• Tell a story, make a point.
  
• Tell another story, make another point.

• Follow the 80/20 rule - 80% prepared. 20% impromptu. Being prepared is
  extremely important but when you are too prepared, you take the fun out of a
  speech. The 20% spontaneity allows you to milk any situations that arises while
  you deliver your speech.

• Keep your presentation simple. One message, three points and a kick-ass call
  for action.
  
• Remember, less is more. Keep your speech short and sweet.

• What’s one story that only YOU can tell? Spend time creating that
  signature story.
  
• Start strong (always).

• Pictures tell a thousand words. Use them in your presentations.
  
• Your slides are NOT your notecards.
  
• Your slides are NOT for documentation purposes.
  
• Your slide is NOT your note page.
  
• Your slideshow is NOT the star. You are!
  
• Too many tables, figures and graphs may not be a good thing. Remember,
  everything in moderation.

• Public Speaking is the #1 fear for most people, surpassing the fear of
  death. At least you won’t be tormented with this unnecessary fear anymore.

• Being funny has less to do techniques and more to do with attitude.
  
• Always look at the funny side of things, ask yourself “What’s funny about
  this?”
  
• Pay attention to stories and things that happen to us. (funny stuff does
  happen)

• Jot them down and store them in a humor bank. This way, you can refer to
  them each time you give a speech. You can save money on joke books even!
  
• Audience laughed when they are successfully tricked. That’s the mechanic
  behind humor.
  
• People learn the best when they are laughing.
  
• Practice – test your humor in your presentation and conversations.

• Being funny starts from being creative. To churn your creative juices, get a
  journal and start free writing (at least up to 3 pages). In a diary, you think
  about what you want to say. However in free writing, you don’t. There are no
  filters. All you have to do is to keep your pen moving. If you are using a
  computer, then keep typing. This will help in speeding up your thinking ability
  too.
  
• Contrary to popular belief, it is easier to make a crowd of 100 laugh then a
  room of 10. This is because when you have more people, the audience feels more
  comfortable. And when they are comfortable, they laugh easier.

• Make sure you enunciate your words correctly. Diction is a tell tale sign of
  your ability as a speaker.
  
• If need be, speak S.L.O.W.E.R.

• Always organize your speech. Start with a simple structure. It’s like the
  backbone to your speech. Without it, no matter how good your content is, it will
  fall flat.

• Blogs that are written about general topics - ex. boing boing.
  
• Have your fan / hobbyist sites - MustangBlog.com
  
• Then you have corporate blogs - CEO of Sun
  
• All of these are ways about learning about your customer, providing
  information to your customer and then letting them have conversations about you.
  

Whether Web 2.0 actually ever existed is irrelevant, but the innovation brought to us these last two years is undeniable. The big question for me has been:

“Does the innovation actually do anything for us?” I think I have tested and reviewed over 300 startups in the last couple of years, and I can honestly say that most of this innovation has been directed at entertainment or rather useless “cuteness”. Diigo as a tool, could be viewed as a much more serious innovation by comparison.

September 14th,
2007 at 9:21 am

? this is a five day project for a college undergrad. yawn