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Archive for March 2009

Web Broadcasting: Save Money, Reduce Travel and Communicate Powerfully

By Robert Grossman · Comments (0)
Thursday, March 19th, 2009

We know how important it is for our companies to bring people together so we can continue building business, sell more, and align employees to company strategy and to reward excellent performance.

So, how do we develop a dynamic approach – keeping your target audiences connected and inspired while acknowledging that travel and meeting budgets have been cut so drastically?

I am going to help you answer this question by breaking down and explaining three powerful technologies which stand out in the mix of solutions:

  1. web casting or what I call web broadcasting
  2. web conferencing, and
  3. digital cinema.

Today we will take a brief look at Web Broadcasting and I will blog on the other two solutions in the coming days.

What is Web Broadcasting?

Web Broadcasting is a cost-effective and dynamic way to deliver your meetings, presentations, strategic messages, and training and build a knowledge base over the web.

Web Broadcasting uses rich media technology. This means your audience will see and hear live video, audio and graphics from a computer (including software applications) all in a neatly packaged, branded screen right on their desktop using any standard browser.

Three forms of communication – audio, visual and kinesthetic – play a unique role in the ability to communicate and learn.

Web Broadcasting incorporates all three of these ways of processing information, plus interactivity and user-controlled navigation options.

Real-time or on-demand – you choose

Capturing events as they occur and delivering them to end users over the web, either in real time or on-demand through any Web browser is an ideal solution for sales, marketing, training and development.

Here is a snapshot of how it works.

  • A web broadcasting specialist will show up to your meeting or your office with a special computer.
  • Video, audio and graphics will be fed into the computer and synchronized and encoded for the web. If the meeting is to be broadcast live, the media is transmitted over the internet and delivered to your audience.
  • The meeting can also be recorded and uploaded for on-demand viewing and you can even have a CD created right there minutes after the presentation for distribution or for sale to attendees.

15 Benefits of web broadcasting

  1. Increase the reach and availability of your information by making presentations available to those not able to attend
  2. Reduce travel, work interruption and downtime
  3. Boost retention, collaboration and team morale
  4. Enhance your attendee experience with online presentation catalogs
  5. Brand your presentations using your logos, colors and messages
  6. Review a real-time record of what took place
  7. Link handout materials with the full presentation, including audio, video and graphics
  8. Reach a wider audience to encourage synergy
  9. Get everyone on the same page at the same time
  10. Let attendees leave with the meeting content for reference – slides, video and audio all-in-one
  11. Automatically keep a record of Q&A and completed polls
  12. Record meetings where it’s impossible for everyone to attend
  13. Address a large group when you can’t or don’t want to herd them all into one room
  14. Simultaneously address people in multiple locations
  15. Build a training or business development knowledge base on-line

Popular events for web broadcasting

  • Conferences, keynotes, general sessions, breakouts and poster sessions
  • Corporate meetings and presentations
  • Training seminars including software
  • Trade shows and vendor presentations
  • Forums and listening sessions
  • Live broadcast specialty events

In summary, Web broadcasting provides a cost-effective and easy means to communicate with your target audience without having to convene. You can also create a knowledge base for marketing, business development and training. You can also extend the reach of your meetings and special events for those who were not able to attend.

Warm Regards,

Robert S. Grossman

Phone and Fax: (800) 651-8430
www.focuscreative.com

Comments (0)
Categories : Meetings and Events, Presentation, Web Broadcasting
Tags : building relationships, events, powerpoint, Presentation, production, video

Is it Really Powerpoint's Fault?

By Robert Grossman · Comments (0)
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

This morning I attended a presentation on a topic which really interests me. The speaker really knew his stuff and he was able to communicate a somewhat difficult and mysterious subject matter in such a way that everyone could understand it and benefit from the information.

Here’s the bad news. The PowerPoint practically killed his presentation. Nothing happened that we have not all seen dozens if not hundreds of time before. In fact, just about every presentation I see and work on almost always will do more harm to the outcome of the presentation than good.

Wow. I know, it is a big statement and one I will stand behind 100% Think about it. How many times have you sat through a presentation where the presenter turned his back to you and read what was on the screen? Or there was so much information or content, you had no idea what do look at or where to focus your attention.

Did you get that last part? Focus Your Attention! Think about it. Recall the last presentation you attended where the presenters brought up a slide with 4, 5, 6, 10 bullets and they all came on the screen one after the other. The presenter was just beginning to talk about bullet one and where was your attention? I would bet you were reading bullet 10.

Can you really read a string of text usually abbreviated to some extent and also listen to the presenter? Are you focused on the presenter? Not likely.

We all love to blame PowerPoint. There are been numerous books written such as “Death by PowerPoint” and “Could PowerPoint Be…Satan?”. But is it really PowerPoint’s Fault? That would be blaming Word for a really poorly written paper. PowerPoint is just a tool. Okay, they don’t help much, but it is still a tool.

Here are 8 tips to help you deliver better presentations now.

  1. Rehearse, Rehearse, and Rehearse. So many executives wing their presentations or prepare them on the plane. This leads to reading the slides and not truly engaging the audience.
  2. Presentation slides are not speaker notes! If you read the slides to your audience, you might as well give them the hand outs and send them to play golf.
  3. Keep it simple! When using bullets, no more than 3 bullets per slides and no more than 5 words per bullet.
  4. Bring up one point at a time. This allows you to control what the audience is reading. If you bring up all the bullets at one time, the audience will read to the bottom of the list while you are still talking about your first point.
  5. Make slides big and bold. Think driving down the freeway at 65 miles an hour and reading billboards. Each message is clear and concise.
  6. Use large fonts. I personally avoid anything smaller than 32 points.
  7. Use animation sparingly or when you want to emphasize a particular point.
  8. Avoid the trap of having a unique slide up for every part of your speech. Use your logo, theme slide or be daring and simply blank the slide.

PowerPoint is a wonderful tool and when used properly can really be a benefit.

Stay tuned, I will be writing more on this topic over time. We will also be launching and “Ask the Professor” blog where you can submit your questions and even your presentations and I will respond on this blog.

I would love to hear from you. Feel free to comment!

Warm Regards,

Robert S. Grossman

Phone and Fax: (800) 651-8430
www.focuscreative.com

Comments (0)
Categories : Presentation
Tags : avoid, bad, do, don't, good, powerpoint, Presentation, training

Is it Really Powerpoint’s Fault?

By Robert Grossman · Comments (0)
Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

This morning I attended a presentation on a topic which really interests me. The speaker really knew his stuff and he was able to communicate a somewhat difficult and mysterious subject matter in such a way that everyone could understand it and benefit from the information.

Here’s the bad news. The PowerPoint practically killed his presentation. Nothing happened that we have not all seen dozens if not hundreds of time before. In fact, just about every presentation I see and work on almost always will do more harm to the outcome of the presentation than good.

Wow. I know, it is a big statement and one I will stand behind 100% Think about it. How many times have you sat through a presentation where the presenter turned his back to you and read what was on the screen? Or there was so much information or content, you had no idea what do look at or where to focus your attention.

Did you get that last part? Focus Your Attention! Think about it. Recall the last presentation you attended where the presenters brought up a slide with 4, 5, 6, 10 bullets and they all came on the screen one after the other. The presenter was just beginning to talk about bullet one and where was your attention? I would bet you were reading bullet 10.

Can you really read a string of text usually abbreviated to some extent and also listen to the presenter? Are you focused on the presenter? Not likely.

We all love to blame PowerPoint. There are been numerous books written such as “Death by PowerPoint” and “Could PowerPoint Be…Satan?”. But is it really PowerPoint’s Fault? That would be blaming Word for a really poorly written paper. PowerPoint is just a tool. Okay, they don’t help much, but it is still a tool.

Here are 8 tips to help you deliver better presentations now.

  1. Rehearse, Rehearse, and Rehearse. So many executives wing their presentations or prepare them on the plane. This leads to reading the slides and not truly engaging the audience.
  2. Presentation slides are not speaker notes! If you read the slides to your audience, you might as well give them the hand outs and send them to play golf.
  3. Keep it simple! When using bullets, no more than 3 bullets per slides and no more than 5 words per bullet.
  4. Bring up one point at a time. This allows you to control what the audience is reading. If you bring up all the bullets at one time, the audience will read to the bottom of the list while you are still talking about your first point.
  5. Make slides big and bold. Think driving down the freeway at 65 miles an hour and reading billboards. Each message is clear and concise.
  6. Use large fonts. I personally avoid anything smaller than 32 points.
  7. Use animation sparingly or when you want to emphasize a particular point.
  8. Avoid the trap of having a unique slide up for every part of your speech. Use your logo, theme slide or be daring and simply blank the slide.

PowerPoint is a wonderful tool and when used properly can really be a benefit.

Stay tuned, I will be writing more on this topic over time. We will also be launching and “Ask the Professor” blog where you can submit your questions and even your presentations and I will respond on this blog.

I would love to hear from you. Feel free to comment!

Warm Regards,

Robert S. Grossman

Phone and Fax: (800) 651-8430
www.focuscreative.com

Comments (0)
Categories : Presentation
Tags : avoid, bad, do, don't, good, powerpoint, Presentation, training

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