Once you have embraced classroom technology and you are preparing your presentation, it is highly recommended that you have structured presentations. Well, if you are interested in getting to understand how that can be important to your lessons, then you have 5 great points to think about. First of all, structured presentations allow for broader participation and input from your students.

You would only be sure of being effective when you have the participation of your students. Then, when you structure your presentation, you would be sure of achieving your specific goals. You see, when you are preparing a presentation, you will always have goals which you would want the learner to achieve at the end of the session and these would only happen best when you have structured your presentation properly.

Third, when you have a presentation, you always have time as well allocated for your session. Based on the weight of the material you are disseminating, you would be able to appropriately allocated time well for different parts of your presentation only when you have structured your presentation. This is extremely critical.

Four, it is also important that you structure your presentation so that you can mediate classroom activity. You are in charge and you need to remain in control of the entire session. You would only know when to invite participation when you have a structure and so you need to take care of this.

Finally, with classroom technology it is now possible to share activities between fellow instructors and terms. This you would only do best when you have a structure. Thus, you need to always remember to structure your presentation especially when it matters to you that you are effective.

Has the person who loves you the most been disappointed by your broken promises or lack of will power as the smoke clouds continue? You can give your lover the perfect Christmas present by making an ironclad commitment to stop smoking forever! Difficult? Yes, but it is something you can do if you follow use the right resources and follow through on your commitment.

Here’s a special holiday secret that will impress your lover and dramatically improve your chances of success in keeping your promise. When you reveal your gift, make a sincere promise to follow-through-forever. But, don’t stop there. Back up your promise with an additional gift to your lover-all the money you will save by NOT buying cigarettes for the next full year! If you blow it this time, you will be out a lot of money, especially considering the additional money you’ll spend feeding your habit. And, you’ll be embarrassed for good reason in front of the person you love and made your promise to.

So, spring the big surprise this holiday season. Make this the best holiday ever for the person who cares the most about your future holidays.

Still not convinced that you should quit? Well, consider the top four reasons you should throw away those cigarettes and never light up again:

1. The habit is disgusting and stinks. Harsh? Yes, but true. Have you looked closely at the face of a person as they smoke? I’m sure you have. If you haven’t, look closely at the face of another smoker as they are inhaling burning tobacco and paper and then filling the air around themselves with vile smoke. Notice the vacant, mindless expression of an addict on the smoker’s face, the wrinkles that form around the eyes and lips that will eventually be permanent, and remember how long it takes to get the odor of stale smoke out of the smoker’s clothes.

2. You may die of smoking. Die young. Die painfully. Die in a useless waste of life and opportunity. You know it. Your lover knows it. How much intelligence is required to accept the fact that smoking causes emphysema, heart disease and cancer? Read a chapter or two from the book “How We Die,” you know- the section on exactly how someone dies of cancer – before buying that next pack of death sticks.

3. Smoking robs youth and makes a person old before they need to be old. Smoking wrinkles and ages the skin, stains the teeth, saps the strength of the heart and lungs and decreases sexual drive. Oh, you didn’t know that? It’s true. Men who smoke have lower levels of testosterone than non-smoking men of the same age and overall health. If you are a man and continue to smoke, you’ll have trouble getting it up. Does that get your attention? Remember this the next time you open a pack of limp sticks. And, if you are a woman, remember that smoking makes it harder for you to have an orgasm. Would you rather suck on burning tobacco than engage in more pleasurable activities with the person who loves you?

4. Smoking is a stupid waste of money. Do you smoke two packs a day? Have you noticed that if a pack costs only $3 (and in some places the price is more like $4), it adds up to $2,190.00 in a year? What else could you and your lover do with that money? Consider that over ten years, not counting interest, you will have blown more than $20,000 after income taxes. Is that smart?

The moment you are thinking of purchasing a yacht in the present time it is important that you need to think twice on the amount you are ready to spend, it may be a lot. If you are ready to work on unlimited budget then you can also pay more attention to class. The moment you select one that is state of art boat then you can be certain that it might offer you with best service for a number of years. Purchasing one with limited budget can always be a task that might sound like impossible to accomplish. You have to ensure that you look around places where you can get best bargains. Even if you come across deals that are very cheap as compared to others then it is bets to take all possible precautions before investing your precious money.

It is also important that you pay more attention towards all equipments as you certainly never want to end up spending more money on these equipments after making your purchase. Motor, rudder and other mechanical equipments should be in its best condition so you just have to regret in near future for purchasing yachts. If you are sure that the company is offering you with quality product then there certainly is no reason for any one to worry. One of the best options is to try and confirm the cost with two or three different companies so you are sure that you are getting the best deal.

You also have to keep in mind that prices might in fact different depending on the equipments and luxury that most companies offer you with. Yachts certainly differ from each other in terms of materials and equipments or even the amount of luxury it is offering you with so if you are working on your planned budget during economic recession time, then compromising on luxury can be one good option. Also ensure that you select one that is very safe and does not require too much of maintenance.

Your selective attention mechanism – the unconscious mind – processes a massive amount of information. Harvard and Yale studies report the unconscious can process between several Million and more than 30 Billion bits per second, while the conscious mind only processes less than 18 bits per second.

The unconscious has to reduce all that data to the minuscule amount the conscious mind can hold. Therefore, by learning to focus your attention on the present moment and utilize the most creative energy you have in that moment, you can achieve more and use less mental and physical effort.

If you have an intention, such as a dream you are hoping to make real, your valuable resources just beneath the surface will bring your attention to what it is you want. It’s the way our minds filter all the information we get in order to provide us with the nuts and bolts of our daily existence. We’re guided to notice what interests us the most; in other words, it is our intention that determines what will come in to our lives.

In a similar way, it is like buying a yellow Toyota and suddenly noticing yellow Toyotas wherever you go.

This is why it is so important to stay present and grateful to where you are now and to what your life is like. You can upgrade your life by directing your intention to new choices and preferences. You have new maturity and understanding, along with more information, that is yours to claim today.

The proof, the evidence, will be here for you according to the strength of your new understanding. You may have to exercise this muscle if it’s weak, with daily practice. Determine what you most want to achieve. If you have more than one goal, or secret dream, put all of your attention on just the strongest desire so you can see it all the way to completion. The satisfaction you get from feedback and the fulfillment that comes from climbing over all the hurdles will fill you with empowerment. You can either take on a new challenge, or raise the bar on the one you just completed, taking you to a place of greater expertise and mastery.

Here’s one of the tools you can use. There are other tools but this is a launching pad to take you in the direction of reaching your greatest dreams: Write down your goals in your own handwriting. Write a single statement many times – write it over and over. Read it often, especially just as you are about to fall asleep, and when you first wake up in the morning. This is your life, take it seriously and practice.

Does this mean you don’t have to move, change jobs, or leave the spouse? Practice gratitude for what you have. Focus on strengthening your talents and Divine gifts by noticing and appreciating what is working. All of your uncertainties, frustrations or confusion about how to get out of feeling stuck will fall away as the gentle rain of your new understanding will wash away old worn out patterns of thinking without awareness, and fertilize the rich new soil you prepared with the fruits of your intention.

Plant your intention and allow for the work to be done by the part of you that works in your behalf below the surface – while you live your life with great respect and self-regard. You must be present – in the moment – to be ready and available so you can act on the steps that will come your way. It’s the way the Law of Attraction operates. This is your time to bloom.

In part 1 of this article series, we described the staging area and the ETL process of a data warehouse architecture. In the present and following article we shall describe the presentation area of the data warehouse. The term presentation is used to denote the fact that this is the area, where data are presented to its Customers (the business analysts). There is no globally acceptable standard on the development of the data warehouse presentation area. Two major approaches have prevailed:· the dimensional datawarehouse approach (proposed by R. Kimball)· the corporate information factory (CIF) approach (proposed by B. Inmon) Kimball approach According to the Kimball approach, the presentation area is made of a number of dimensional data structures, called star schemas. A star schema is a relational data structure which involves the following:

• a fact table which stores all the measurements used to produce performance analytics and is linked to
• a set of tables which capture the dimensional information, related to the above mentioned measurements.

A set of linked star schemas which focus on a single business process, are called a data mart. Star schemas are linked to each other, based on conformed dimension tables (according to the Kimball parlor, this is called a bus architecture). The major advantage of the dimensional data structure is derived from the symmetry and simplicity of the star schema, which:

• is easily understood by business users, who can access and use it directly without database manipulation skills
• performs better in the execution of complex queries, than complex normalized data structures (used commonly in operational systems)

The Kimball approach is criticized on the following points:

• how feasible it is to connect data marts which capture information at a different level of detail. Linking of data marts is very important, since it allows the combined analysis of data from different marts (a practice known as drill across).
• normalized database structures reflect better complex entity type relationships, compared to the denormalised dimensional model. The Kimball approach proposes the exclusive use of denormalised structures.

Copyright 2006 – Kostis Panayotakis

Public speaking training often focuses on the big picture challenges facing newbies – like selecting a topic, choosing a target audience or market, and the general structure of the talk. Unfortunately, in the rush to answer these important technical challenges, one of the most fear-inducing aspects of speech making is often forgotten… how to decide what to say in your first few words or sentences.

Opening Your Talk- Its Importance

Psychologists have long established the importance of the first impressions when meeting a person one has never met before. In the context of public speaking, making the right first impression may be the difference between absolute success or abject failure in reaching your goals.

Since public speaking is usually a channel for establishing partnerships, making sales, entering the job promotion fast track and otherwise gaining influence, it is very important that every aspiring speaker work diligently at mastering the opening few minutes of the presentation.

Note that the techniques I will cover below are to be used to launch into the main body of your talk after such pleasantries as thanking the person who introduced you (if applicable) and congratulating the audience for their commitment in being present. Here are 6 of my best ideas for successfully gaining attention and connecting with an audience by crafting a powerful opening.

Surprising Statistic or Startling Fact

You can start your presentation with a startling statistic or fact that acts as a compelling metaphor to illustrate the challenge, problem or opportunity you intend to speak about. For instance, if you are presenting a seminar related to hidden cost or waste, you may cite a statistic highlighting waste in a government department or municipality.

You may also use a factoid from current events. For instance, during the period when the Gulf Coast Oil Spill was flowing unchecked, a speaker might have mentioned that “until the flow was stopped in July 2010, an estimated 8,750 gallons of oil was spilling into the gulf every hour.”

Comic Entry

Another option for releasing tension and connecting with your audience is to start with a joke (especially of the self-deprecating sort) or a funny story. This is not a tactic I would recommend for you if you’re fairly new to public speaking or if you are not intimately familiar with the sensibilities of your audience. However, if using humor resonates with you, remember that many experienced speakers use “comic entry” tactics to great effect.

Popular or Inspiring Quote

Using insightful, thought-provoking and inspiring quotes in your public speaking presentations can help your audience really connect to your message. Even well-worn quotes used often by speakers can still resonate with your audience when they are applied to new contexts and scenarios.

Story telling

The art of story telling is a skill that often goes beyond the scope of basic public speaking training. Some of the greatest selling entrepreneurial and management speakers of all time have been masterful storytellers. Be on the lookout for stories, case studies and metaphors that illustrate the core points of your cornerstone talks and speeches.

Challenge

Issuing a challenge right at the start of your speech is another approach that works well especially for audiences consisting of passion and mission-oriented people. Another effective way to employ the “challenge” tactic is to place some responsibility for engagement on the audience use of the “challenge” tactic that works is also effective

Question

Asking an intriguing question is also a great way to launch into the heart of your talk. The question you ask should be directly relevant to the topic of your presentation. For instance your question could pose a problem for which you intend to share the solution in the body of your talk. Your question could be accompanied by a request for a show of hands (in answer to the question asked).

Conclusion – Public Speaking Training

These 6 sets of ideas are just a few out of many possible ways to open your speech. The most important lesson you should take away is that detailed preparation is required along with public speaking training. If you work diligently at being a capable, engaging and inspiring speaker, you will have learned one of the greatest business and personal success shortcuts around.

Feature-function-benefit selling presentations are effective because they work. For the purpose of brevity I will refer to it as “FFB” in this article. A professional sales training program will include this important technique in some form or another. You may see it referred to by a slightly different name, such as feature-need-benefit or another closely worded name but no matter the name, it is the same technique.

Here is a simple way to make FFB an integral part of every sales effort and benefit from it. Let’s start by defining each of the terms.

FEATURE

This is the “what is it” part of FFB. Every product or service has unique features that separate it from the competition. If the feature is common to other products the way it is presented will help separate you from your competitor.

FUNCTION

What does it do? During your presentation this part of FFB gives your customer the opportunity to see how it works. It goes without saying that proficient product knowledge is a must.

BENEFIT

Why should your customer have it? Here is where you solve a problem, fill a need and re-inforce why your product or service is the right one.

Let’s do a simple exercise that puts FFB into action.

Suppose you sell automobiles. In today’s world most of them have anti-lock brakes as either standard or optional equipment. Now, you are showing your customer the vehicle. You can either say:

“This car has anti-lock brakes” or you can use FFB to your advantage and say:

“This vehicle is equipped with anti-lock brakes.(The feature) In the event of an emergency braking situation you fully depress the brake pedal to the floor. (The function) The Anti-lock brake system is designed to bring you to a complete and straight stop without allowing the wheels to skid. This prevents loss of control and avoids sliding off the highway or into oncoming traffic. (The Benefit)

Here is where many salespeople forget an important step. Always end your FFB presentation with a tie-down or evidence statement. In the above example it would sound like this:

“I think you’ll agree that is an important safety feature.”

Think of the product or service you sell. As an exercise to become comfortable with FFB write down some key features and practice presenting them using this method. It will pay huge dividends.

In Judo, Tokui Waza means “favorite” or “best” technique. It’s the throw that fits naturally to your body type, and you have practiced it thousands of times to make it an instinctual response. Everyone at the club or local tournament knows that you’ll use it, but there’s nothing they can do to stop it…you’re just that damn good at it.

Same thing goes in business. Everyone needs to have a carefully prepared and practiced Tokui Waza. Of course, you are not going to toss your clients, customer or superior over your head (Although that would be nice sometimes) but you are going to have to knock their socks off from time to time with some sort of presentation. And regardless if you are selling the project you’ve been slaving day and night on, your company’s product or service, or your own personal qualifications, victory will only be achieved if that presentation is perfect.

Now don’t get nervous! Just like in Judo, if your Tokui Waza presentation is strong enough, it will work in almost every situation with just slight variations. Therefore, you only have to develop one “core” presentation and then you will be able to seamlessly fold any “new” aspects of each new situation into the mix.

All right, Lets build your “core” presentation.

Something in your life has previously motivated you. Whether it is a song, a speech, an article, a passage in a book, whatever; find it and copy it down longhand (that means write it out for you youngins) ten times on a legal pad.

The purpose of this is to steal the “rhythm”. While you may mistakenly thing that the actual “words” are, motivating you, in reality it is the sequence and chaining of the words to one another that are invoking a rhythmic association within your brain. And rhythm is easily imitated through repetition. Next…

We’ll begin with selling yourself. Your “core” presentation should reflect the idea that you are on the job interview of your life. You must sell yourself to gain whatever dream getting this job will fulfill. A yacht, $300 million dollars, a Rolls-Royce…whatever.

Start with your own personal story of hardship. Whether you had to solve a problem, battle a disease, fight an unbeatable higher power, your story should reflect the idea that you too had a “problem” that needed to be solved.

Next, isolate and agitate the hell out of the problem at hand. Blow it out of proportion, use “worst case” scenarios as daily occurrences, build on whatever potential there is for the shit to hit the fan and the apocalypse to be right around the corner

Finally, use all the tools we’ve talked about in previous issues; authority, emotional control, proof, E-factors, customization, strengths, benefits, etc., and start to build your solution.

Now if you did the rhythm exercise properly, your incorporation of the “Problem – Agitate – Solve” formula into your writing should have a similar and successful flow.

If you used a song as your motivation, there are probably repeating key facts, points, or details that mimic the chorus. If you used a speech, there is most likely a smooth mix of “highs” and “lows” that imitate someone speaking passionately about a subject. A passage from a book or a scene from a movie? Then your storytelling will emulate the emotion and paint visual “word pictures” in your listener or readers mind. All powerful, powerful stuff.

Great! Now practice your ass off!

That’s right; not only do you need to memorize your presentation, but also you must practice it every chance you get to “nail” all the little crescendos, jokes, inflections, and facial expressions you envisioned as you were writing it. There is no shortcut for this. Only practice, practice, and practice some more.

Through this practice, you gain something so powerful, so dominant, and so influential that nobody in his or her right mind will be able to say “no” to you once your Tokui Waza presentation has been delivered…

The unfaltering confidence and utter conviction that you are the ONLY answer to whatever problem needs solving. And that my friends, is true power.

In the thousands of speeches I’ve heard very few presenters truly engage and involve the audience.

Remember, even the most disciplined and attentive of audiences will switch off after 20 minutes.

It never ceases to amaze me how many highly intelligent people, who are experts in their field, end up being poor presenters.

They usually have a pattern to their speech. A nervous start with an apology, followed by hiding behind the podium, then a new world record for the number of PowerPoint slides or overheads they can get through in the allocated time and then a mad rush in the last five minutes as they realise they are only half way through their speech!

Sound familiar?

Maybe you’ve been in this situation many times before as a member of the audience?

Or worse still, been a presenter with this approach?

So how can you involve the audience in new and innovative ways? Here are my Top Four Ways to Get Audience Involvement in a Presentation.

1. ASK A QUESTION.

It is so painfully obvious yet many presentations fail to incorporate this tried and true technique. You can even use this if you are the MC for an event.

A simple question can be a great icebreaker. When planning a speech, work out when and what to ask members of your audience to truly engage and involve them. A good technique is to get the audience to interact with yourself or others by checking their understanding or interpretation of what they’ve heard so far.

2. PROVIDE AN OPPORTUNITY TO TELL THEIR STORY.

Ask audience members to tell their own stories that highlight the point you are trying to make. This not only customises your message, but makes it more relevant to the audience. Case studies work especially well in this format. This involves the audience personally with the presentation and has each member reflecting on the speech.

3. HAVE FUN.

Audiences love fun and entertainment. Break your presentation up with some fun and games where people are encouraged to loosen up and play. I find that my audience interaction technique of involving the audience in some simple and not too challenging hammer throw warm up exercises works well even for the most cynical and shy of audiences.

The best response I ever had was a series of keynote presentations in the Philippines on branding where audience members had to get in teams and write, script, produce and then perform on stage a 30-second TV commercial for their latest product.

It always amazes me how creative people can be when given permission to compete, have fun and play.

4. PLAN THE NEXT STEP.

One of the most successful ways to engage an audience is to get them to apply new concepts or ideas to their own situation. You can do this by getting them to set some goals or set a simple action plan based on the information you present in your speech.

There are no rules except whatever you do must reinforce the ‘essence’ of the main message in your speech. This way you can cater for all the kinaesthetic, visual and auditory needs of your audience.

As the name denotes, presentation ring binders are made for presentation of documents. However, I have found other uses for these binders.

Professionals tend to have tons of documents and paperworks in out desks, bags and drawers. If they are not organized having a lot of papers can be a disaster. Important papers can get lost or mixed with the unimportant stuff, several imporatant but completely unrelated documents can get mixed up or, like what happened to me just recently, you could not find a document just when you need it the most. Clearly, organizing documents is one of the simplests tasks you can do to help you get back on track — and presentation binders are ideal for organizing papers.

You can also use them for protection for your documents. Most presentation binders have a hard outer cover which will prevent your documents from getting crumpled when the container is bumped or dropped. Try that with a paper folder. Besides, there are certain types of binders, called zippered binders that can be sealed, can these give extra protection, especially from water.

You can also use them to transport documents! Presentation ring binders are always lightweight, and this is very important if you need to transport your documents from meetings to meetings.

You can customize presentation binders for artworks. I like features that can let you add a personal touch to products. These binders have this clear outer cover that can let you insert your (or somebody else’s) artwork so it can show your personality. You can also use 3 ring binders for scrapbooking, compiling notes and even as photo albums!