Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Ikea replaces Powerpoint!

Gavin Meikle — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:10:59 +0000

Whilst I am a fan of the intelligent and sparing use of PowerPoint and other presentation tools I am always on the lookout for great examples of presentations which use props to bring their messages to life.

I recently came across this short 10 minute video on TED and I commend it to you. Hans Rosling is an inspiring and creative presenter and I love how he uses a simple and readily available prop to help his audience understand some mind [...]

Ikea replaces Powerpoint! is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Conflict and how to manage it

Gavin Meikle — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:29:53 +0000

Does your business or at least some areas of it suffer from moaning, bitching & complaining? If it does, these are all symptoms of low level conflict and they could be costing your business dearly.

Think about it for a moment. What are the consequences of such behaviour – Poor customer service, low productivity, poor quality, and low staff morale to name but a few. So what is the cause of such conflict and what can you do about it?

The underlying [...]

Conflict and how to manage it is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

The secrets of successful seminars

Gavin Meikle — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 09:00:01 +0000

Seminars are a powerful business building strategy when done right. They are a great way to strengthen relationships with existing clients and showcase your expertise to new ones.

If done well you can also create an environment where existing happy customers “sell” your services to prospective customers naturally and unobtrusively.

Recently I was privileged to attend such an event run by one of my clients, a large accountancy firm. I had been helping one of the partners put together [...]

The secrets of successful seminars is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Storytelling in speeches and presentations

Gavin Meikle — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Stories are at the heart of communication.

Ever since humans developed language we have used stories as a powerful method transfering knowledge. We teach our children through stories. We build relationships and bonds through sharing stories. We are entertained by stories.

I would argue that we spend much of our non-work time storytelling. Socially we understand that the best stories are engaging, entertaining, and memorable. Yet when it comes to business communications we have a tendency to throw all our experience [...]

Storytelling in speeches and presentations is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Do we need a new sales vocabulary?

Gavin Meikle — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:58:30 +0000

Recently I was having a conversation with a fellow sales trainer about why some people find selling such a challenge. One reason we agreed on was that the words “sales” and “selling” have a ton of unhelpful mental baggage associated with them.

Just test this out for yourself right now. Grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down or draw all the associations that spring to mind when you think of the words sales or selling.

What words come [...]

Do we need a new sales vocabulary? is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Is your presentation losing you business?

Gavin Meikle — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 16:02:21 +0000

If you pitch for a specific piece of work and don’t get it that dissapointing but at least you know that you lost it and you can try and do something about it before the next pitch.

But what about when you give a presentation to a group of potential clients with the hope of generating new leads. What happens if your presentation turns your audience off rather than on? You could be losing sales because they won’t even invite you [...]

Is your presentation losing you business? is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Speech writing tips the Disney way

Gavin Meikle — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 08:29:06 +0000

Most of us probably can’t rely on the luxury of a professional speech writer to craft our presentations but that doesn’t mean we can’t pick up some great speech writing tips from the pros.

In this post I want to share with you how you can use the same strategy to write speeches that Walt Disney used to create his cartoon masterpieces.

Disney used a three stage strategy which has been modeled by NLP expert Robert Dilts. Dilts labelled these three stages Dreamer, [...]

Speech writing tips the Disney way is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

Why should I hire a presentation coach?

Gavin Meikle — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 16:32:48 +0000

Perhaps you know someone who has asked you this question or know of someone who would benefit from professional assistance but hasn’t taken the plunge so far. Here are the typical reasons that my clients give me when I ask them “Why did you come?”

To speed up my learning process. It’s absolutely true that there are good speakers who have never sought the services of a presentation skills expert. They have learned by the traditional method of trial and error [...]

Why should I hire a presentation coach? is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

The 7 things senior management need to know about effective presenting

Gavin Meikle — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 07:25:48 +0000

Whenever a CEO or Senior Manager stands up to speak they have the opportunity to positively engage and influence. I believe that this opportunity is all too often squandered, Here are some thoughts on the common Senior Management presentation mistakes made by senior executives along with some simple solutions.

1) Just because you are senior doesn’t mean you are automatically a great speaker:

I have heard a lot of senior management, directors and CEO’s speak. A few of them have been outstanding, some have been [...]

The 7 things senior management need to know about effective presenting is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing

My first full presentation using iPad and iphone

Gavin Meikle — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 16:10:12 +0000

Earlier this week I gave my first live presentation using only my iPad hooked up to a VGA projector and my iphone as the remote control.

It all worked perfectly and apart from almost dropping the iphone half way through all went well. I even got comments afterwards about the great slides. The only shortcoming I could find was that there seems to be no way to blank the screen in between slides when giving a presentation using iPad. [...]

My first full presentation using iPad and iphone is a post from: Inter-Activ Presenting and Influencing