The Business Section of the Sunday New York Times deveotes a quarter-page to sharing eight tips on public speaking. Columnist Phyllis Korkki’s Career Couch answers questions such as “You have been asked to give a speech, and even though you’re an expert on the topic, you feel terrified. Why?”

The advice shared is all spot-on: rehearse beforehand; use an outline rather than a script; slow down your delivery and use vocal variety; minimize PowerPoint; harness nervous energy and turn it into enthusiasm.

The last piece of advice is attributed to “a set of tips prepared by the National Speakers Association”. Since Ms. Korrki does not say which document she found these tips in, I can only encourage readers to check out the various educational programs the NSA has on offer.

Meanwhile, I can attribute the amusing cartoon of a speaker looking like a deer in the headlights to the Times article.

Canadian freelancer Colin Moorhouse writes about his proven formula for finding new clients:

• Publish a Web site and/or blog showcasing your expertize
• Teach speechwriting seminars
• Publish articles on the subjects of speechwriting and rhetoric in consumer and trade publications

You can find out more about Colin by reading his website or blog and signing up for his free newsletters.

Carlos Gutierrez is an inspirational bilingual speaker.

Carlos is a survivor. He’s survived several car accidents and paralysis. Carlos’s story is captivating; not only for his achievements, but for his circumstances and his challenging positive attitude. His inspiration comes from the heart.

Carlos is an entrepreneur. In the last five years, he has built three different businesses, and has inspired thousands of people with his presentations and his sales career in Finance and Real Estate. Carlos is writing a book in Spanish to help and inspire people in his native language. Eventually, he plans to write the book in English.

Carlos speaks on his passions: Education, Real Estate Investment, Love, Compassion, Suicide Prevention, Parenting, Marriage, Wealth, Happiness and Life Purpose, Human and Civil Rights.

I asked Carlos to explain more about his speaking topics and what value he’s finding in the National Speakers Association Pro-Track program. To hear what he told me, click on the podcast icon below.

 

 Interview: Carlos Guiterrez [4:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Thanks to KC in the Toastmaster’s group I belong to for a link to Changing Minds.

This website has over 2500 suggestions on how we can change the ways others think, believe, feel and do. Since the point of all pubic speaking is to change the audience’s mind (otherwise, why bother?) there’s a boat-load of useful tips and tricks for speakers and speechwriters in here. Everything from the persuasive power of Storytelling in a presentation to confidence tricks to watch out for (heaven forbid you’d actually consider using them!)

While some of the material, though fascinating, is tangential to public speaking, most is right on the money. Here’s an example of the importance of the power of three in a speech:

Use three related words or phrases to grab attention, encapsulate, summarize.

This can be three single words, three phrases or three complete sentences.

The three items can be any three items that fit together to make an impact, including:

• The same item each time, hammering home the point.
• Three key themes that together cover a wide area.
• Three items that act in sequence to get to a desired goal.
• Two problems and a solution that resolves the problem.
• Two actions or objectives and a solution that will result from achieving these.
• The three items can be connected in by a rising or reducing pitch for each one. Going up increases emotion, going down closed on finality and certainty.

Example:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. (Mark Anthony)

Our objectives are clear: Saddam Hussein’s forces will leave Kuwait. The legitimate government of Kuwait will be restored to its rightful place, and Kuwait will once again be free. (George Bush, Snr, 1990)

There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our Democracy in what is happening here tonight. (L.B.Johnson — ‘we shall overcome’ speech, 1965)

This website deserves to be bookmarked for future reference.

One of the highlights of the Press Conference held at Hewlett-Packard earlier this month was the premier of a video showcasing the latest innovations from HP Labs.

The video features some of the 600+ scientists and engineers from around the world who work at Labs explaining their research in nanotechnology, sustainability, predicting the behavior of crowds, context aware computing and more. But this is not just a dry ‘talking heads’ film. The video uses creative animations to make each invention come alive. The researchers show what inspires them and explain how they turn their dreams into reality.

My favorite segment is Philip Stenton’s stunning demonstration of Mediascapes. This context-aware solution transforms the quotidian into the phantasmagorical. He illustrates how the technology is “like rolling out a digital carpet on a physical landscape” as the downtown street around him morphs into a medieval castle with fire breathing dragons. Gamers, eat your hearts out! Philip then shows how the same technology can be used in the business world as he uses Mediascapes ‘X-Ray Vision’ capability to uncover wiring schematics buried behind walls and conduits beneath the city streets. Coming soon to a city maintenance department near you?

I was also fascinated by Andrew Bowell’s explanation of BookPrep digitization which takes print-on-demand to a whole new level. This makes it possible to bring back into print every book ever printed. The possibilities for people to build profitable small businesses catering to niche markets with customized reprints of books are endless. Mash-ups of recipe books (pun intended) are first out of the chute at the Foodsville community portal.

The video lasts just under seven minutes. Take the time to witness state-of-art in high tech research profiled in a state-of-the-art video. Click the play button below.

In addition to the video of Shane Robison, Foremski’s blog has a longer clip of Head of Marketing Michael Mendenhall, Labs Director Prith Banerjee and CEO Mark Hurd discussing the new blueprint for R&D in the Labs:

Silicon Valley watcher Tom Foremski (a former FT columnist) brought a video camera to last Thursday’s HP Labs launch and posted a clip of Chief Strategy Officer Shane Robison discussing HP’s strategy. Says Foremski:

This is one of the most lucid accounts of HP’s strategy that I’ve come across.

Watch the YouTube video and see what you think:

Just after I finished talking with Art Fong, my colleague Barbara Waugh introduced me to another distinguished HP retiree - Zvonko Fazarinc.

Dr. Fazarinc emigrated from Yugoslavia and started working at HP Labs in 1965. He remembers clearly the impact that Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett’s management style had on Labs - which they used to visit every morning when arriving at work.

Listen to the podcast to hear some amazing stories - such as the time he tried to convince Dave Packard that he found more socialism in action with the HP Way than back home in Yugoslavia!

 

 Zvonko Fazarinc - HP Retiree [5:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

One of the unexpected delights in the HP Labs event in Palo Alto today was the opportunity to meet many of the retired employees who were invited to attend.

It was a great honor to talk with Art Fong. He was recruited to the company back in 1946 by Bill Hewlett over a home-cooked spaghetti dinner. He was one of the first 100 employees at what is now a 172,000 person company.

He shared some stories of his years at HP and how inventions he created helped change history. His opinion of the research being done today? “Real cool!”

To hear Art discuss unique moments in HP history, click on the podcast icon below.

 

 HP retireee Art Fong [5:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

E Pluribus Unum - Out of One, Many
HP Labs Pluribus - Out of Many projectors, One super-screen

Super-bright, large-scale, and very high-resolution digital projectors are indispensable tools of modern communication. They help CEOs wow audiences of analysts. They make rock concerts intimate. They turn computer gaming into a spectator sport. And they can make digital cinema an instant reality.

They are also very expensive. Prices for high-end projectors run into tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, which keeps these devices from being widely used.

HP Labs’ Nelson Chang and Niranjan Damera-Venkata had a hunch they could make a much cheaper projection system by combining the outputs of several smaller projectors to create a single, high-quality image. They work in the Multimedia Interaction and Understanding Lab in Palo Alto on a project code-named Pluribus.

Seeing Pluribus in action, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the huge, crystal-clear picture it creates. Hook a 16-foot screen up to a game of Madden NFL Football, for example, and the players are life-size - putting you front row and center at the same scale as the real thing.
Although Pluribus looks great, its true appeal lies in the cost savings it offers anyone in the business of projecting large images. How so? For example, Pluribus can combine ten off-the-shelf projectors costing $1,000 each to project an image as bright and sharp as that created by a single high-grade projector costing $100,000.

Once this technology reaches your local Best Buy it will cause the prices of what is possible with high-end home theatre to be reset to a new price-point. You’ll just have to be patient. Hear Nelson and Niranjan discuss their work in the podcast.

 

 Pluribus - Video Projection on Steroids [4:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download