One of the most stressful moments when speaking at an event is actually not during your presentation, but the hours before your presentation. To some speakers, the wait can be so stressful that they completely lose their presence. As mother nature didn’t give humans an appropriate instinctive response to face the stress of a presentation, they adopt one of the basic survival techniques for protection: they fight the public, they flee, or they “play dead”.
You know these presenters who speak for 20 minutes before they finally understand what they are talking about? I had a colleague who was just like that. When I asked him why he couldn’t do a shorter introduction, he said that he felt that all the details he gave in his opening were indispensable to understand the presentation. In other words, he was taking the time to explain the context before talking about his subject.
Should we move on stage when speaking, to avoid looking static? Or should we stay put on our feet, avoiding any unnecessary movements? Strangely, if we ask different coaches, we’re likely to get different answers. I remember meeting several coaches who followed classical theatre training at “La Comédie Française”, and they would recommend that you don’t move on stage when you’re speaking. I also remember other coaches telling startup pitchers that they looked like dead trees devoid of any energy because they didn’t move enough.
The communication industry is full of myths that are repeated without any scientific backing. I recently watched this video by a former FBI body language specialist. He used his skills to help bust criminals. The first thing he does (at 1'10") is bust the myth that crossing your arms is a blocking behavior.
Bingo. I cannot agree more with this. Most people cross their arms because it’s a comfortable position, not because they have a mental block, period.
Ideas on Stage now welcomes you in their Champs Élysées offices. Located in the heart of Paris, they offer the perfect atmosphere to make the best out of your public speaking coaching sessions. And above all, the coffee is very good (although we recommend to avoid it before speaking in public)!
What a change a few years can make. When we created the company, we rented a space in a shared office.
I don’t think it’s exaggerated to say that the mentality in public speaking coaching and oratory coaching is fairly conservative. After all, many of the techniques that are taught today were developed by some guys in togas before year one of our calendar!
But the world has changed a lot since then, and recent technology advances have opened new exciting possibilities for public presentation training. One of these technologies is virtual reality.
In 2009, the year when TED decided to launch its TEDx license program, Prezi was born out of the desire to overcome the limitations of tools like PowerPoint and Keynote. With its dramatic zooming and panning effects, it certainly did catch the eye of audiences worldwide when it was introduced. But its over-reliance on movement effects quickly became a visual nuisance, making the audience feel as if they had been on a boat caught in a category 10 hurricane.
By now, the last episode of the cult show Game of Thrones has aired. I haven’t seen it, and I didn’t want to see it before writing this article. Whether it accurately follows the storyline of the books or not is a moot point, because said book hasn’t been written yet. And it shows. I won’t spoil anything, don’t worry. But everyone noticed that the screenwriting of the seasons that could rely on George R.
