StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Presentation Tips|Five practical tips to engage your audience at conference presentation

Five practical tips to engage your audience at conference presentation

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Presentation Tips|Five practical tips to engage your audience at conference presentationGiving a presentation at a conference is a massive opportunity. It is the chance to share an idea with the world, convince peers about your ideas, and help to make your industry more efficient and effective at what it does. And from a personal perspective it can provide a fantastic chance for presenters to get immediate input and feedback from real people.

Unfortunately, there is a problem – it’s not always easy to keep your audience engaged with what you are talking about. Four out of five professionals said that their focus shifted away from the presenter at the last presentation that they attended.

And given how important it is to keep your audience engaged with what you are talking about, losing their attention is a nightmare from a presenter’s perspective. So, it is vital that you do everything you can to make your presentation as engaging to the audience as possible. Here we present five practical tips that you can use during your next presentation to keep your audience engaged.

1. Be confident

There is nothing that turns off and disengages an audience more than listening to someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about. And even if it is the case that you are an expert in the topic – you’ll come across as a novice if you don’t have confidence in what you are saying. When you are confident about yourself, you inspire others to have confidence in you.

There is plenty you can do to improve your confidence on stage, but of course the major key is to really know your topic inside-out.

Preparing a good presentation is essential when trying to sell a product, pitch an idea, or get your point across. First impressions matter and you want to ensure that you’re coming across as confident and professional. Consider hiring a professional business presentation coach who can help you fine-tune your delivery, choose the right visuals, and make sure that your overall message is clear and concise.

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Presentation Tips|Five practical tips to engage your audience at conference presentation2. Make your audience a part of the presentation

When your audience feels like they are a part of the presentation it actually increases their attention span and helps to keep them engaged.

One of the most effective ways to do this is to use an audience response system – this is a set of keypads that can be handed out to audience members. The audience can then use these remotes during the presentation to answer questions. You can then show polls in real time, or even keep them interested by grading them at the end of the talk.

You might worry about the cost or the technical challenges in incorporating this sort of system into your talk – but actually, it’s very easy. It is even possible to hire a system for a single presentation – which is ideal if you don’t attend many conferences.

3. Make your talk natural

Any decent advice on giving a conference presentation will tell you to get plenty of practice giving your talk. And of course, it is vital that remember all your key details and statistics, and that the presentation flows nicely. However, over-practicing your talk can present problems too – notably it can leave the talk feeling stiff and over-rehearsed.

Your talk shouldn’t sound like you are reading from a script, it should come across as natural and sound like a human is talking.


4. Avoid jargon wherever possible

One major engagement problem for engagement is the temptation to add jargon. Industry jargon naturally shows off your knowledge of the field and helps to display to your audience that you understand what you are talking about. But it can also be an issue in that you go overboard, and people won’t understand the points you are making.

Overusing industry terms and acronyms can be a problem, especially if they are not quite as commonly understood as you think. It is much better to allow all members of the audience to understand you.

5. Get your slides right

Your slideshow is a massive part of your presentation, so it vital that you get it right. Thankfully there are some simple things that every presenter should be doing to ensure that their slides are as simple and audience friendly as possible.

Firstly, you need to make sure you are only presenting one idea per slide – overcomplicating slides just confuses audiences. Additionally, you should ensure there are not too many words on the screen at any time; the slides are not there to be an exact replication of what you are saying, they are there to emphasise points.

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article

How To Create A Productive Office

StrategyDriven Talent Management ArticleSometimes it’s hard to stay focused when you’re at work, especially if you’re inside a stifling office space on a warm day. Of course, you’d always rather be somewhere else than at work, but what you can do is make your working environment more appealing, more fun, and a productive place to be. If you’re an office manager and you’re considering making changes to the place in order to boost productivity, then your first port of call should be to ask your staff members. Once you’ve got a good idea of what needs changing, and you’ve assessed the suggestions, you can then get to work.

Refurbish

If your office space is looking outdated and is showing signs of wear and tear, then now is the time to consider a complete refurbishment. As long as your budget permits it, gut the entire office in favor of new flooring, freshly painted walls throughout, new and improved desks and chairs, and a reworking of the oppressive overhead lights. Pile the accumulated waste into a dumpster provided by a Dumpster rental Phoenix, so that it can be disposed of responsibly. Clean out your office and strip it back to basics to rebuild an attractive and productive environment.

Encourage Socialization

When it comes to decorating, try and create communal spaces that encourage your team to talk to each other and build relationships. When designing the staffroom, opt for large long couches so that the team has to be convivial and sit next to one another. Prepare group work, and ask that small teams work together to create a final result. Praise the teams for their effort and consideration of others.

Improve Air Quality

Without proper air ventilation, it’s very easy to become unfocused, tired, and to overheat – all of which aren’t going to help your team in trying to be as productive as possible. So, install new ventilation units if the current ones are somewhat lackluster, and keep plants in every available space throughout the premises. After all, not many people object to flowers, fresh greens, and other plants that keep the air clean. Having said this, always makes sure to ask about allergies before adding foliage around the office.

Offer Tea And Coffee

If you work in an office, you’ll understand the importance of caffeinated beverages to power you through the morning. Recognize that your team work hard to achieve their targets and reach their goals, so help them along the way and offer free coffee and tea whenever they might be in need of a pick-me-up. Create an inclusive, friendly environment for your employees, and you might just find that productivity increases tenfold.

Have An Open Door Policy

Your employees need to know that they can approach you whenever they need to discuss something. So, with this in mind, consider operating an open door policy whereby you’re on hand whenever the need arises. Tell your staff that you care about their welfare, their opinion, and possible suggestions about how the office is run and how the company performs. If your team know that you’re there to offer assistance and help them, then they should feel more relaxed, understood, and willing to work hard.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article

Do You Have What It Takes to Hack It as a Female Founder?

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleWomen’s curiosity and interest in entrepreneurship is at an all-time high. Getty Images has seen a fourfold increase in searches for “woman entrepreneur” photos in the last year alone. With the popularity of television shows such as Shark Tank and The Profit, more and more women are wondering if they have what it takes to be a female founder.

It takes more than having a good idea to be a successful entrepreneur. While there are a vast range of personalities, educations, and backgrounds among female founders, there are a few personality traits that are paramount to hacking it as a woman entrepreneur.

Passion is one such trait. To be a female founder, you must be passionate about the product or service you have devised to solve a problem. Authentic passion is what helps women find the best employees, sell their customers, and sell potential investors. If you don’t believe in yourself and your idea, no one else will, no matter how good it is.

Having enough grit and self-motivation to overcome setbacks and disprove early nay-sayers is another important characteristic of successful women entrepreneurs. The women who use negative statements as fuel for success instead of self-doubt are the ones who build ideas into thriving companies. Entrepreneurship is a high-contact emotional sport. If you get knocked down or denied seven times, you need to stand up eight times and keep pushing to make your dream a reality.

Long-term vision is needed for women to make the leap into entrepreneurship. Our tendency to be risk adverse serves us well after we launch a company, but that same tendency can having us making lists of reasons why we shouldn’t launch our own businesses. Female founders typically have the ability to see the big picture and justify the risks and challenges that come with startups because they know they will be successful.

If you have an amazing idea as well as the traits outlined in this article, you have what it takes to hack it as a female founder. Take the time to validate your idea and market, map your business plan, and prepare for the ride of your life!


About the Author

Danielle Tate is the author of Elegant Entrepreneur and founder and CEO of MissNowMrs.com, a multimillion dollar online name-change company. As a female founder in her 20s she noticed that few business guides offered step-by-step advice to smart but inexperienced entrepreneurial woman.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article

How to Raise Revenue for an Entrepreneurial Start-Up

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship ArticleThe first step in raising revenue for an entrepreneurial start-up is to outline a detailed marketing strategy. It is important for start-up entrepreneurs to test their assumptions as soon as they can. A big reason for the success of established companies is that they never invest large capital or significant time on any project unless they have determined that it has an overwhelming probability of success. The corporate world taught me that most ideas fail in the marketplace. When this happens, it should fail quickly and cheaply. You just want to make sure that you are not overwhelmingly hurt when you experience this inevitable fact.

Complete the following exercise carefully before you launch your marketing campaign. Accuracy in this exercise will be crucial to your future business success:

1. Decide who is your ideal customer – Most entrepreneurs start with a great product or service idea, but fail in correctly identifying their ideal customer and instead will sell to anyone who buys from them. This is probably one of the biggest mistakes I still see today, especially in the online world.

There are two main reasons you want to determine who these ideal or dream customers are: first, your ideal customers will appreciate your offers and will pay for it based on your value, not price; and second, they are more likely to refer more business your way.


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About the Author

Ajay PrasadAjay Prasad owns GMR Web Team, a digital marketing agency dedicated to helping businesses maximize revenue from internet. He also invests in web-based start-ups. Ajay also operates a seven-figure web based business, GMR Transcription, which he built from scratch and grew it by using strategies that he uses for his digital marketing clients.

StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective Article | 7 Interesting Reasons to Invest In Platinum Today

7 Interesting Reasons to Invest In Platinum Today

StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective Article | 7 Interesting Reasons to Invest In Platinum Today

As soon as you start earning a steady income, people ask you to invest. Whether it’s in vintage cars, stocks, a business or even a house, investment is a huge part of a stable financial plan. Putting aside your money each year or month not only helps you save up for emergencies faster but also gives you a lot of profit on your earnings.

The investment market dealing with precious metals has barely made the cut in terms of popularity among people, and it’s not something many people tap into, if they do hear about it, it’s mostly for either gold, silver or palladium.

There’s a reason that highest-paid memberships in any category offer a ‘platinum card’ or make you their ‘platinum member’. The term ‘high value’ is greatly synonymous with platinum, and that automatically translates to better quality and reliable investment. Because of platinum’s unique characteristics and the growing demand in the global market due to its versatility, it makes sense that this should be a solid investment. But if you need some more convincing, here are seven reasons why you should consider investing in platinum today;

Solid Properties

Platinum is a soft white metal with a very beautiful sheen. Not only is it ductile but malleable too, which means that it can be industrially processed to make wires or sheets to be used in many things. The metal is pretty resistant to corrosion or rust where even the best give up. The biggest use of platinum is as a catalyst or controller in motor vehicles, jewelry or most importantly, in dental work where it can be yielded to make cast partial dentures etc.

Growth in Industrial Demand

One of the rarest precious metals in the category today is platinum. Its production is around 10% of that of gold (merely 7 million ounces a year), and during the world war, the US government banned any ownership of platinum and termed it as a strategic element. While the supply is only 7 million ounces a year, the demand has grown from 2.6 million in the 1970s to 7 million today and is expected to go even higher in the coming years. As diesel vehicles take up quite some space in the global market, platinum’s demand is only going up to be used in catalytic converters.

Around more than 20% of consumer goods use platinum, while more uses are still being discovered. Majority of the industries like medical, glassworks and dies, dental applications, chemical processing and petroleum refining now use platinum as a catalytic controller or a major component. It is also readily used in transport applications to lessen global warming and exhaust waste to a much greater degree.

The beautiful sheen, ease in malleability and gorgeous luster also makes it a star of the jewelry industry.

Growth in Platinum Investment

Investment funds have bought platinum in significant amounts, and the numbers are only expected to increase. Private businesses with pension funds have increased their commodities investment, especially through Exchange-traded funding. One such example is that of a large Swiss-based pharmaceutical company that invested around $11.3 billion in platinum and other metals as well. The establishment of EFT is slowly growing, and with its increase, the mining companies dealing with the extraction of platinum say that there will soon be a considerable increase in platinum demand soon in the global market.

Limited Supply Sources

Most Platinum reserves and mines are concentrated around the areas of South Africa and Russia. More than half of the world’s platinum comes only from these countries. With such a limited and short supply and only finite resources for platinum, there is a huge amount of uncertainty that lies regarding its supply in the future which makes it even more precious to own now. Holding greater importance in the industrial and the military sector, the difficulty in mining and the lack of a number of resources makes platinum the most precious of the precious metals. In case of any disruptions in Russia or South America, the global market would be affected severely, and the prices will break records. This makes platinum a very smart and stable investment.

Price Performance in Recent Years

Platinum has proven to be one of the most top-performing assets over a period of a few years. In 1971 platinum was sold for $90 an ounce and by 1980 it was $1000 an ounce. The increase in platinum prices has been much more significant than the increase in prices of other precious metals. Platinum has almost sold premium to gold for much more than 25 years, and though there have been divergences in the over-all selling point, it is important to note that these falls were mere anomalies, but in the market, these anomalies do not change the fact that such investments are long term opportunities of the greatest kind.

Liquidity

Liquidity, in business, refers to the ability of an asset like stocks and bonds to be turned into cash with ease. The higher the liquidity, the easier it is for a certain asset to be turned into cash. In the global market, while gold has been termed more liquid than platinum, Platinum has had the advantage of playing it’s cards right and turning its less liquidity into its own favor which means that in an environment with rising platinum prices, it will take fewer buys to raise the prices further.

Current Volatility

While platinum’s less liquidity may play to its advantage, the opposite might be harmful too thus making it more volatile, but as history has been great at reminding us why platinum has done wonderfully in the past three decades, the current low price of platinum can be a huge plus point for the investors. They can very easily seize this opportunity before the market realizes that platinum’s decline as compared to gold in nonsensical on a number of levels.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is safe to say that while the supply of platinum remains affixed with respect to rising industrial and investment demand, platinum is one of the safest investments out there.