presenters succeed or fail with their audiences. Using the wrong word while speaking, or inserting bad grammar into written communications, can lead to poor impressions, distractions and occasionally lasting headaches.

We ran into an interesting article that points to one of the challenges of using PowerPoint. Ironically, the piece, posted earlier this month on the Inc. website, is about a vice president of Microsoft, the company that creates and markets PowerPoint.

Opportunities to present your ideas, qualifications and proposals come up every single day. Here are some ways that you can prepare yourself to make the most of those situations when they arise.