Toastmasters District Conference – Hamburg, Germany
Tomorrow I am off to the Toastmasters District 59 Conference in Hamburg. I will be competing in the Humorous Speech Contest and the Table Topics (impromptu speaking) Contest. I am looking forward to the competitions; however, the best part will be seeing old friends and making new ones. Toastmasters people are terrific. Planning to be in Hamburg this weekend? If so, consider dropping by to hear some great speeches and have a lot of fun. Full details can be found here.

Look this way, please
Perhaps you have noticed that the tag line for this blog is a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.” Great quote. (And perfect for a blog about public speaking.) Here’s a slide of the quote and a picture of Emerson that I have used in the past few courses that I have taught on public speaking and presentation skills: Question: Would the slide be as effe

Speaking with passion
One of the most famous catchphrases of motivational guru Tony Robbins is “Live with passion!” (I can just see that big pearly white smile.) He’s right; that is how we should live. That is also how we should speak: with passion. Garr Reynolds, the author of “Presentation Zen”, gives a number of delivery

Chasing the dream
Today’s post is relatively short, but that’s because most of the work was done a couple of weeks ago when I gave my first on-line interview. Yep. My first on-line interview! How cool is that? A young woman named Erika Liodice writes a blog, “Beyond the Gray”, on inspiration and chasing your dreams.  She came across my blog and was kind enough to invite me to do the interview, which you can read here.  Given that public speaking ranks among

2D or Not 2D? That is the question.
In the 1950s, 3D movies were all the craze. Since then, the technology has improved immensely and 3D has been used in a variety of interesting, educational and entertaining ways. "Oooh! Aaah!" Photo courtesy of Goddard Photo and Video Blog For presentations, however, sometimes two dimensions are better than three. In hi