Bring me your slides...Please.

Posted by Faith Pincus on April 16, 2011

So by now everyone knows I hate Power Point.  You may even know some of the reasons I hate it and some of my suggestions for using it effectively if you insist on using it (or are required to use it).

Now I find myself in the interesting position of needing some sample Power Point presentations - good ones!

One of the judges who speaks at our Pincus Professional Education litigation bootcamps has requested I send him an example of what I consider an excellent Power Point presentation.  

Unfortunately I can't because I've never seen one.  I've seen a few good ones, even some tolerable ones.  And I've seen excellent slides amongst average Power Point presentations.  But in my area of focus especially - the legal world - I have never once seen what I would consider an "excellent" Power Point presentation from start to finish.  

Doesn't mean they don't exist.  PP screen at a CLE.jpg

If you have one, or have seen one, especially in a legal setting, I would really appreciate you sending it my way.

I'll even sweeten the deal.  I'll send my Public Speaking for Attorneys DVD to whomever sends me the Power Point presentation that I select to send to the judge as an example, and of course I will give full credit.

Use Evernote to capture and catalogue quotes and stories for future presentations

Posted by Faith Pincus on February 15, 2011

 

On Laywerist today there is a nice short post by Tim Baran that you might want to check out, called "Use Evernote to Streamline Processes and Increase Productivty."   

Evernote is an excellent tool for organizing your electronic workspace.  I've been using it for about 6 months now, ever since Robin Meadow mentioned it at one of my CLE programs on "Tech Tools for your Appellate Practice."  I have a couple hundred notes on there - everything from my frequent flyer numbers to wine and champagne lists to my travel plans.  evernoet.png

There are two reasons I find Evernote a fantastic tool:

  1. You can "tag" each entry into categories, so you can quickly find what you are looking for, unlike the Outlook "notes" tool; and,
  2. It automatically syncs between all of my devices - ipad, laptop, droid.  So even if I have forgotten to add that flight to my droid calendar, or forgotten to manually sync my laptop and droid, I still have access to my travel plans via evernote.

So what does this have to do with public speaking?  

Evernote is also an excellent way to capture quotes, statistics, stories and other information you find interesting and think might be useful for future presentations.

I have multiple tags to catalogue speaking resources I come across on a daily basis:

  • quotes
  • stats
  • opening statement stories
  • closing argument stories
  • oral argument stories
  • cle stories
  • general speaking stories
  • rhetorical tecnique samples - repetition
  • rhetorical technique samples - antithesis
  • rhetorical technique samples - metaphors
  • rhetorical technique samples - analogies

and so on...

Whenever I come across something while reading, or surfing the web, or I hear a great metaphor on the radio or in a political speech, or someone tells me a story after one of my presentations, I add it to evernote. Evernote even has a tool to make cutting and pasting web pages really easy.

In the past, I often neglected to save the quote thinking I would remember it later, or I have emailed it to myself and it has gotten lost in the fray. Now I can save quotes, samples and other great examples of what I teach, tag them while saving them, and they are there any time I want them, regardless of which tech device I have handy.

This is a powerful tool!  

If you do any public speaking, CLEs, or are in court a lot, you should check it out and start your own files/notes on evernote for future speaking use.