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Caroline Spelman's speech at the Guildhall, London A speech by the Environment Minister, Caroline Spelman, highlights the linguistic challenges faced by politicians in government and opposition. Her speech at the Guildhall yesterday was an insight into her department’s contribution to the Rio +20 climate conference in a few months time. Her speech featured many of the standard rhetorical flourishes we take for granted from a well-written political speech. We heard a good contrast: We... Read Full Story

Doodlecast Pro from Zinc Roe Inc. There seems to be no end to the series of clever, resourceful applications targeting business presenters. No doubt their developers sense that many business presentations could do with a bit of spice, some more magic perhaps. It’s questionable whether these applications will ever meet the targeted need for better presentations. Or whether the presenters themselves will ever rise to the occasion and create the rich content that’s promised in the press... Read Full Story

Speech by Malcolm X found after 50 years There can’t be many speeches by famous speakers that manage to lie unheard for 50 years. But that’s exactly what’s happened to a 1961 speech by Malcolm X . The former Nation of Islam leader sought out a speaking opportunity at Brown University in Rhode Island after he had read an article by student Katharine Pierce. Pierce’s article in the Brown Daily Herald had been read by members of the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X wanted the chance to defend... Read Full Story

SlideShare Zeitgeist 2011: Presentation Overview In its annual appraisal of 2011 slide presentations Slideshare has uncovered some revealing findings. The appraisal by Rashmi Sinha , looked at all the presentations submitted during the course of the year. Presentations became longer during the course of the year, but they also used less text. That’s good news for presenters and their audiences. On average Slideshare presentations were 22 slides in length. The longest slide presentation... Read Full Story

Tony Abbott's speech to the Australian Press Club borrows from American presidents When a speech by Anthony Albanese, leader of the House of Representatives in Australia, lifted material from the movie The American President, we saw the funny side. Now it’s getting even funnier. Mr Albanese’s controversial speech attacked Australia’s opposition leader. And now it’s the opposition leader, Tony Abbott, who’s accused of taking material from real American presidents. Tony Abbott’s speech... Read Full Story

Every politician and any serious business person has to turn to a speech writer for help with their speeches. They undoubtedly have the skills to write a speech themselves. What they lack is the time needed for that speech. The time to craft a flow of words, to add some magic and perfect the speech. That’s what they pay for. So it must be really tedious when someone spots that lines from your recent speech owe an awful lot to someone else’s speech. That’s exactly what’s happened to... Read Full Story

Team presentations made easier Web-enabled applications are everywhere right now. Many of us will remember “software as a service” and that’s just about what you get with many of the new “cloud-enabled” presentation services. We spotted this week that the free SlideShark iPad app’ has been updated to accommodate team presentations . That seems like an eminently sensible approach. Most sales, marketing or account management teams have shared presentations that typically sit on an internal... Read Full Story

Now here’s a question. How often have you been distracted by a presenter jingling the coins in his trouser pockets during his presentation? It’s a common occurrence. Monmouthshire County Councillor Phil Murphy is certainly no exception as a presenter who’s prone to jingling. There’s a distinct jingle of coins in pocket as he begins his latest YouTube presentation of the Council’s 2012/ 2013 fiscal position. An unintended thematic start…the jingle, jangle of coins to begin a financial... Read Full Story

Smartphone technology boosts presentations Today’s inter-connected world can be a challenge to any presenter–one only has to think of the distractions posed by trilling ring tones, Blackberry bleeps or text alerts. And that doesn’t take account of the bloggers in your audience using their smart phones to blog, tweet or text. But presenters can strike back. Technology doesn’t have to be a one-sided development for presenters. Smartphones are full of possibilities for the serious business... Read Full Story

It’s taken an appeals court to bring the saga of one of the most disastrous public presentations to a ceasefire. Back in 2004, Drugs Enforcement Administration (DEA) officer Lee Paige was giving a presentation for Florida children on the dangers of guns; a presentation that he’d given dozens of times before. Unfortunately for the DEA officer he managed to accidentally fire his weapon, a Glock 40 pistol. Even more unfortunately he managed to shoot himself. In the leg. Now the seven year... Read Full Story