Archive for November, 2009
Are You Looking for a New Sony Camcorder?
The digital camcorder made by Sony that contains a 60BG hard-drive which can save around a vast 45 hours of video content is the DCRsr37ES. The drive makes it a snap to get at your content, erase unwanted clips and re-order the playback sequence. It it so much more simplistic than having to deal with tape recordings or disks. Your content can be viewed so simply and the camcorder sports a Film Roll Index and a Face Index. It is also not possible to record over items which you wish to keep which was always a possibility with a tape recording camera.
You’ll savor your home movies in excellent quality thanks to the 1 megapixel Advanced HAD CCD. A tiny lens is placed on the top of every pixel which means that as much light as is possible can be used. The result is that the colour noise is reduced whilst the image quality is enhanced. There’s a large, widescreen 2.7 inch touch panel LCD screen for easy scene selection and Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization to ensure clean, sharp results when you’re shooting handheld. The onboard zoom microphone makes a fine job of picking up the dialogue of your subjects and filtering out all the background noise. The lens made by Carl Zeiss contains a powerful 60x optical and up to 2000x digital zoom.
Even when you are filming a stationary subject you can easily ruin your shot by moving the camera. SteadyShot is a handy digital image stabiliser that is active every time you shoot. This comes in super handy when you are using the zoom to film a far off shot. The camera’s sound features allow you to record in close up too by using the super smart microphone which can zero in on the sounds you require such as your subject voices.
Sharing your content with the Sony DCRSR37ES is simple and fast. You can burn your content to a DVD by simply transferring it to your PC with the supplied USB 2.0 connection. If you are not near a PC, but you need to burn a disk then you can buy the optional DVD burner which connects directly to your camcorder and allows you to simply burn your disks.
You can manage your movie collection on your PC by the installation of the software which is supplied with the Sony DCRSR37ES handycam. It makes it a very easy task to create an archive. You can arrange them by date, by person, and search through them quickly. The camera can of course be connected directly to your TV for large screen viewing and the content can easily be burned from within the archive or uploaded to the Internet.
Eco-Efficiency — How Businesses Can Go Green and Increase Profits
Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co (KKR) was founded in 1976 and back then their specialization was in ‘bootstrap’ buyouts. But just a year ago they have set up an innovative green project which concentrates not only on how lucrative a corporation is, but in addition on the environmental impact of the companies they acquire.
When Henry Kravis from KKR and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) joined forces a year ago environmental issues went mainstream. The coalition wanted to fight a few important issues hurting the ecology of the earth, for instance hazardous chemicals, resource depletion, colossal consumption of water resources, and global warming.
Eco-efficiency (a phrase first coined by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development WBCSD) makes up the framework for their mission, utilizing green techniques such as reducing the waste of resources, using clean energy and optimizing data centers for efficiency. Although the project was a colossal success, people just didn’t recognize how incredible the effects really were until Ken Mehlman, the person responsible for the project, finished the first annual review. Ken Mehlman who graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 1988, has served as legislative director to Texas 21st Congressional District Representative Lamar S. Smith, became Managing Director and Head of Global Public Affairs at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, LLP in 2008, is, furthermore, a trustee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Franklin & Marshall College and presently serves as a member of the board of directors at the National Endowment for Democracy, and the Council on Foreign Relations Climate Change Task Force, noticed that the project wasn’t only helping the environment, but it was also helping to save firms a great deal of money. Virtually all of the business concerns owned by KKR and Ken Mehlman today are involved in eco-efficiency. Nevertheless, when you consider that the group has a 2009 business portfolio valued at eighty six billion dollars, you may be sure that this wasn’t an easy feat.
The initial Green Portfolio project has grown far beyond its primary purpose and at present encompasses new opportunities. The Climate Corps Program administrated by the Environmental Defense Fund is an example of this, it advances environmentally friendly principles to MBA interns.
KKR and Ken Mehlman have taken the time to formulate products that measure and manage resources. These tools can assess an organization’s ecological impact and discover any practices that may need to improve.
Henry Kravis, the KKC, and the Environmental Defense Fund have made going green simpler for business organizations large and small. So, to summarize, these systems have made green business practice not only viable, but commercially desirable, and their novel ideas are setting a new standard in the business world of today.
These Comparison Car Insurance Internet Sites – Can I Hold on to on My Premium?
Insurance Comparison websites are now all the rage as Australian’s bid to save cash on their driving expenses. All The Same, how do the sites function and do car owners need to pay more to use them?
The idea behind a Comparison Car Insurance site is sure as shooting a awesome idea. A user visits the site, puts down their details, and they then obtain insurance quotes from a assortment of insureers facilitating them discover the best policy.
Nevertheless, the sceptics among you will enquire what is in it for the website? It is obvious that even though comparison web sites are free to use, they must make a profit in some manner.
The simple answer , is they do. Nonetheless, these websites don’t in reality cost the consumeranything. This is because comparison web sites make most of their money through two of sources – ads and leads. Each time you are referrered from a comparison web site on to a provider’s internet site, the comparison website gains a small commission – it is nearly identical to a finder’s fee becuase they are putting your custom the way of the insurance firm.
The beauty however, is that this extra cost is not passed on to the car owner. In fact, many insurers even offer cheaper deals through compare internet sites than they do on their own company web sites because they want to be seen as the cheapest.
With many other products like credit cards or house loans it’s relatively simple to discover the leading deal currently offered – for example, if you are looking for a credit card you’d usually search for the lowest rate of interest and provided there are no hidden charges to take care of, the deal that is the cheapest will win.
Naturally numerous individuals will still feel annoyed that the comparison site is making a kick back. Yet people
can constantly recall that if the insurance firm does not pay off the commission to the comparing site they could be paying commission a insurance broking agent. More likely is that the insurance company are probably dropping more than this on TV advertising campaigns.
That is because likening deals on the basis of which is the cheapest won’t inevitably help you bagging the most satisfactory insurance policy.
For example, one car insurer may be cheaper than the other – only this may only be because its cover is far less extensive.
The main way to get the better company for you is to find quotes from all of them – in reality the expectation of ringing around more than forty suppliers is daunting to say the least. So when you next start searching online for car insurance excess remember that it should be faster and cheaper to begin with a car insurance comparison website.
Did You Ever Try Selling Your Photography-Part 2
Anyone with the ability to use a camera correctly has the potential to sell their images. Picture agencies handle images of every subject and are always looking for emerging talent.
Pictures libraries and stock agencies are in the business of selling images. The don’t give you advice on how to take better images. Their purpose is business – they sell images to magazines, book publishers, the travel industry and many other industries that use images.
Many photographers look upon agencies as a last resort to sell their work; if you have been unable to sell any of your images, the chances are that most agencies won’t accept them.
If you are interested in an agency selling your images, you must be able to produce high quality images which are suited to the agencies market. Check out their website to view samples that are currently in use.
If you feel your work meets their standards and suits their customers – then approach them by e-mail or by standard mail.
But, before placing your work at an agency make a short-list of the agencies that seem to suit your work. Contact each agency outlining your work and which magazines have already published your images. If an agency is then interested they will ask you to send them samples.
If an agency accepts your work, don’t take this as a guarantee that your images will sell.
Don’t approach an agency until you have a large collection of images. Minimum first submissions can consist of anything from 50 images to 500 and regular submissions are normally required thereafter. Most agencies work on a commission basis – 50 % being the standard rate. If an image sells for two hundred euro – the photographer receives a one hundred euro fee.
When an agency takes on a photographer’s work, they normally require a four or five year retention period. Agencies normally sell the reproduction rights of a pictures – the image being licensed to a buyer for a specified purpose.
It may take as long as six months before an agency sells a picture belonging to you. First they need to scan your images if they are submitted by film; then they need to contact their clients and let them know that there is new material available – all of this takes time, so you must look at supplying a picture agency as a long term investment. It is only when you have several hundred images placed in a library that you’ll start to see regular sales.
Remember: agencies can’t sell images if there isn’t a market for them and placing images at an agency does not guarantee you sales.
TJ Tierney is an award winning Irish Landscape photographer and a freelance writer. If you are looking for some photo tips visit the photography directory he frequently writes for: http://www.goldprints.com To view some of his images visit his on line gallery @ http://www.goldenirishlight.com
Treadmill Buying Guide to Purchase the Right Treadmill
A treadmill buying guide helps users to shop for the right treadmill that suits their workout requirements and budget. They incorporate a lot of information which users should consider before and at the time of purchasing a treadmill.
Treadmill buying guides specify the price ranges for the treadmills. The general break down of price ranges is Budget $500-$1500, Mid-Range $1500-$3000 and Quality $3000-up. Offers and discounts while purchasing the treadmill depend upon the season and treadmill manufacturer’s policies.
Treadmill buying guides specify the workout features which users should look for and consider while buying a treadmill. Users should choose a model that has the most pre-set and programmable workouts to vary pace and incline. Treadmill buying guide emphasize bringing fun while workouts by means of book rack on the treadmill. Some models plug into a VCR, CD, or internet.
A treadmill buying guide specifies the treadmill type which users can buy i.e. manual or motorized treadmills. It provides information on the operation of manual and motorized treadmills. Treadmill buying guide emphasize on the proper selection of motor in a treadmill. The treadmill motor matters since it gets the heaviest workout. Treadmill buying guide specifies the horsepower rating requirements between 1.5 to 2.5 HP. Treadmill buying guide also recommends looking for the longest warranty on the motor about 1 year at least.
Treadmill buying guide insist on the durability and life of belt since it’s the part which undergoes a lot of wear and tear. It also specifies that the belt thickness should be two ply which will help the belt to last longer and not to curl less around the edges.
Treadmill buying guide recommends the deck size to be the running surface size. A longer deck allows for a more comfortable stride and easier motion than a shorter surface.
The overall treadmill size specified in the treadmill buying guide is the measure of space available in the user’s room. Treadmill buying guide recommends buying noiseless treadmill so you can hear the TV or music while working out. The size of the treadmill when folded or stored should be checked as per the information given in the treadmill buying guide.
Treadmill buying guide will also provide information on shock absorption in the treadmill. The higher shock absorption, the less wear on user feet, legs, and joints. Shock absorption techniques specified in the treadmill buying guide vary from thicker belts to shock absorbers under the deck or floating decks. A treadmill buying guide will enumerate the fact that higher shock absorption equals higher price.
Treadmill buying guides specify speed details in a treadmill that should be considered while purchasing a treadmill. Users should make sure that the max speed of the treadmill suits their fitness needs. Walkers can probably get by with speeds of .5 to 6 mph while runners (or very fast walkers) need a higher maximum speed.
Inclination required in a treadmill is specified in the treadmill buying guide. Inclines vary widely with maximum inclines from 2% to 25%. The larger this range is the more variety users can have in their workouts. Treadmill buying guides recommend users to take into consideration whether the incline is adjusted manually or using controls.
Treadmill buying guides emphasize that most motorized treadmills have built in electronic feedback that will show miles walked, calories burned, heart rate, mph, etc. Preset programs and customized programs are optional and depend upon the user selection.
Treadmill buying guide considers the feature of drink holder in the treadmill as important especially when it avoids getting off the treadmill every time users need a drink.
Treadmill buying guide emphasize on the wise selection of a treadmill. Treadmill buying guide makes users aware about the information of treadmill and the points they should consider while buying a treadmill. Treadmill buying guide helps user to buy a treadmill that suits his/her fitness needs and cost.
The author of the article is Atanu. He has well known authority and can visit at http://www.treadmill-walking.com/treadmill-buying-guide.html.
Proven Secrets of Writing and Publishing Your Own Book… In Less Than a Week!
In their ebook “How To Write And Publish Your Own Ebook…
In As Little As 7 Days”, Jim Edwards and Joe Vitale teach
you how to adapt a proven ebook writing formula to vastly
improve the performance of your own ebook writing
techniques. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, you are
taught how to find a topic, write about it and produce your
own ebook, sometimes in as little as 7 days, reducing the
trial and error sometimes associated with writing your own
ebook.
Of course, we know about ebooks don’t we? You cannot log on
without being offered one. There are various degrees of
credibility associated with ebooks from the brilliant
informative ebooks that you hope that you are buying to the
downright useless regurgitated rubbish that you are
sometimes duped into buying. Well, we do not want to go
down that route do we? No of course we don’t, we want to
produce a well thought out, well written and informative
ebook that not only you will be proud of producing, but also
an ebook that gives people value for money. So, having got
that goal established, how do you even begin to research a
subject that everyone is looking for and put it into words
in the form of an ebook?
The authors are arguably two of the best exponents of the
written word on the internet. Their step by step
instructions in the “How To Write And Publish Your Own
Ebook….In As Little As 7 Days” takes you logically and
systematically through the creation process right through to
the finished product. Their track record for writing
informative and educational ebooks and articles, that have
helped thousands of internet entrepenuers, is second to
none.
At over 200 pages long, “How To Write And Publish Your Own
Ebook….In As Little As 7 Days” has alot to offer those who
really do not know where to start when writing an ebook. Of
course, even those who are adept at stringing a sentence
together will probably find something useful in the book.
“How To Write And Publish Your Own Ebook…In As Little As 7
Days” is designed to teach you:
How to conceive an idea for an ebook that has a market with people willing to pay or it – either directly or
indirectly.
How to write your ebook quickly and concisely in a way that conveys information so that people can use and implement it quickly.
Take positive action towards selling your ebook online by giving you a road map to start marketing your ebook on the internet.
The main instructional section is 80 pages in length and
filled with informative and motivational text. So instead
of: write a book, look for a market, hope and then give up
what about: identify a niche market, identify needs, wants
and problems, write a book that satisfies those requirements
and then market your book to your niche and make some
money.
If you think you cannot write, think you do not have
anything to say or you do not want to write a full length
ebook, that’s okay, every eventuality is covered to get you
to start writing. I mean let’s face it, how much motivation
do you need? I bet if you were offered $50.000 to
write a short ebook you would soon get your pen and paper
out!
Of course, there has to be constructive criticism and for me, I get bored with featured authors who contribute to add a few more pages to the ebook. However, you cannot dismiss the valuable advice of Yanik Silver, Kevin Donlin or Neil
Shearing whose life experiences are included – with
appropriate links to their websites of course! However
irritating these featured articles are (and they will appear
in other ebooks as well) they do provide a valuable in site
into how they got to where they are now. Just remember to
concentrate on one thing – writing and publishing an ebook -
do not get hijacked by outgoing links to other sites.
“How To Write And Publish Your Own Ebook…..In As Little As
7 Days” is finished off with bonus reports for accepting
credit cards, ebook cover design, web hosting and more. All
designed to get your finished product published and making
money.
If you are looking for well written, informative and value
for money instructions on how to write your own ebook,
whether it is 10 pages or 1000 pages, then I believe that
this ebook does deliver on its promise to get you to write
an ebook in as little as 7 days. The only thing it cannot do
is write it for you.
For more information on Jim Edwards’s and Joe Vitale’s book,
“How To Write And Publish Your Own Ebook….In As Little As
7 Days please visit http://www.1st-4-income.com/
Hopefully, the authors will collaborate again in the future
to write an ebook that will again take the mysteries out
writing and publishing on the internet.
Ian Simpson reviews software and informational products on the internet for their value and usefulness. Subscribe to his free newsletter at http://www.information4income.com
Creativity and Flow
The experience of optimal functioning called flow enhances creativity, and can be nurtured in our own lives, says the psychologist who developed the concept.
Author of “Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience” and a number of related books, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced me-high chick-sent-me-high) says we can facilitate the conditions for this experience, and that it may be found in a wide range of careers and activities.
For his doctoral thesis on “how visual artists create art” he studied photos taken every three minutes as artists created a painting. He said in a newspaper interview that he was “struck by how deeply they were involved in work, forgetting everything else.”
He went on to study chess players, rock climbers, dancers, musicians and others. “I expected to find substantial differences in all their activities,” he notes, “but people reported very similar accounts of how they felt. Then, I started looking at professions like surgery and found the same elements there – a challenge which provides clear, high goals and immediate feedback. They forget themselves, the time, their problems.”
He cautions that many people misunderstand flow as a kind of passive “spacing out” and seek it in ordinary leisure activities. “Most people look so much forward to being home, relaxing. Then they get home and don’t know what to do. They aren’t challenged, so they sit in front of the TV, depressed.”
Instead of “spacing out,” flow is rather the experience resulting from a person’s body or mind being “stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”
Athletes refer to being in the “zone” – an optimal psychological and physiological climate for peak performance.
The legendary Ted Williams has said that sometimes he could see the seams on a pitched baseball. Gymnast Carol Johnson found that on some days she experienced the balance beam as wider, so “any worry of falling off disappeared.”
Sports psychologists and trainers use a range of techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation, concentration exercises and meditation to help people access this “zone.” One of the consistent themes of these approaches is the need to “get around” the conscious mind.
But Csikszentmihalyi has warned “You can’t make flow happen. All you can do is learn to remove obstacles in its way.” He says the effort to recapture the high of a perfect run down a ski slope, for example, will rarely succeed because “you’re splitting your attention from what’s happening now.”
Using PET scan technology (Positron Emission Tomography), researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have found that people learning to master a video game show a reduction in the overall metabolism of the brain – less brain activity along with greater skill. This indicates that increasing ability results in better efficiency, and the brain can “relax into” the task. This may be the physiological result, or perhaps a central cause, of decreasing the “static” of non-flow consciousness.
Csikszentmihalyi points out that “Some flow experiences involve low danger, like reading a good book. But certain people are disposed to respond to risk, and their flow will depend on it more than somebody else’s. Danger is the hook. But their descriptions are not that different from, say, a Thai woman’s description of weaving a rug. The quality of concentration, forgetfulness, involvement, control are similar.”
Csikszentmihalyi’s suggestions for experiencing flow include picking an enjoyable activity that is at or slightly above your skill level; continually raising the level of challenge as performance improves; screening out distraction as much as possible; focusing attention on all the emotional and sensory qualities of the activity, and looking for regular feedback, or concrete goals to monitor progress, even if it is a large or long-term project with delayed outcome.
Writing a short story, or raising a child, can be contexts for flow experience: you can see them as a series of short-term steps or events, each having value in engaging one’s talents.
Other examples of “flow activities” are games, artistic performances and religious rituals, but Csikszentmihalyi notes that “people seem to get more flow from what they do on their jobs than from leisure activities” – perhaps especially those kinds of jobs which demand full attention, like surgery or computer programming.
Writer Susan K. Perry, Ph.D. affirms that flow is not a state of ‘no mind’ or meditativeness as such. “I don’t believe that when you get into a creative place, you’re giving up thinking,” she said in our interview. “You’re super-thinking — better and with more parts of your mind than you do normally.”
But having a ‘busy mind’ can also mean being fragmented, unfocused, distracted. “You want to get to a place which is both loose, relaxed, and focused,” she notes. “What I found in my studies of flow are that two things you need to do to get to this place where time stops and you can be most creative, are to loosen up, and focus in.”
“It’s a paradox, obviously, to be loose and focused at the same time,” she admits. “And they overlap, and one may come before the other.” She also thinks we “choose not to get into flow, which means we aren’t able to access our deepest creativity. We choose not to because, perhaps, it’s more stimulating to be surrounded by overflowing inboxes.”
Achieving flow may present a greater challenge for gifted and talented people, who often experience high levels of excitability and intensity, but it is worth the effort to remove the obstacles in the way of feeling flow. That state of awareness is where we are most creatively alive.
Douglas Eby writes about psychological and social aspects of creative expression and achievement. His site has a wide range of articles, interviews, quotes and other material to inform and inspire: Talent Development Resources
http://talentdevelop.com/
Internet Marketing And Public Speaking: Ten Tips For When The Twain Shall Meet
Internet marketing and public speaking? Not quite ham and eggs, is it?
Those two phrases are rarely found in the same sentence. After all, many people decide to do their marketing in cyberspace so they’ll never be required to deliver a sales presentation or a speech.
If you are one of these people, you are making big mistake by not developing your speaking skills, because you are cutting yourself off from the vast off-line market.
Why should internet marketers seek to improve their public speaking? For the simple reason that by so doing, they and their products can become known to people who are are uncomfortable buying on-line. They prefer to know their is a human being at the other end.
In this brief article, I’ll give you a “shortcut system” that will enable you to package your substantive knowledge so it can be delivered in an interesting, engaging manner. It is a distilled version of what I provide business people in my workshops who are almost universally in the off-line world.
To whom can your presentations be delivered ? How about Rotary Clubs and other civic organizations who are always looking for speakers?; What about fellow internet marketers at seminars?; And remember high schools and colleges, where your audience is likely to be more computer literate than the general population, experienced in buying on-line but eager to go eyeball-to-eyeball with the internet marketer who has a great product.
Keep in mind that an effective speaker is one who concentrates on satisfying the needs of the audience members, so that these people conclude that what you are proposing (selling) is in their best interestfor your purposes, buying your product, Ebook or service.
The Ten Tips outlined below are not classroom theory, but instead evolve from the real world lessons I have learned in almost 3000 presentations, and in my workshops for off-line marketers. They have worked for me, they have worked for my clients, and they’ll work for you.
1. Have a specific objective
If you don’t know what you wish to accomplish with your presentation, your audience certainly won’t know either. Your objective may be as limited as making sure your audience will remember your URL, or a full understanding of the benefits they will gain by buying your product.
Remember that giving a great speech or presentation should never be your goal; it is merely a means to an end, and that end is what you want your audience to do with the information presented.
Be specific, and in preparing your presentation, spell out your objective in no more than a sentence or two. Print it out and tape it to your computer monitor. This will keep your preparation focused and on target as you progress throughthe drafting of your presentation.
2. Know your audience’s problems, needs and concerns
To be a successful marketer, your presentation must be audience-centered. You must know the problems of the people to whom you are speaking, because your objective is to offer them a solution. This requires in-depth-research about your audience.
Keep in mind that the prime motivation for people to listen to you is their perception that your presentation will benefit them. “What’s in it for me?” is the classic question of all audiences, on-line or off-line
3. Structure backwards
We have learned to write and speak in a 1-2-3 structure: (1) Introduction- (2) Body – (3) Conclusion. For oral presentations, this is highly counterproductive: In contrast to reading a memo, people do not have the luxury of going back and reading again what was missed the first time.You want your audience to hear and understand the bottom line message- “This product iwill solve your problem.”
Initiate your draft with your conclusion, focusing on merging your objective with your audience’s problems, interests and concerns.
Place your conclusion on a card marked (3), then develop an introduction that signals the audience that you know its problems and will be offering a solution. Place this on a card marked (1).
Finally, place your supporting arguments on a series of cards marked (2A), (2B), etc. This 3-1-2 System provides focus, structure, and thematic unity, and is the heart of my training workshops.
4. Practice solo with tape-recorder or video-camera
After completing the presentation draft, practice by yourself with a tape-recorder or video-camera. You will be at your weakest in this initial practice, hence the advice to have nobody present whose comments could seriously hurt your confidence.
Listen to your presentation, note the rhythm and cadence, the “uh’s”, “y’knows”, and check your mastery of the subject.
If videotaping, note your mannerisms and body language, and coordinate your gestures with your vocal inflection.
5. Practice with colleague, friend or spouse
After completing the solo practice session, you are ready to practice in front of another person. Choose this person carefully, as you do not want a hypercritic who will find excessive faults with your presenting style. Neither, however, do you want the type of person who finds no faults whatsoever, and praises you to the skies. You need honest and constructive criticism aimed at “tweaking” your presentation.
6. Convene a “Murder Board” practice session
The “Murder Board, a term I bring to my training workshops from my military background,” is a rigorous practice session. It is the speakers equivalent of the flight simulator used for training pilots how to deal with in-flight emergencies, or the moot court readying lawyers for courtroom combat.
Select no more than four people to be your simulated audience, and share with them all the intelligence you have gained on your prospective audience. These four people will then role play your audience.
Their comments, questions and criticism help you correct your style of delivery, find the gaps in your knowledge, and anticipate questions and objections.
7. Arrive early to meet and greet
Personal contact and interpersonal skills are important for the success of any presentation, but they are absolutely vital when you attempt to persuade people to buy the product you are selling. We tend to accept information from people we like, but reject it from people we don’t like.
When you arrive early, you can get to know members of the audience and let them relate to you as a human being. If it appears appropriate, mention names during your presentation of people you have had the occasion to meet prior to the presentation. Nothing is so sweet to the human ear as the sound of one’s name being mentioned positively by a speaker.
8. Use visuals to support, not to impress
Visual aids, including the ubiquitous PowerPoint, can make or break a presentation. The advantage of using them is that most people are visual and can more readily absorb information that is graphically presented.The danger is that visuals can bore an audience, setting them off into daydreaming, not listening.
Be careful in word choice in your visualsand, of course, in your deliveryto avoid Geekspeak, unless you are speaking to an audience as familiar with this unique form of jargon as you are.
Bottom line ion visuals: Don’t have the wonders of PowerPoint remembered, but the substance of your presentation forgotten.
9. Employ rhetorical devices
Repetition of key concepts, the careful use of the strategic pause, and parallel construction are just a few of the devices you can use to add spice and cadence to your presentation.
Two examples of such techniques will illustrate this important tactic. Winston Churchill, instead of saying “We in Britain owe a great debt to the pilots of the Royal Air Force,” expressed this thought with the memorable words “Never in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few.”
President John F. Kennedy used a classic device of parallelism when he said, “We must never negotiate out of fear, but we must never fear to negotiate.”
Use your imagination to see how you can arrange words to create such cadence and rhythm.
10. Conduct immediate post-presentation analysis
Your instinct after completing a challenging presentation is to breath a sigh of relief and relax. Big mistake.
Within minutes, sit down with a note pad or tape recorder and record the questions asked, the reaction of the audience to your presentation, your impression of your own performance, etc.
Don’t wait until the next day. Short term memory is precisely that, and you will remember only generalities. The immediate analysis will provide specifics.
Transfer this specific information to your data base, and you have an excellent head start to use in the Murder Board leading to your next presentation..
Use these tips, and the next time you leave your keyboard, you’ll find you are now as eloquent in front of a group of potential customers as you are behind your computer.
Copyright 2005 Larry Tracy
This article is excerpted from Larry Tracy’s book, The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations. Larry, a retired Army colonel, was hailed by President Ronald Reagan as “an extraordinarily effective speaker.” He is one of the top presentation skills trainers in the US. His website is at the top of Google for “persuasive presentations.”
http://www.tracy-presentation.com
Introducing the Youth Work Gap Year Concept
Numerous individuals end up at a time where they simply don’t know what to do next. Perhaps you’re a student who has recently graduated, or perhaps you’re recently retired from work. Possibly you’ve been laid off from work and are demoralised at being unemployed, but equally discouraged by the sort of work opportunities out there. In times like these, we frequently seek a different course of action. A group called DNA (dna-uk.org) are offering such an alternative – to spend your youth work gap year volunteering for a Christian church.
DNA are proffering an almost year long experience of total absorption into Christian Discipleship, ranging from October to August. This is seen as a pragmatic experience, needing the participant to live in a Christian environment – either in your own church if you already attend one, or an assigned church if you’re not presently a member of a church. Your typical day will require assisting with the day to day projects of the church, and to be schooled by its members in bible studies. The course ensures faith in action, so those who join can expect a really pragmatic experience of Christian faith, and not only the study of it.
Further plus points of the studies include:-
- being challenging, radical and life changing
- faith in action; what you’ll study is what you’ll actually do
- outfitting you for church based leading
- training you for the workplace
- dependence on the person and power of the Holy Spirit in and through you
- relational, non religious Christianity; it’s fun!
There are 3 types of course open : Track 1 is the most common entry point to DNA – it is the richest DNA expereince. The vast majority of people choose this as the best pick for them. Track 2 is more acceptable to you if taking a full “year-out” is not pragmatically feasible. This could be for reasons like work or family commitments. Track 2 consequently offers some tractability. Track 3 proffers people the chance of coming in to be with us for as many particular training sessions or days as they want.
Objective on Original Home Remodeling the K-Designers Way
Begin with mindful selection of the best materials from premier suppliers, then cautiously choose the best craftsmen to execute work on a home and you’ll end up with K-Designers principles for success. They believes this dedication to quality earns them the trust of their clientele. Celebrating 31 years in the home remodeling industry, K-Designers persists in this same commitment to quality as they did in the beginning.
Products provided by K-Designers originate from major vendors in the home improvement industry. of products offered to their customers include energy-efficient windows, quality exterior coatings, and patio doors. They also provide security doors, garage doors, and exterior siding in vinyl, aluminum, and steel. K-Designers also offers a gutter protection system as well as exterior window and door trim.
K-Designers has a full crew of design masters with first-hand knowledge in working with a wide-ranging variety of home types. In their 31st year of existence, K-Designers persists to garner the regard of their clients. They make available these design masters to concerned homeowners who solicit information and guidance on how to partake in a home renovation project. K-Designers sends the interior designer to the customers home where they in turn aid the client in planning a project that best suits their demands.
Larry and Lee Judson formed K-Designers in 1978. They began in 1978 with four employees and a commitment to giving customers value for their money. Many years later, K-Designers have more than 900 employees across the country. Committed to design and remodel with supremacy, K-Designers offer a wide variety of products to their customers. They then blend this with expert direction on how a home improvement project should proceed as applied to each home owner’s special situation.
Years of experience in the home remodeling industry assist K-Designers to serve their clients better. Their expert design faculty and trade professionals are the anchor of the Company, as are the quality products they source from reputable providers. The Company measures their success by the number of satisfied customers they serve each year.