I help edit SPEAKER Magazine for the National Speakers Association (NSA). Each month I curate the Relevant Resources column – a list of time-saving tools and technologies.

The July / August 2012 edition listed web-based resources for professional speakers. This is the last column I will edit, as a new editorial team takes over in September.

Experienced speakers know that they need all the help they can get. It is a mistake to try and do everything yourself. However, most tasks that used to require a full-time person can now be completed with the help of web-based software or a virtual assistant. What’s more, today’s cloud-based apps give you access to projects and allow for easy collaboration with your staff from your desktop, laptop, or mobile device.

The Grass is Greener

The Grasshopper® Entrepreneur’s Phone System lets you run your business professionally using cell phones. With a local or toll free number, unlimited extensions, live call forwarding, on hold music, name directory, and more, your small business can function like a Fortune 500 company. With Grasshopper, you can be reached on your home, office, mobile or VoIP phone. Plans start at $24/ month.

Carbon Copy

Hard drives crash. Laptops get stolen. Files are accidentally deleted. Let’s face it; our lives are on our computers. Stay in the clear with Carbonite®, a software that backs up your files to the cloud automatically so you can access them any time. Carbonite also has a free mobile app, allowing users to access their files on the go. Free trial. Pricing starts at $59/year for unlimited backup space for one computer.

Happy Camper

Take the “work” out of teamwork with Basecamp, a web-based project management system that makes collaboration easy with integrated email and calendars. Basecamp lets you to organize all of your documents in one place and share them with colleagues and clients. It also integrates with third-party apps like Highrise® CRM, Backpack, and Campfire chat. Starts at $20/month for up to 10 projects.

Done and Done

Recently acquired by Salesforce.com, Do is a social productivity app that works with Google Apps, Dropbox, and Salesforce (of course) to sync tasks and help you manage projects with your team no matter where you are. Do also includes a Gmail gadget that allows users to assign tasks via email. Simply send a short email to task@do.com and the app will automatically detect your address and add an entry. Free.

It’s in the Box

Gain remote access to your files from any web browser or mobile device when you create an account with Dropbox. The app lets you store documents, photos, music files, and videos securely, and access them later from any location – your home, office, or on the road. Works with Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone, Android and Blackberry. Free for 2GB of storage; up to $200/year for 200GB of storage.

Google Plus

You’re probably already familiar with Google’s Gmail, but have you utilized Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Google Drive? Explore the full suite of cloud-based apps from Google that let you create and share documents, sync calendars, send event reminders and attachments, and store files that can be accessed from anywhere. Google Drive is free for 5GB storage. $4/month for 20GB. See them all at Google.com.

Make Contact

Known as a popular email marketing tool, Constant Contact® recently added event marketing to its laundry list of services. Use this web-based tool to create and customize email campaigns from more than 400 template designs, add images and video links, blog content, surveys, and more to help your clients interact with and benefit from your newsletters. Starting at $15/month for 500 contacts.

Get Smart

Like a spreadsheet, but smarter, Smartsheet is a real-time collaboration tool that lets you manage projects, tasks, sales, marketing, human resources, and more. Smartsheet spreadsheets integrate with Google so you can update on the go, and they can be linked to Salesforce accounts, contacts, and opportunities for collaboration on project statuses, files, and discussions. $15.95/ month for up to 10 projects.

Speaker Solutions

Organize, promote, and grow your business with simple, proven solutions that allow you to spend more time speaking and less time dealing with administrative chores. eSpeakers, founded by an NSA member, is the industry standard, offering user-friendly business development tools that make you look competent and polished behind the scenes, as well as on the stage. Starts at $39.95/month.

You can subscribe to SPEAKER magazine on the NSA website.

I help edit SPEAKER Magazine for the National Speakers Association (NSA). Each month I curate the Relevant Resources column – a list of time-saving tools and technologies.

The June 2012 edition listed AV supplies for professional speakers. Speakers for speakers, so to speak…

Professional speakers have a multitude of AV needs in their home offices as well as on the platform. Whether your goal is to make money in your jammies or reduce noise interruption when presenting to live audiences, you should consider investing in your own audio products. Get started with this assortment of quality microphones, recorders, speakers, software solutions, and accessories.

Pop screen

You know when you say the letter “p” into a microphone and you hear that annoying pop noise in the audio recording? It doesn’t have to be that way. Pop filters are screens that filter the popping sounds that occur when you speak into a microphone (not to be confused with the foam covers that function as windscreens). Using a pop filter can make a significant difference in your sound quality. Check out this filter for only $15 on amazon.com.

How to Record Skype Calls

CallBurner is an application that works with Skype to record your calls and convert them directly to mp3 or wav files for the best quality. Ideal for business meetings and podcasts, CallBurner creates crisp, clean, professional recordings, and is great for keeping a call archive. PC only. Free 30-day free trial, $49.95 after.

A Simple Audio File Editor

Whether you’re new to editing, or you’re a pro who just wants an easy, yet powerful, solution, Audacity® is the package deal. A free, open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds, Audacity supports mp3, wav and aiff files; allows users to cut, copy, splice and mix sounds together; and you can also change the speed and pitch of recordings. This is the software I use to edit all my podcasts. Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

A Quality Digital Recorder

A digital voice recorder, like the Olympus VN-8100PC Digital Voice Recorder 142600, allows you to record your own presentations and interview audience members for testimonials. This one features 2 GB memory, USB connection, support for mp3 or WMA formats, a large LCD screen, and a long battery life. $82. Use it with the Olympus ME-15 Microphone. $22.

The Snowball Microphone

If you’re looking for a simple plug n’ play mic that connects to your computer and is ideal for podcasting, check out the Snowball USB Microphone. Snowball is the world’s first professional USB microphone that sounds just as good on your desktop as it does in a recording studio. The retro design is attractive and its three-way switch can handle a variety of recording applications. Connects with PC, Mac, or iPad. $66.

Screencasting

Want to speak, train, and sell more? Camtasia® Studio makes it easy. With this software, you can record presentations, product demos, and sales presentations; create interactive “screencast” training videos; and add a boost to your blog without going over budget. Available for PC and Mac. $300.

An Invisible Mic

Tech-geek speakers who want the ultimate cool onstage presence will love the Countryman E6 Omni Earset Mic. Practically invisible to live audiences, this headset captures sources clearly with excellent rejection of ambient noise, and it is incredibly comfortable to wear. $325.

A Rechargeable Wireless Microphone System

Save cash without compromising quality when you opt for the VHF-3300 2 Channel VHF Rechargeable Wireless Microphone System from VocoPro. While not in use, set microphones in the charging port on top of the receiver. The set features Squelch Circuitry to eliminate background noise, individual volume controls, LED indicators to monitor signal strength, and a range of up to 150 feet. $142.

Great Self-Contained Speaker System

Say goodbye to those backbreaking floor wedges when you discover the 150-Watt Behringer EUROLIVE B205D Speaker System, an ultra-compact PA speaker with amazing sound quality. Featuring revolutionary amplifier technology, a 3-channel mixer, two mic preamps with phantom power, dedicated stereo input and more, Eurolive delivers high power and tremendous functionality at a great price. $150.

Shure Wireless Mics

When onstage, a hands-free lavalier microphone provides freedom of mobility. The Shure SLX124/85/SM58 Dual System features a Shure SLX4 Diversity Receiver, a Shure SLX2/58 Handheld Transmitter with SM58 Microphone, a Shure WL185 Cardioid Lavalier Microphone, and a Shure SLX1 Bodypack Wireless Transmitter. In addition to serving as backup, the second (handheld) wireless mic is a great way to perform Q&A with your audience without the hassle of cables. $889.

Portable Presentation Speakers

Like the Behringer Eurolive, the GoSpeak! Pro Portable Presentation Speakers are extremely portable and pack an impressive list of features, but at a slightly higher price point. These 13 x 9 inch flat panel NXT® technology speakers slide into your laptop bag with ease and provide uniform volume throughout a room with up to 200 people. Plug them into a regular microphone, CD player, laptop, or other sound source. $290.

You can subscribe to SPEAKER magazine on the NSA website.

The recent Tech Policy Summit at the Silverado Country Club in the Napa Valley was a well organized and engaging event. Too many conferences are painful to attend; lengthy keynote speeches in windowless hotel rooms, rubber chicken and endless PowerPoint conspire to dull the senses. This event was an exception. Here’s a list of the best practices that made a difference:

Location, Location, Location

The Silverado is an hour’s drive north of San Francisco, just far enough away to encourage those who could afford to stay over to do so, but an easy drive for anyone who wanted to commute. This eliminated the temptation for people to leave early and swing by the office. The conference “room” was a deck overlooking the golf course and the Napa Valley hills. It might have been distracting, but the a/v system overcame ambient sound from the fairways and the temperature in the shade was just right. People stay awake out of doors; in darkened conference rooms they fall asleep.

An Active Backchannel

Over 900 tweets were generated on the first day of the event alone. The Agenda listed the #TPS2012 hashtag together with Twitter handles for all panel members. There was excellent WiFi and a majority of the audience engaged with the backchannel on their laptops and smartphones.

While some attendees provided a valuable “live tweeting” service listing the main points being discussed, others offered reaction, opinion and responses. For those of us who were following (and this was not confined to those who were there in person) the tweet-stream augmented the event.

There was even the phenomena of greeting people in person who you’d previously exchanged tweets with:

@KatieS: New phrase coined at Tech Policy Summit for meeting people in person after twitter chats – TWIRL: #Twitter In Real Life.

Panels Not PowerPoint

The agenda was exclusively comprised of panels. No keynotes, no PowerPoint, hence no need for a darkened room. The panelists often presented ‘point/counterpoint’ viewpoints that generated lively, sometimes heated, debates:

@kitode: Spirited debate on copyright between @mmasnick and @jttaplin of @USC @annenberg

@emilycastor: It’s getting heated! “You [@mmasnick] are not a neutral blogger, you are a shill for the technology industry.” – @JTTaplin

They checked most of the boxes in the Tips for panelists that I’ve listed in the past. Any exceptions were called out by the audience:

@pine_apple123: can we have a “Do Not Pitch” setting for @joshgalper?

Diversity

The event attracted a diverse audience: from Hollywood to Silicon Valley; the East and the West Coasts; Geeks and Legal Eagles. Tech Policy touches many areas: privacy; innovation; entrepreneurship; censorship; competitiveness; cybersecurity; a path for responsible online access; kids on Facebook; charges of incompetence and corruption in governments; complaints about the hubris of start-ups; and more, much more.

Diversity of viewpoints made for a vibrant event.

@redgraveK: love that there are 3 women (1 man) and a woman moderator on #tps2012 panel! @changetheratio #xxintech

Competent Moderators

As lively as the panels sometimes got, the humor and intelligence of the moderators was appreciated.

@whafro: You all know I appreciate a good panel moderator (99% of them suck), and @declanm is doing a mighty fine job with this one at #tps2012

Lesson Learned

Kudos to Natalie Fonseca, Co-founder and Executive Director for planning this event.

The lesson I took away was that, as the closing words from the first day stated: participants must learn to tell their stories to effect change in Tech Policy. People need to seize every opportunity to bring these issues to audiences in ways that everyday people can understand. And, as powerful as the panels at this event were, that might mean crafting an elevator speech or position statement that calls on the skills of a competent technology speechwriter.

I’m standing by … 🙂

Joanne Westley is a senior manager in the supply chain of the UK’s Jansen Display. In her spare time Joanne likes to go mountain biking as well as hiking in the Lake District.

Presentations are stressful, and PowerPoint can make them even more so. Will the computer read your USB stick? Will the version of PowerPoint be different? Are your pictures and video going to show up right?

And, even if all that works out, will you hear a groan from the audience when they see the first slide from yet another cookie cutter slideshow?

Break the cycle and move beyond PowerPoint. There are new and exciting tools available that will let you add some spice to your talk, as well as open new avenues for collaboration.

Prezi

Prezi is the darling child of next-gen presentations. While the user interface can be daunting to a novice user, once mastered Prezi can produce murmurs of approval from your audience. While you can recreate the sterile slideshow feel within Prezi, it also has the ability to zoom in and out, rotate, and create visual experiences that are not possible from PowerPoint. Prezi can also integrate YouTube and other content seamlessly.

SlideRocket

Sliderocket will look much more familiar to PowerPoint users. It’s slide based, but offers a snazzier selection of tools and ingredients out of the box than PowerPoint. You can add charts, tables, video, and audio, and the interface is very intuitive. Be careful though, both SlideRocket and Prezi will have issues if running on a slow computer or an out of date browser.

Google Docs

The Presentations feature of Google Documents is a simple, no-nonsense slide creator. It offers the majority of the same features as PowerPoint, although it lacks the ability to insert audio and has less presentation customization. However, given the growing popularity of the Google Documents suite, this is a safe choice for group presentations since it’s likely they already have a Google account.

Whiteboards

One thing these digital formats lack is the ability to make adjustments to your presentation on the fly. Instead of PowerPoint or another online show, consider using a simple whiteboard for your presentation. This allows you to more closely tie your visual content to your talk by creating it as you go, as well as making your presentation more interactive by having the ability to answer questions on the whiteboard. Just make sure you and your audience will be comfortable with your handwriting and diagramming.

Zoho Show

Another online alternative, Zoho Show is as close to an online clone of PowerPoint as it gets. The menus and options have the same look and feel as the traditional Microsoft product, and so Zoho would be a good choice for a less technically savvy group who still wants to use an online digital platform for their presentation.

No matter which tool you choose, take the time to learn it and your material well, and your presentation will be a success. Based on my research, Prezi has the most potential for creating a Wow! experience, while Google Presentations is number one for ease of use. If you have an artistic streak, though, go for the whiteboard. Good luck!

The final day of the 2012 Ragan Speechwriters Conference ended with a Speechwriter’s Survival Guide Panel session:

Caryn Alagno (CA), SVP, Corporate Issues at Edleman
Mike Long (ML), Freelance Speechwriter
Colin Moorehouse (CM), Freelance Speechwriter
David Murray (DM), editor of Vital Speeches of the Day
Pete Weissman (PW), Freelance Communications Strategist and Speechwriter

Fletcher Dean, Director of Leadership Communications at The Dow Chemical Company was the moderator.

1. If you are an unemployed speechwriter, or a freelancer between assignments, join an Association of communicators like IABC or NSA, volunteer to meet everyone. Then join an Association, such as for biotechnologists, where there are no other speechwriters, pass your business card around to make contacts. (CM)
2. Be known for something, develop your expertize in a specialized niche. “People need to believe you are good at something before they’ll believe you are good at everything.” (CA)
3. Use technology to be productive: Evernote to file ideas; Dragon Naturally Speaking for transcriptions; Scrivener to organize facts; voice replay on PC or Mac to have computer read speech back for proofing; Carbonite and thumb drives for backups. (PW)
4. Stop writing for the “speakers voice”, write for content. (ML)
5. Don’t follow in footsteps of old school, cynical writers who would hammer out a speech for anyone with the bucks to hire them. Connect with what you are passionate about. Connect with your industry, connect with other speechwriters. (DM)
6. Be more than a speechwriter, become a content strategist by injecting facts and statistics into speeches. Repurpose content into Op-Ed’s, Employee newsletters and more. (CA)
7. Learn the ask the right questions: What headline do you want the speech to generate? What news can the company announce? Are there any landmines or sensitive issues to avoid? What is the audience’s biggest problem? What unique point of view does the speaker bring to the issue? (PW)
8. Freelancer’s must know what their monthly “nut” is – how much do you need to earn to pay the bills? (ML)
9. Don’t charge by the hour, or word, charge by the project. You’ll work fast and make more and the client will have the comfort of knowing the total cost up front. (ML)
10. Develop a sense of humor, all speechwriters who survive learn not to take things too seriously. (DM)
11. Once you have made contact with potential clients at the level of exchanging business cards, call for a follow-up lunch, listen to their issues, ask about their life. At the end of the meeting ask for permission to keep in touch and, finally, ask if they know anyone else you can talk to. Do this with each contact and it will lead to paying clients very quickly. (CM)
12. Term what you write as “CEO remarks”, not just a speech. Consider rebranding your role to make yourself more relevant to each client. (CA)
13. Respect your skills as a storyteller who, as Hitchcock noted, is “life with the dull parts left out”. Enjoy talking to the influential people who you meet and you have the freedom to ask them probing questions. (PW)
14. Juice your creativity with a simple, practical writing exercises. Example: Describe everything you can about a chalkboard, now list the ways these qualities are like love (both are easily erased, never quite clean, leaves some dust in the air). (ML)
15. Find other outlets for your creativity beyond speeches. If the CEO won’t take your counsel, volunteer on the board of a non-profit. Write magazine articles at the weekend. (DM)
16. Expect to charge between $5,000 – $12,000 for a high-stakes speech and if you write fast and limit the re-writes you can earn $600/hr. (ML)

Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, author, and professional speaker. Her mission is to build high-performance productivity cultures in organizations by creating Maximum Results in Minimum Time®. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training firm, specializing in productivity improvement in high-stress organizations as well as the current president of the National Speakers Association.

Laura brought the spirit of Cavett Robert alive on Saturday for the 100 members and guests of the Northern California chapter who were lucky enough to attend an awesome meeting to kick-off 2012. “The spirit of Cavett is”, Laura said, “all about making the pie larger, and which other association would have members who openly share their best trade secrets with everyone else?”

And Laura shared, boy, how she shared!

Laura has built a successful business as The Productivity Pro® with clients such as Microsoft and DayTimer as well as a growing number of individual fans. Her 14,000 followers on Twitter receive a tip of the day listing “Time Management Skills for Maximum Results in Minimum Time”.

In fact, when the 2008 recession hit and her corporate business dried up, Laura actively sought out consumers and has focused her website around sales of consumer-friendly $39-$79 price-point downloadable audio and video products that have made her a quarter-of-a-million-dollars in income since then.

Here’s how she did it.

Build a website focused around online products

In addition to offering the usual speakers menu choices of keynote, seminars and coaching services, Laura’s website focuses on webinars, video training is, and courseware that can be ordered online. Here’s her step-by-step guide on how anyone can duplicate her success using these methods.

The secrets of selling on-line webinars

• Become a subject matter expert in your chosen topic.
• Choose a package like GoToWebinar or WebEx.
• Find companies or associations who will promote your events to their lists. Expect that only 50% of those who sign up will actually attend. Give an Association discount of 20% and kickback 20% of the registration fee to the Association. Make sure you keep the e-mails of all those who register for your own list.
• Charge $39 for an individual webinar and offer a series discount of $119.



• Guard against multitasking by the audience with a vast number of graphically compelling PowerPoint slides. If your topic would typically use 35 slides in an auditorium, plan on having 125 slides for a webinar. Make use of polls, encourage audience responses in the question monitor and deliver at a fast pace to keep the audience’s attention.
• Avoid specific references to your slides in the webinar. This allows you to strip out the audio and sell it for $7.99 as an MP3.
• Never, ever, distribute the PowerPoint source files. Only send out PDF to prevent people bootlegging your seminars.
• Keep track of any comments and questions as a source of topics for future webinars.
• Set up a shopping cart on your site to take money from customers for the webinars. Laura uses Cyberstrong – a one-charge chart that does what she needs.
• Charge a $390 site license if multiple people at one location if would like to take the webinar. A $1,390 licence covers multiple locations. A $2,500/hr fee for custom webinars.
• Don’t distribute the link for the webinars. Instead once people register, enter their name and e-mail into the system and have it generate a reminder for them to login— this prevents people sending the login to their friends.
• Take the raw video file from the webinar and turn it into a product for people who are unable to make the live event. Post the video on Vimeo — invest in a $200 Vimeo Pro license so that you can password-protect the screening download which you tag as private. Put that password-protected link in a page on your site available from an e-learning drop-down menu.

For me, that last tip was worth the price of the whole day!

Make money from home selling video training

Laura’s second major money-spinner uses a green screen studio at home to record compelling video tutorials. Again, she shared a step-by-step guide.

• Purchase a green screen backdrop or paint the wall of your spare room with the appropriate paint.
• Make sure you have a suitable HD digital camera and tripod and a 64-bit desktop computer.
• Sign up for a community college class so you qualify for the student edition of the Adobe Premiere or Adobe visual communicator software package.
• Purchase a GoSpeak portable microphone system with a wireless transmitter for a lapel mike. (You don’t need the speakers, they are an added bonus for your next podium presentation.)
• Hire a designer from elance or fiverr.com to create custom backgrounds for your green screen.
• Place posters with cartoon faces around the room you record in so that you have an “audience” to relate to.
• Record your video training: stand in front of the green screen, plug the wireless mic into the camera which feeds audio and video to the PC where the Adobe software records a timeline of the presentation. In post-production you add lower thirds and a suitable backdrop. Leave pauses for group activity and learner response.
• Distribute these large video files to customers who purchase via YouSendIt.com or, if they require, burn a DVD and mail it.

I’ve just come across Alexei Kapterev’s 2007 slideshare presentation that has attracted over a million hits. Take a look:

Kapterev will be presenting on February 23, 2012 at the UK Speechwriters’ Guild London Spring Conference.

Dona M. Wong’s slim volume
is a beautifully printed guide to “The Do’s and Don’ts of Presenting Data, Facts, and Figures”. As a former graphics director at the WSJ she set standards that made sense of complex data for readers. As a student of well-known PowerPoint critic Edward Tufte she takes the theories of the author of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information out of the realm of academia and applies them in the world of modern finance and content-rich, data-intensive charts beloved of subject matter experts in the corporate world.

The book is a series of tutorials on all aspects of presenting data, from the choice of color and font to the correct way to align numbers and represent proportions in pie charts. It’s all deceptively simple – a simplicity which so often evades the grasp of the engineering or financial professional who is at a loss to communicate the essence of their data in a way people can understand and avoids burying the audience in detail:

Examples of confusing, misleading, and ineffective graphics are everywhere today. Many charts have sophisticated and intelligent underlying information , but the presentation fails to convey the intended message.

Each page of Wong’s book serves as a ready reference on the right way to communicate information.

Three essential elements of good information graphics

Wong states that good graphics are built on three elements:

1. Rich content – to bring meaning to the graphic.
2. Inviting visualization – that interprets the content and highlights the essence of the information for the audience.
3. Sophisticated execution – that brings the content and graphics to life.

Essential steps to create effective charts

The basics on which the book is based are worth memorizing as an antidote to clients who feel a need to do a data dump on an audience. In summary:

Start with authoritative sources … identify your key message … filter and simplify the data … choose the right chart type to present the data … review the outcome against the sources … let the data speak for itself … create the right comparisons … supply a reference point to frame the data … follow basic rules of legibility.

Do’s and Don’ts

The bulk of the book is a series of Do’s and Don’ts that examine each type of chart in turn. For example, with pie charts, Wong makes it clear why the largest segment should always be placed to the right of the 12 o’clock position:

It’s astonishing how often graphics designers ignore this simple rule and print counter-intuitive charts, as in this example published in the FT on Saturday December 17 (p. 12):

Low-hanging fruit

In fact, finding charts to improve is not a problem. Go browse the PowerPoint archives or visit the financial and engineering web pages in your organization. Armed with a copy of this book you’ll find lots of low-hanging watermelons to perform a makeover on, and score some brownie points with the VP of Communications in the process.

Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim kicked off the 2011 Gateway to the US program jointly hosted by ANZA Technology Network and CCICE at the Computer History Museum in Mt. View. His keynote reviewed the challenges and opportunities start-ups face in contrast to established companies.

He claims that the current uncertainties in the world economy favor start-ups. Andy shared his own experience starting Sun in the early 1980s when the economy was on the ropes. In 2001 economic hard times made Google’s paid search a viable alternative to expensive banner ads and the company took off.

Andy shared the five reasons new ideas fail and also listed the most promising areas for start-ups to invest in the I.T. space.

Hear him share his insights into why start-ups are more innovative than established companies by viewing the edited highlights from his keynote below.

I caught up with Alan Stevens at the National Speakers Association Influence ’11 Convention in Anaheim and asked him to demonstrate the hardware and software he carries with him on the road. He demonstrated the portable studio set-up he uses to create his web radio show.

Watch this brief video where Alan demonstrates the set-up and shared the tools he uses:

• Blue Snowball USB microphone
• Audacity software
• Creative Labs Vado HD camera