Speaker's Briefing

14 ‘golden rules’ for great public speaking
More than a decade ago, Georgetown Publishing House — the founding publisher of American Speaker — reprinted a lost classic, Albert J. Beveridge’s The Art of Public Speaking, with a new foreword by Editor in Chief Aram Bakshian Jr. Beveridge, a U.S. senator, a distinguished attorney and a Pulitzer Prize winner, was also one of the most celebrated orators of his time.

Get your audience to pay attention
When making a presentation, stick to three main points and put the most important points first and last.

Three ways to bore your audience
Liven up your presentations by dumping the following outdated pieces of conventional wisdom.

Stop worrying about ‘invisible anxiety’ and concentrate on what your audience sees
All speakers — even the most experienced, outstanding pros — experience some nervousness. But not all nervousness shows. And if your audience can’t see it, that’s one less reason for you to worry about it.

Tech talk: An easy-to-set-up, easy-to-use portable audio system
From Peavey Electronics Corp. comes a portable audio system with two speakers, a 100-watt, five-channel mixer, an equalizer and a microphone — all weighing in at 25 pounds and packed into a single slim-line case. According to Presentations magazine, Peavey’s “Electronics Messenger” system is well-designed and easy to set up, with “great control features and good sound and range.” On the downside, Presentations finds the unit “not portable enough” for extensive travel.