The Art of Presentation – Speaker and Presentation Bloggers

There will be common elements between all of the presenters in that there will be a structure of some form. It is a skill that can be taught by people who have information and the gift of teaching. It is also something that can be learned if you find the right resources.

Let me introduce you to a few of the bloggers who help others to give great speeches and presentations. The first two I met during PresentationCamp Los Angeles. I want to start with them because they demonstrated the very skills other claim to teach.

The first is Olivia Mitchell who lives way over cross the creek in New Zealand. She has posts on What You Need To Know Before Your First Presentation.

This is an excerpt:

There’s one thing though that most people are slower to forgive - and that’s a lack of preparation leading to disorganized and rambling content. They’ve given up their time to listen to you - respect that by putting time into your preparation.

Another thing that is very helpful is that she does presentation critiques. Check out the analysis of a presentation by author Malcolm Gladwell where Olivia breaks the presentation down to the elements to shows you what works and what could be improved.

Lisa Braithwaite at Speak Schmeak has a tremendous amount of posts on her blog. There are posts on anxiety, voice and when Audience Members Attack.

Being a speaker or presenter means believing in yourself and having confidence.  Either you have a knowledge that someone values or you couldn’t run out of the room fast enough. Either way, you have to believe that you have the power.

Other Speakers and Presentation Bloggers

Sarah Gershman at the Greenroom blog gives short concise tips on public speaking, behavior and being focused and present. Yes, we’ve all seen speakers that are able to stand before us and still phone in the talk. I liked her post on Listen to the Pop to Know When to Stop.

Ellen Finkelstein's PowerPoint Tips blog is information dense, just the way I like it. She has got information on how to give presentations, customize PowerPoint and other resources that help presenters use Microsoft PowerPoint better. I’m definitely going to be snagging an idea or two from her.

Contrast Ellen’s ways she uses PowerPoint with Joan Curtis and her post the Perils of PowerPoint.  Dr. Curtis is reminding folks that slide presentation programs are a tool, it should not be the whole experience when your give a presentation.

For those that might be giving science or technology based presentations you might want to check out Lisa B. Marshall’s blog, The Art of Speaking Science. Lisa also has The Art of Speaking Business blog. You might want to check out her Seminar page where she has downloadable pdf  on topics like How To Build and Maintain Your Network and How to Give A Research Based Presentation.

This is an extremely small sampling of the world of speaker and presentation bloggers but these folks have much to offer. Dive in and soak it up.

Gena Haskett is a Contributing Editor at BlogHer  where this post originally appeared.