The 5 Virtual Meeting Revolutions
What are you going to do today? For many typical office workers, the answer is: too many meetings, and not enough time to work. It’s rare that meetings and productivity coincide. At the time of writing, many of us are required to work from home, so physical meetings have become virtual meetings, and they’re not always an improvement. Online meetings present their own set of challenges, principally because unless everyone has their camera switched on, one participant won’t know whether another is paying attention, or is checking Instagram, or has gone to walk his dog, aiming to return at the end of the meeting in time to say goodbye and pick up as few actions as possible.
Continue ReadingThe Top 5 TEDx Talks in number of views
We worked with a lot of TEDx events over the years, and some of the talks have accumulated hundreds of thousands views, some even getting above the 1 million mark. Here are the top 5 talks of events we participated to, in number of views. In fifth place we have Jean-Gabriel Causse, speaking at TEDx Dunkerque, with nearly 600,000 views. Color me shocked, but his is talk about the power of colors is full of interesting details.
Continue ReadingHow we deliver our services remotely
With the current health crisis looming, remote work may no longer be a choice, but a precautionary measure. How do we do it at Ideas on Stage? From day one, Ideas on Stage was created as a digital company. In fact, for many years, we didn’t have a physical office. Even today, we strongly encourage our employees to work remotely and limit their travel to what’s necessary. We can deliver 90% of our services at distance to our clients, whether it’s the creation of a presentation, coaching or training. I think that what we learned in ten years of remote work may be useful to other companies who are not used to this type of organization, and this is what I’d like to share in this article.
Continue ReadingWhy should I hire an external event coordinator? An experienced event manager's point of view
A lot of people think that organizing an event is within everyone’s reach. But is it really true? If you want to organize one for your company, a lot is at stake, including brand reputation as well as the satisfaction of your customers or guests. If you don’t want to take any chances and make a positive impression, it’s important to set up a team dedicated to your project. If you are the organizer in the hot seat, you are likely asking yourself many questions. Should I call a specialist or do the project internally? How do I make sure not to forget anything important? How do I manage the stress and additional work load? And the list goes on. To help you sort through the questions and challenges of planning a successful event, I interviewed Marine, our experienced and extremely efficient event manager, about the advantages of hiring an event coordinator.
Continue ReadingIf you want to be brief and to the point, prepare
A few months ago I recorded an episode for our video channel “The Business Presentation Revolution.” Initially, my content was too long to fit in the 3 to 4 minutes running time that we had planned. Looking at my script, I realized that many sentences could be simplified, some details omitted, and the structure streamlined. After several dry runs and rewrites, we finally managed to get the video down to 3 minutes. But this once again demonstrated that creating a good short video takes a lot more effort than creating a long one.
Continue ReadingThe 3 Magic Ingredients of Great Presentations
Is there a perfect recipe for a successful presentation? No. Partly it depends on the audience and the context: a boardroom presentation shouldn’t look like a TED talk, even if the subject is the same. And different presentations at the same event – a conference, a demo day, an Executive Committee meeting – should also look different from each other, because otherwise none of them will stand out. So if there is no magic formula, are there at least some key ingredients we should always include?
Continue ReadingLife after TED: How to show up in the Post-TED world
You know that mental image you have of what you think you should be like on stage? Yes, that one based upon a mash-up of some of your favorite TED speakers whom you are certain you’ll never be as good as. Well, forget it! Welcome to the Post-TED style of authenticity centered presentation. In my last article, Wash that TED right out of your head: New Post-TED presentation, we explored some of the foundational reasons which many are experiencing, and what I call, “TED-like style Fatigue”. Please see that first, as it was the second in a series of three articles exploring this subject. However, if you already think you know what I mean by TED-like style fatigue, then by all means read on.
Continue ReadingShould I stand behind the lectern?
The lectern is a staple of traditional speeches. We see politicians use them all the time, as well as… who else? Who, apart from politicians, still uses a lectern? If I had to create a 0 to 10 presentation scale where 0 is totally informal and 10 is fully formal, I would say that running naked on stage is 0 and speaking from behind a lectern is 11. Yes, the lectern is really that formal, and in 99% of the cases, that’s not a good thing.
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