Thursday, July 03, 2008

A day of top notch training for presenters

The annual convention of the National Speakers Association (NSA) is being held August 2-5 in New York City. NSA is an association focused on the business of professional speaking, but if you present in any business setting, you will want to check out the lineup on Monday, August 4th. You can register for just that one day and have a choice of great educational sessions to attend. Here are some highlights for that day (the theme for the year and the convention is NSA Rocks, so the session titles reflect the theme).

1. The morning general session will feature Steve Forbes. Yes, that’s the former presidential candidate and publisher of Forbes magazine. He will be talking about the economy, the elections and what’s next. Take the opportunity to learn from his insights as well as observe his style and the way he crafts his presentation. Any time you get to observe a top speaker work, you can learn a lot if you keep tuned into how they present.

2. In the morning concurrent time slot, here are some sessions you’ll want to consider: I am presenting a session titled “PowerPoint That Rocks! Five Steps to Creating Persuasive Visuals”; Don Crawley is doing a session on becoming efficient and green with your computer technology, Craig Harrison is speaking on selling through storytelling, Judy Jernudd is talking about how to brand yourself like a rock star, Marcia Reynolds will help you create characters to make your stories rock, and Ruth Sherman will show you how to make the most of your voice. Wow, what a lineup for just the morning! I’ll be getting the MP3s from some of these sessions that I can’t attend (anyone can order the MP3 recording of any of the sessions from the convention).

3. At lunch, you will have a unique opportunity to learn how to really rock your audiences. David Fishof, who reunited The Monkees, produced Ringo Starr and founded the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp is bringing along some of his rock star buddies for an unforgettable learning experience.

4. The first of the afternoon concurrent sessions has these great sessions to consider: the incredible Les Brown will be sharing his strategies for connecting with and motivating any audience, the hilarious Tim Gard will show you how to add humour to your presentations, and Curtis Zimmerman will help you incorporate interactive activities that make your message stick. Of course there are other sessions at this time slot, but these are the ones that I think would best fit a presenter who is looking to improve their ability but not get into the speaking business.

5. After a break, the final concurrent time slot features sessions such as: Janelle Barlow and Terry Paulson showing us what we can learn from the campaign speeches during the election, Todd Hunt teaches the difference between a keynote and a training class (great for trainers who get asked to do a general session), and Mikki Williams and Steve Rizzo will demonstrate how to be unique using your background, add humour and tell stories based on your personality.

I have to say that this lineup will knock the socks off almost any one-day public speaking course you could attend. The variety of speakers and styles plus the depth of high-end information will leave you with lots of great ideas to improve your presentations. And all for a shockingly low investment of $415! There may be no better deal around this summer.

Register today at http://www.mynsa.org/newyork.

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