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PowerPoint clichés and the global economy

There are some 30 million PP presentations created every day according to scientist John Bohannon.  How many of those presentations are actually engaging in any way?  Think about the amount of billable hours wasted in the interminable mire of monotonous slides.  We all agree.  It is rare to come out of a presentation and say […]

NZ MP’s viral hit speech

Pakuranga MP Maurice Williamson caused a sesnation in New Zealand’s Parliament with his impassioned speech during the third reading of the marriage equality bill.  He had MPs roaring with laughter and his four-minute oration has over 1.3 milion hits in YouTube. His hearfelt irreverence is just one of the reasons it is so inspiring – […]

The Orchestra in my Mouth

In a highly engaging and entertaining TEDx talk, beatboxer Tom Thum demonstrates just how amazing and flexible the human voice is. We are all born with the same equipment and yet the infinite variety of the human voice is a true wonder.  Its range, its versatility and its power makes it possibly the most useful […]

This is me

Sir Ken Robinson delivers a thought provoking and powerful follow up to his first TED talk (which still remains the most widely viewed of all talks on the site) with his urbane and self deprecatory wit and charm. Too many people spend too much of their lives simply enduring their daily lives waiting for the […]

The continuing legacy of Steve Jobs

It’s two years since the founder of Apple died, yet his commencement speech at Stanford University given in June 2005 is still routinely viewed by millions. It’s easy to see why.  It makes complete sense and is a valuable lesson to us all and is inspirational, honest and motivational. From a speaking perspective, one of […]

The Transformative Power of Classical Music

As one of the leading interpreters of Mahler and Beethoven, Benjamin Zander has been the lead conductor of the Boston Philharmonic since 1979 as well as an international speaker on leadership. In this TED talk, Zander takes his audience on a transformative journey with his confidence, charisma and credibility and demonstrates almost effortlessly how to […]

I have a dream

On August 28th, it will be 50 years since Dr Martin Luther King delivered his most famous utterance to 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln memorial in Washington. The speech must surely be one of, if not the most famous public orations of all time.  It was a defining moment for the American Civil […]

The Rule of Three

“I stand before you the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning before a world in shock” Earl Spencer. “Government of the people by the people for the people” Abraham Lincoln “Veni, vidi, vici” Julius Ceasar It is around us all the time – ‘just do it,’ ‘never knowingly undersold,’ ‘vorsprung […]

Don’t tell me words don’t matter

There is a popular misconception surrounding how much of a speech is down to the actual content itself, i.e. the words. The myth surrounds the 1967 study by Professor Albert Mehrabian (UCLA) which claimed that communication is broken down as follows: Words – 7%, Body language – 38%, Tone of voice – 55%. Here Barack […]