One Development

Memorable presentations. Okay, maybe the proportions are a little exaggerated, but I'm trying to make an important point: a great deal of what makes a presentation memorable is the 'theatre' of it. The staging of the presentation is often the part that receives the least attention. You spend hours working on the content, sweating over PowerPoint, checking figures, loading up the laptop. But what about the staging? How will you begin the presentation - how will you enter - and as important, how will you end it, and how will you get 'off stage'? When and how will you present your visual aids? What is the killer element of your presentation, and how will you reveal it and when? Try to remember a really great presentation you saw, and what made it special? A good presenter is a performer - and it is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learned. Consider the anatomy of a good standup - he or she starts with a great entrance, captures you straight away. The act is p...

I've just got back from delivering a two day residential course at Holiday Inn. They do a lot right especially with their Academy which works really well for us trainers... but yet again I find myself stomping around my room ranting and kicking the furniture, and bending the ear of anybody who is unfortunate enough to come within earshot of me in the bar. Why? The extortionate rate of broadband connection in my hotel room! Let me hasten to add this is not just Holiday Inn; hotel chains from Best Western to Marriott all hit you with around £15.00 for 24 hrs. When hotels have rack rates of from £100 - £200 per night... surely they could throw in free Wifi ? What can it cost to put wireless broadband into a hotel? When I can leave the hotel, cross the road for a coffee and get free broadband? Okay it's not just the money... but don't the hotels realise how this is damaging my brand experience? They invest millions in customer service to enhance that experience - then ruin it b...

I'm just off to deliver a two day workshop, and I love it. There is no better way to train, in my view, than working and interacting with real people. But, that said, I am also a big fan of online training. I often include online elements to reinforce training sessions, so delegates can go online and work out problems, download information and podcasts and try techniques long after the session has finished. But as stand alone training, online has many advantages: Cost - no transport or venue costs Timing - people can learn in their own time and own pace Testing - you can make sure lessons have been learned, not just attended Revision - people can easily go back Geography - learners can be in different locations, even timezones Demonstration - using photographs, moving diagrams, audio and video

I was talking yesterday to a friend who has just moved jobs to a different division in her organisation. She was telling me how 'brilliant' the organisation was in providing a number of training opportunities and courses to upgrade her knowledge and skill sets. It set me thinking back to how other friends and colleagues have talked about their employers with regard to training they provide - almost all who had active training programmes were thought well of by their staff. Contrast that with; 'Huh, never get our bosses to pay for me to go on a course'. When I was involved in front line advertising there was regional newspaper network that was renowned for the quality of training it gave its staff, particularly sales staff. This did wonders for the company's reputation - of course many of these well trained staff moved on in time to take topline jobs elsewhere, but the company's reputation for training meant it had little problem recruiting quality replacements....

Training in digital media and marketing comes high on the list of client 'wants', but what is requested varies widely with company size. Smaller companies generally, have already grasped the web and its opportunities. They have realised this is a very cost effective promotional medium and are already 'hands on' in many aspects. Bigger organisations tend to use their specialist suppliers to get hands on, so their needs tend to be more strategic - planning and understanding digital campaigns. One area however is a common requirement from both - writing for the web. Good web copy and content has never been more important, and with the growth in the use of content management systems (CMS), more and more of the copywriting now falls on the shoulders of the client. Good, concise, pursuasive copy has always been of tremendous importance in making a site work, but there is another dimension. Content and copy must be optimised to get good organic listings on search engines. I...

Social internet, web 2.0, a lot of kids chatting on MSN and Facebook – what has that got to do with business? The answer is - ‘a lot!’ Estimates vary, but it’s generally accepted that over 70% of content on the web is now user generated. What we are talking about here is not communications, but conversations – people talking to each other. And if people are talking to each other, they could (and maybe already are) talking about you and your business. Stimulating and getting involved in those conversations is a powerful ability, and many major companies are recognising the benefits it can deliver. Listening to what customers think about your business is at the root of customer service. Forget the expensive and contrived research, focus groups and interviews – all you need to do is get involved and listen. One leading mobile phone manufacturer based its next generation of mobile phones on the discussions of its users – who knows better about what the customers want? If words like bl...