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NetXpression is a powerful and useful tool, allowing any user to create professional presentations that communicate clearly and persuasively. With NX, you can build professional business presentations for use directly over the Internet, on CDs, or on any other file system. Your finished presentation can be viewed by anyone with a standard web browser, so no special software is required. NX makes it really easy for anyone to build informative presentations. Once created, you can deliver your presentations with very little effort and amazing results.

Dan Roam’s “The Back of the Napkin” invites its readers to give up slides altogether, and use flipcharts and blackboards instead. The central idea is visual thinking, drawing graphics as you explain them, rather than taking audiences through endless bullet points. The book is full of practical advice for doing this. A must read. Garr Reynold’s “Presentationzen” is a plea for preparing your presentation offline. Rather than a method, it introduces a presentation philosophy, heavily influenced by Asian culture. The central idea is simplicity. While obviously influencing many of today’s speakers, the concept of presentationzen is relatively unproven for complex subjects, such as science or technology. Nevertheless, a must read.

Google just unveiled a bunch of new features. You can see them for yourself in the embedded presentation above, which itself is one of the additions.

While there are many ways to set-up and manage online events, here’s what’s working well for us in our webinar programme: Weekly events at a fixed time slot (identified through a user survey). Limit events to one hour (timeslot identified through user feedback). A few minutes introduction, followed by a main presentation of 30-40 minutes and 15-20 minutes of questions. Strictly time manage the event (punctual start, completion on time). Beware of time zones - we usually have participants across 10 to 15 timezones. Limit sound to host and speakers. Participants can chat only (handling 100 sound cards & microphones online does not provide a good webinar experience). A chat pod allows participants to introduce themselves at the start of the event. A second chat pod allows users to submit questions. Questions are addresses one at a time at the end of the presentation - never during the presentation. Before the event, speakers are briefed on the use of the Adobe system and a protocol for the event is agreed. After the event, we circulate slides, the link to a recording, an answer to a question not address. There are so many ways to keep users engaged, and gradually build a vertical community around the topic of the webinar.

There are plenty of ways to share your PowerPoint presentations online. You can upload them to a site like Docstoc or SlideShare, or you can use a program like PPT to YouTube to put them on — you guessed it — YouTube.

If you want more sales, you need to focus attention on and measure the things that result in more sales – number of calls, new contacts, meetings, presentations, trials, financial qualifications, etc. 

And finally, what about the magical number seven? What about the seven wonders of the world, the seven seas, the seven deadly sins, the seven daughters of Atlas in the Pleiades, the seven ages of man, the seven levels of hell, the seven primary colors, the seven notes of the musical scale, and the seven days of the week? What about the seven-point rating scale, the seven categories for absolute judgment, the seven objects in the span of attention, and the seven digits in the span of immediate memory? For the present I propose to withhold judgment. Perhaps there is something deep and profound behind all these sevens, something just calling out for us to discover it. But I suspect that it is only a pernicious, Pythagorean coincidence.

Will the popularity of blogging lead to its demise? Presently on the internet there are blogs in existence for almost every subject, every demographic, and every topic imaginable and more being created every minute. Lately as I peruse websites looking for useful information I have come to the realization that there are just too many blogs on the internet. While this might not be a popular view it certainly feels good to get that perspective out there amongst ProBlogger readers for debate. It also got me to thinking, will the popularity of blogging lead to its eventual downfall?

In a follow-up to his now-legendary TED2006 presentation, Hans Rosling demonstrates how developing countries are pulling themselves out of poverty.