Presentations & Meetings Blogs
Gobble Up Gratitude: A Turkey-Approved Guide to Thanksgiving Thankfulness
Thanksgiving is upon us, and what better time to carve out a slice of gratitude pie? At Communispond, we believe that expressing thankfulness isn't just a once-a-year affair; it's a communication skill that should be as common as pumpkin spice in fall. So, loosen that...
Room Temperature and Attention Span
Not surprisingly, a study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shows a correlation between room temperature and the ability to concentrate. The study showed that between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit is the optimum temperature for classroom students. Any lower...
How to Make a Moral Argument – Hint: Don’t Argue
An article published last month in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin described a series of experiments to determine how people incorporate moral arguments into political discussions and how effective these arguments are. The experimenters relied on...
Saying Goodbye to an Audience
One common mistake presenters make is to plan their whole presentation except for the very last thing the audience sees. They make a great presentation, full of excellent points, and then close by shuffling their papers, looking down or acting like they have nothing...
The Difference Between a Good and Great Communicator
As a judge on TV’s American Idol, Simon Cowell often spoke of the “It” factor; that indescribable something that some contestants possessed and others did not. A good singer entertains; a singer who has “it” transports an audience. Put in the context of communication,...
4 Ways Technology Has Changed the Way We Communicate
As you can imagine, in nearly 50 years, Communispond has seen a lot of changes in the technology of the way people communicate. For the most part, the changes have simply been in media or in the speed of communication. The basic techniques of good communication —...
Effective Communication: Disprefered Markers
Effective communication doesn't have to be a technical process, but let me give you some background to explain a new communication tip. In linguistics, discourse markers are words or phrases with little meaning that are used to suggest relationships: between the...
Presentation Skills: Crafting the Audience Benefit Statement
I recently posted about how knowing the point of your presentation can help you focus it while you’re preparing it. But if you are trying to give a persuasive presentation, as opposed to an informational one, you need to take a step beyond making a point. You need to...
Effective Communication: the Power of Metaphor
I have a friend whose desk is littered with reports, sticky notes, scraps of paper, pens, business cards, quickstart guides, half-eaten rolls of Lifesavers, and thumb drives. The other day, I got a look at his computer desktop. It looked like he had replicated his...
