Why Develop An Online Speaker Training Programme | The Purpose, The Why, The What

The above is fun and real.

Am spending my spare time developing out ‘The Best Damn Speaking Course On The Internet (Even The Planet)‘.

My current focus (apart from pooling together some fab speakers to share their knowledge) is on the experience and value the customer / member receives plus the why and what truth this project essentially serves.

This is what I’ve come up with:

This is for the project manager who needs to delight and astonish their bosses / colleagues in that important meeting.

This is for the conference organiser who has realised that titles and positions of authority does not equate to being a good public speaker.

This is for lecturers who want to engage the whole room, from the front-seat-swots to the back-of-the-room-hall-dwellers.

This is for the sales rep who is hungry to explore the power of telling stories and is craves some inspiration.

This is for the tired executive whose career needs new energy and vitality to project them forward in the looming performance review.

This is for those who can’t ever imagine speaking to a room of people (no matter how big or small) and have a positive impact.

This is for you.

It will exist to aid, challenge, enable, add, energise, delight, empower, sharpen, equip all newbies and old hands to be able to speak better.

To present with clarity and purpose.

To become a kick ass communicator.

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Lifes’ Message

Lifes' Message

Change the word “American” for “lifes'”

Found here
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PressPausePlay

If you’re creative this will excite you.

If you’re in management, in an old industry / sector or new to the emerging digital culture and online economies, then this will scare the beejeebas out of you.

The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities.

But does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.

Watch it.

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Living Without Television | Replacing The Idiot Box

A year without a tv.

Back in the 1950’s Winky Dink And You (see above video) was at the forefront of interactive media. Kids were invited to participate in concluding every episode by literally connecting the dots using a transparent sheet placed on the television screen and drawing on it with special pens (they were just crayons).

Over half a century later the box in the corner avails a gargantuan amount of viewing options. Our interaction is mainly with the remote, which is used as a tool to carve through the immensity offered. Texting to vote on some karaoke-style show or choosing between which sport commentary is the depth of our interaction—most content is still a passive consumption one-way serving.

Just like the acetate used by the kids, we are simply completing the narrative proposed rather than defining a wholly original one for ourselves or even shaping its future.

There is another way…

Embrace the opportunity to find our own voice.

Rage and publish.

Aggregate and share.

Understand the power of creating your own media menu.

The world is not what the news tells you it is.

It is far sadder.

Madder.

Awesome.

Inspiring.

Lovely.

Creative.

Get out.

Develop your own media.

Your own message.

Take photos (nearly everyone reading this have a device which does this).

Share.

Capture audio.

Share.

Shoot video.

Share.

Comment like a fool (don’t just nod your head and move on).

Click all the buttons.

Try breaking the web (you can’t—I tried).

Talk to people.

Connect with people.

Ask them questions.

Set up an RSS aggregator.

Subscribe to a vast array of varying blogs and online spaces.

Blog yourself.

Understand the difference between curation and creation.

Craft a more balanced media diet.

Don’t accept the world as it is offered to you.

Get rid of your television and live longer, have more / better sex, look taller / slimmer / younger, earn more money, etc

Disclaimer: last line may not be true.
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Learning@School 2012 | Tracking Twitter Infographic

lats12 twitter report

Another infographic for my fab employers regarding the recent Learning@School 2012 conference.

Approximately 1,300 teachers for two days of educational musings, wonderings, provocations, challenges, solutions etc

Some takeaways:

  • the increase in all numbers from Ulearn11 (our last big conference back in October—wonder if the 5 Step Twitter Newbie Start Plan video I did helped?)
  • the expanded use of links within tweets plus conversations which followed (probably a little due to the fact I set up open Google Docs so the audience could collaboratively take notes during the four main keynotes—can be found on the Learning@School blog)
  • the potential reach of the conversations (calculated by the TweetReach reports)

What did you take away from the infographic? Am I asking the wrong questions? What do you think of the results? Were you at the conference and tweeting out and if so how did it add to your experience of the event?

Related post: Ulearn11 | How Twitter Makes An Event Global and Infographics | The New Social Media Snack / Crack
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The Illustrated Gladwell

Another great offering from the lens of Hillman Curtis.

Originally posted on January 3rd but I was a little too keen, Hillman pulled it into private mode as not quite ready to share. Now it’s available for your eyes, brain, soul…

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Apples Keynote | Seven Great Uses Other Than Presenting With It

keynote logo

Keynote is Powerpoints funkier and far more slicker younger brother.

Been an avid fanboy of this fantastic application since switching to a Mac (nearly ten years) and thought I’d share the other ways I’ve used this uber-versatile presentation software:

  1. Video Vignetting—take one .png file and apply it over a video on a slide, export presentation as movie and hey presto, instant vignetting;
  2. Movie credit former—craft all your opening and closing movie credits with the great animation text effects plus some images / video underneath if that’s how you roll (again, once finished just export as movie and import into your editing software)
  3. Animation creator—create awesome little animations like this and this and this;
  4. Pie charts / bar graphs maker—create amazing 3D stats with the inbuilt chart maker;
  5. Advert / flyer / poster / desktop image tool—a simpler version that Photoshop (I created this infographic in Keynote);
  6. Resizer / repositioner / recutter of images—make things bigger, smaller, overlapping, cut things out etc with the in-built image editor;
  7. Design sites / applications—due to it’s simple interface designers are starting to use it to wireframe their websites plus others are exploring it application / programme design as well;

So what about you? How do you use yours?

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It’s Just A Ride

Fear / love: which are you going to choose…

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