Pretty much anyone working in professional services marketing will have sat through the client seminar.
The prospect of a 45 minute (if you're lucky) to a one and a half hour update on some dry legal update or tax change is not always an exciting prospect.
Most attend, I am sure, not for sparkling insights, but for the networking before and afterwards.
Most marketers will also be familiar with the popular TED Talks, and perhaps wonder why our lawyers/accountants/surveyors can't be a little more like them.
This article - from the US-based Science of People and based on hundreds of TED viewings and interviews - includes a great list of what makes a successful TED Talk.
They should service as a pointer for anyone preparing to give a talk or presentation.
In summary:
- Non-verbal as important as what you say
- Jazz hands. Hand movement helps understanding and improves trust
- Scripts kill charisma. Use power point to illustrate your points, not as a script
- Smile - it makes you look smarter, even if subject matter is difficult
- And you have just seven seconds to win your audience.
What makes a successful TED Talk? All TED Talks are good. Why are some great? We set out to answer this question with one of our first crowd-sourced Citizen Science projects. Over the last year, we had 760 volunteers rate hundreds of hours of TED Talks looking for patterns.
http://www.scienceofpeople.com/2015/03/secrets-of-a-successful-ted-talk/
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