Create Your Communications Experience

Brogan Battles Backnoise - and wins!

You may have heard of the backchannel when one is speaking, but have you heard of BackNoise?  If not, it's time you do.  As blog post reader Paul Freet stated:  "Backnoise is like the hammer in the 1984 Apple commercial."

Paul hit the nail on the head.  BackNoise is the hammer being thrown into the theater of public speaking.

In my blog post "Speakers - Be Aware, Twitter is Coming," I affirmed that in any conference, event or speech setting where the speaker has a point-of-view and a message to deliver, the speaker is responsible for the experience.  Twitter, BackNoise and other backchannel tools challenge speakers to step up their game in maintaining responsibility for their communications experience.  Backchannel conversations compete for an audience's attention.  Presenters need to master the art of engaging their audiences more than ever if they're going to be successful communicators of the future.

Unlike Twitter, BackNoise is an isolated conversation backchannel tool, centered around a single topic (or rather a single conversation name).  Created by Keith McGreggor of Atlanta, BackNoise lets anyone establish these topical conversations quickly and easily, allowing those who know the name of the conversation to join in.  These virtual conversations can occur during meetings, lectures, presentations and speeches - anywhere YOU may be presenting your message to your audience - whether you like it or not.

There have been many recent blog posts on BackNoise, (several listed at the end of this post) - most of which reference what transpired at the New Media Atlanta conference on September 25, 2009.  My daughter attended that conference and had this to say about her experience:

I've read about the BackNoise chatter at the conference changing the tone of the conference from excitement and enthusiasm in the morning to a negative, disheartened mood in the afternoon.  I didn't experience that because I wasn't online to view it.  (The BackNoise conversation wasn't displayed publicly, but taking place on laptops throughout the auditorium - much like kids talking in class, uninterested in learning.)

Oblivious to the negativity spreading throughout the day on BackNoise, I first experienced BackNoise when the main speaker, Chris Brogan, took the stage and put BackNoise up on the screen behind him.  Curious (because it was on the screen), I read some of the comments and found what I read to be mostly silly, boring, off-topic, uninteresting and frankly stupid.  When Chris took the stage and began rapping, my eyes immediately shifted from reading comments of no interest to me on BackNoise to checking out what the heck this guy was doing.  What I witnessed as Chris' presentation continued was a personable, down-to-earth and confident presenter connecting with his audience, sharing a valuable message in a way that engaged his listeners.  While I continued to see BackNoise comments scrolling on the screen behind him, I paid no attention to them because they couldn't compete with him.  I was so interested in what he was saying that BackNoise was just that - noise in the back that I tuned out because I wanted to participate in his communications experience.

I've watched the video of Chris' presentation (and you can too on Chris Brogan's blog).  My daughter is right.  Chris is an excellent communicator.  He masterfully created, facilitated and led an effective communications experience for his audience.  Realizing the effect of BackNoise in the shadows of laptop screens, Chris yanked the furtive chatter out of the laptops and threw it on the screen for all to see and for him to confront and control - which he did, artfully.  Chris has demonstrated in Atlanta how communicators can tame the lion of backchannel distractions.  (A more in depth review of how Chris Brogan tamed the lion is the material of a forthcoming blog post.)

What we can learn from the New Media Atlanta experience with BackNoise is this:

1. You (as speaker) are responsible for your communications experience.
2. Backchannel conversations are here to stay; embrace them as your competition.
3. Now, more than ever, you need to sharpen your skills to connect with and engage your audience --- you need to be BETTER than your competition (distractions in general, but particularly backchannel chatter).
4. BackNoise (unlike Twitter) is a unique backchannel tool that you can establish, encourage and control as you use it to create a more interactive communications experience between you and your audience.

You'll be hearing a lot more about BackNoise in the world of mainstream speeches and presentations.  Don't fear it, face it.

Some of the recent blog posts about BackNoise:

Unexpected Learnings: Backnoise Can Be Toxic

Backnoise Is The New Listening Channel

How To Present While People are Twittering

Backnoise: You’re Not Ready for This, or Are You?

Don’t Blame Backnoise

How to Start Communicating on Twitter

Exploding - the word for Twitter, and Social Media for that matter.

There's a lot of misunderstanding about Twitter, and particularly about getting started, so this post is JUST about that - and will be a little texty. Timely though, since I'm about to speak to a major Association's Management Team on finding "The Melody In Noise," and have found most do not know the Twitter basics - I want to point them here. (If you know the basics, go to this post on the Why and How of Twitter.)
 
Twitter is useful and a good ROI on your time if you don’t overdo it. (I do but you don’t have to…, you could spend a half hour a day and get a lot of value for yourself and your business.)
 
So I encourage it, and here are the beginning steps I’d recommend:
 
1.   Sign up at www.Twitter.com. Use your real name, or as close as you can get.

2.   Begin with a post (affectionately called Tweets), as simple as “I’m starting at Twitter.”

3.   Fill out your profile in the upper right. Use a good close-up picture of yourself, and put in a url (ideally your blog, or your company blog or website), and be interesting and somewhat open in your profile. Twitter is about transparency. People want to quickly ‘get’ who you are if they are going to follow you. I strongly recommend you do NOT check the "Protect my updates" box. Not transparent - and actually, why be on Twitter if you don't want to communicate rapidly, spontaneously and personally. I don't follow blocked updates. Fill in your location - your city is best - I'm not sure why some people put in 'everywhere' or a cell phone location - doesn't tell much.

4.   Follow me @BertDecker and I’ll help you get followers, and be glad to help you along. Give me an @ or DM message (which is a Reply or Direct Message) or email me (see below.)

5.   Write another post, and another. You can start with what you are doing but that’s pretty useless (who cares), so maybe reply to a follower, or ReTweet. Move to give value as soon as you can. But get some posts up.

6.   Then get followers (see below), and from that most will follow you. There are many ways to get followers, but just start by clicking on the ID’s and follow anybody to start. After you get 10 or 20 you’ll get the gist of it and begin to use the apps like www.twannabe.com and others.

7.   Here are some people to start following from Decker Communications and other good people who will probably follow you back:

@KellyDecker @DeckerBen @KhoriWhitaker @Allisoncds @DeckerComm @MatthewNault @Guy_Baker @DruScottDecker @SamDecker @ChrisSpagnuolo @Jeff_Bailey @OliviaMitchell @GuyKawasaki

8.   As soon as you can, get the great application www.TweetDeck.com so you can begin grouping your followers (friends or associates is a better name actually) and really use Twitter for both giving value, gaining value, and expanding your horizons as well as your friendships.

9. Caution! There is a learning curve. Expect it to take a week or so... if you have given value, you will see the value.

10. For further justification and next steps and good tips, now go to: The Why and How of Twitter

And Twitter me @BertDecker , or email me with any questions at [email protected]
 
"The effectiveness of your communication determines the effectiveness of your life.”

Four Voices from SXSW

Speaking and Twitter dominance

The experience of South by South West (SXSW) in Austin is like the Wild West - it's the frontier of Social Media converging with traditional conference, dominated by Twitter. After experiencing it, I've modified my opinions since my last Twitter post here, and more will be coming on that (for a very good post on this subject today see Mark Ivey's blog.)

First, four important (read 'Rock Star') voices from SXSW on the question "Is Twitter distracting, additive or what?" I recorded our conversations spontaneously on my iPhone - here are highlights:

@Armano     - (Listen to iPhone recording here)

• Good thing, not a bad thing
• Speaker can broadcast his/her message
• When I tweet in conference, use it as notes
• Tweeting causes disconnect but you store up info and come back to it

@GuyKawasaki     - (iPhone recording here)

• Very good for speakers, can reach thousands through tweets
• I like big numbers!
• Tweeters disconnect - It's like taking notes
• Not too distracting for me as a speaker. But embarrassing when I'm speaking and someones sees a live tweet from one of my surrogates...

@Pistachio     - (iPhone recording here)

• Tweeters can take over a conference - last SXSW
• Great as back channel, speakers can see what audience wants
• Opens up ways to broadcast our content world wide in seconds
• Tradeoffs - can distract speaker, be rude, discount audience
• Can connect with individuals in room and conference
• One more things for corporations to assimilate, change "laptops down" policy

@ChrisBrogan     - (iPhone recording here)

• Important to be able to free flow and multi-task well
• Many conversations can take place at the same time, all can express themselves
• Note taking useful for in house audience
• Real audience is the thousands outside the conference room
• Twitter is like hamburger helper for the conversation - makes a little go a long way
• We'll learn to speak in 'twitter bites' (as Chris Brogan does!)

There's a unanimity of opinion by those who are in the Twitter elite of course, and I share their enthusiasm for the possibilities. But there's another side to the story in the traditional and more bureaucratic business world - which is perhaps 80% (or more) of the business population. They still think Twitter is the answer to the now irrelevant question, "What are you doing?" (The other day I asked the CEO of a billion dollar investment banking firm how he used Twitter and he said "What's Twitter?")

More to come on this important communication experience, and Twitter tips for the mainstream business population...

@BertDecker

10 Steps to Make Your Meetings Better

Meetings - We all have 'em, can't live with 'em, and can't live without 'em.

BNET did a video interview with me on some key points to communicate more effectively through meetings.

Here are some additional tips we give to our clients at Decker Communications, Inc., where we train people to communicate effectively - I call them the 10 Steps to Better Meetings:

1. Cut the meetings you have in half. Cut the time of the meetings that remain in half.

This assumes you are the leader of the meetings. Unproductive talk and time will fill the space of long meetings - The Peter Principle in action.

2. Have an agenda.

Bullets only, direction driven, not "update" driven. It also helps to distribute in advance by email if you have time and access.

3. Be on time.

Start on time. Model your time at the beginning so people know you respect their time. Don't wait for stragglers, and don't catch up items for late comers (unless it happens to be the boss.)

4. Be controversial.

Not outlandish, but stimulate robust dialogue. The reason most meetings are boring is because most meetings are boring. As the meeting leader, it's up to you to make it interesting.

5. Have a focus, a Point Of View.

Meetings should not be primarily for updates and information exchange, but for action, discussion and direction.

6. Use intentional eye communication.

As a leader, look at everyone or they won't feel included. And when you want someone to speak up more, glance at them. Skillful eye communication can direct and influence without words.

7. Be energetic – voice, gestures.

The Shadow of the Leader. Your enthusiasm will drive others. And if you're not the leader, the more energy and interest you show the more likely you will become one.

8. Avoid Blackberry Abuse.

(See Bonus #1 below.) If you are not encouraging Twitter in your meeting, you must be interesting. If the meeting and you are interesting, people won't go to Twitter on their own, or their IM's and emails on their iPhones and Blackberrys. Set your ground rules for what you want to accomplish, and then accomplish it by relevance, vitality, energy and interest.

9. Drive to action steps.

Meetings should create actions, not informational data dumps. Be intentional.

10. End with a bang, not a whimper.

Most meetings peter out. Not only end with an action step(s), close it off with an upbeat quote, story or video clip. Be creative - and your meetings will be too.

Bonus #1: Decide whether or not you want to encourage people to Twitter during the meeting or not. (See Speakers - Be Aware Twitter Is Coming) It can be an interesting and engaging tool, or it can be a total disruption. Be intentional. Be smart.

Bonus #2: Get a Flip Video and record your meetings on video or DVD - put one up in the back of the room to see how you and others interact and behave. Observed behavior changes.

Bonus #2: Buy and read "Death By Meeting" by Patrick Lencioni, a great speaker and consultant. There is a plethora of good advice and concepts in his book that will change the way you run your meetings.

Speakers – Be Aware, Twitter is Coming

Business speakers (and leaders, keynoters, politicians, Pastors and, well, everyone…) need to be aware that like it or not, Twitter is coming to their speaking experience.

Be Aware, and Beware!

There's been a lot of buzz - and new insight - into what to do about people twittering while you are speaking. Olivia Mitchell did an outstanding guest blog on Laura Fitton's Pistachio site, and the next day on Chris Spagnuolo's Edgehopper, wrapping up a busy week with her own summary post. All great food for thought - but let's not get carried away. The "back channel" will only be useful in a small number of communicating environments - at least for the next year or so. Here's why:

The great majority of Twitterers, and bloggers for that matter, are early adopters, and tech/social media savvy. They probably would be lost without their computers/PDA's/phones (I know I would.) However the majority of the business world uses the tools, but don't lose themselves in the process. And I'm afraid that the thrust of the current Twitter buzz advocating twittering during speeches will cause an expectation of good communication that will not be met – and will lead the majority of people (like most of our clients) down the wrong path.

Now there ARE great new possibilities, particularly with high tech audiences like at SXSW, and others. So there’s the good, the bad and the ugly.

Let’s start with the ugly:

•    Until there was Twitter, there was only ‘Blackberry Abuse,’ which we blogged on awhile back. Here it was rude for people to go to their Blackberrys (or PDA's/iPhones) during a meeting or speech to IM or check email - but they did it anyway. Because they were bored!
•    The solution to Blackberry Abuse was to be INTERESTING as a speaker. Engage and excite your audience and they will be compelled to listen, and watch!
•    That’s still the solution to the almost 90% of speaking situations where Twittering would not be appropriate (see below). But we're beginning to see an expectation that people SHOULD Twitter, it’s OK, it will be constructive, and it’s not really because they’re bored. But the majority of Twitterers WILL be twittering because they are bored, because the majority of speakers are unfortunately boring. And so now we have a valid excuse to put our heads down, get our minds on the tweet and not the message, and be rude to the unsuspecting speaker.
•    Confusion will reign.

Now for the bad:

•    In probably 80-90% of most business and conference settings speakers have a message to give – at keynote speeches and large company events - the large audience venues. It is not a groupthink or collaboration (see below for “the good.”)
•    You can't read and listen effectively at the same time. This has been well documented by Edward Tufte and others, and I'll personally confirm that with my past 30 years experience in the communication and speaking business. It is cognitive dissonance in action.
•    Think of the problem with PowerPoint presentations filled with text, (also well documented in this blog and Presentation Zen and others.) We’ve all had the sad but common experience of reading ahead, as the speaker says, “Now stay with me.” And of course we don’t, and since we can’t read and listen at the same time we have cognitive dissonance.
•    And it’s even worse with Tweeting. If you think you can’t read and listen at the same time, it’s even worse to try to text and listen (and read) at the same time. If you have a group listening to a speaker (supposedly) and tweeting about the speaker’s 140 character sound bites (supposedly) and looking at the text and PowerPoints, and reading other Tweeter’s tweets, and looking up urls – chaos reigns in the mind. The speaker has lost control, and there is not only NOT better communication - it is far worse and more fragmented.
•    In this large conference/event/speech setting where the speaker has a point-of-view and a message to deliver, the speaker is responsible for the experience. You can’t command “No Blackberrys. No Twitter!” - because people will do what they want to do. But there are other ways - the speaker cannot abdicate his or her responsibility. He or she should be should be interesting, engaging and powerful, using arresting stories, visuals and Black Slides!

 A new perspective – the good that will come out of this:

•    The growing dialogue and power of Twitter is opening up new ways to communicate, and we are just on the forefront. This is what this recent buzz is leading to, and take the time to read all of the ideas and comments in those blog links below – you’ll get some idea of where it is going.
•    Workshops, social media sessions, Jelly!, BarCamps, et al are far different than the traditional more formal speeches mentioned above. Although they won’t replace them anytime soon, they are offering new collaborative possibilities, and it is these where Twitter and the ‘back channel’ will flourish. Likely ALL the sessions at SXSW 2009 Austin in two weeks will be Twitter enhanced, providing a high level laboratory - much should come out of that.
•    On webinars and teleconferences there is much more potential for using Twitter, and this back channel becomes very useful where you don't have the speaker present, and need more visual engagement.
•    The thousands of smaller meetings and business conferences going on everyday should be living laboratories for experimenting and trying out some of these new ideas of Twitter that have already shown promise.

See Olivia, Pistachio and Edgehopper for dozens of examples of the benefits of Twitter in today's growingly diverse communications experiences. But don’t lose sight of the fact that in most speeches today, Twittering during a speech won’t be of use - but abuse.

Cisco's Telepresence: A huge hit, but there's a big miss

 

My favorite guest blogger is back, and I don't say that just because she's our Executive VP and my daughter-in-law, but because she is brilliant in developing programs for our clients. If you're not doing so already, follow her on Twitter @kellydecker.

I was first wowed by Cisco's Telepresence - a fantastic virtual meeting solution - when I spent some time in NY coaching a group of Cisco's leaders in 2007. But this week I got to experience it for myself, thanks to Ian Griffin, who set up a demo for local NSAers.

Cisco touts this experience as the next best thing to an in-person meeting. Clearly, Chambers and team understand that regardless of the technology that shrinks the globe around us, it's the face-to-face, in-person interactions that business continues to yearn for. And, it delivers. The experience is "you" in high-def, which, as our host Rick quipped, has it's downfalls especially for any unwanted complexion issues. There's nothing grainy or choppy about it. And though I hate to admit it (especially in front of my husband), once you go high-def, you just don't go back (so, yes, I really do believe in paying extra for HD at home - there, I said it).

Check out some pictures on Ian Griffin's blog.

To sum up the pros:

• The video and audio is seamless - it feels like you're in the same room.  
• It absolutely saves businesses travel time and money, and the ROI can be quick, depending on your need for travel. For companies who have put a halt on all travel even for salespeople - if you do not provide a way for them to connect in-person, you've just made it that much more difficult to sell in already tough times. There is nothing more effective to communicate to influence than in-person meetings - this provides a great way to do it.
• It's accessible to the public - you don't need your own private Telepresence equipment to do this. Public rooms are available from $299 per hour per location. You do the math.

Now for the cons:

• Cisco has done a great job with the technology (as we expect as they are one of the most innovative companies around - even into holography.) But they haven't focused on training the user to maximize the experience (hmmm...sounds just a little like PPT!):
  • I was in a larger Telepresence suite, communicating with another smaller room. I observed for a while to figure out what was happening with eye communication - because it sure didn't look like people were looking at the person who was talking (even though they were). Knowing how critical eye communication and behavioral skills are to the overall experience, I asked about how they prepare clients behaviorally to use the technology effectively. Imagine my disappointment when the answer was, "there's a brief description in the documentation" and "a printed set of Etiquette Guides in each room." Yikes!
  • Eye Communication is the #1 behavioral skill - if you don't have it, you lose that connection and involvement with your listener. These might sound like subtle things, but communications is largely unconscious - how will that new client react to you when you appear to be talking to someone else in the room?
  • There's also a lack of training in how to effectively present when you have an audience in the room with you, and an audience in cyberland virtually appearing at a table across from you. Even the Telepresence host overwhelmingly directed his presentation to the people in his room, only occasionally acknowledging the audience on the other side. 
• It is solely for seated meetings, so not a great solution for energetic collaboration, brainstorming, or facilitation. You need to stand and change the dynamics in the room to do this really well.

Ultimately, these are good reminders for all in-person communications. The hard part is to bring your communications to a conscious level, where you are always thinking of the total experience.

The New SlideShare Ribbon

SlideShare is a great application most of you know about and use - it allows everyone to share PowerPoint presentations and decks easily and effectively. And among other things they have The World's Best Presentation Contest every year.

Now the SlideShare folks have come up with another new function. They worked with Microsoft on the "SlideShare Ribbon" which lets you use the full functionality of SlideShare from within PowerPoint.  I think this is the first time a Web 2.0 property has been embedded so deeply into desktop productivity software.

You can download to SlideShare, upload, search, comment, and bookmark, all from within PowerPoint. And it gives the aspiring social media marketer a nice console for seeing how much reach (views, downloads, favoritings, etc).

Here is an introduction to the SlideShare Ribbon. It's a great tool, but for now it's Windows only - I understand the Mac version will be on the way before long.

So if you use PP and a PC and Windows, here is where you can get and install the SlideShare Ribbon.

PS: Here's a view of our new logo

The How and Why of Twitter

 Why Twitter? This post is in three parts:

1. Why should you do it? (And why am I advocating it here, since many of you are interested in this blog for speaking/personal communications.)
2. Beginning and Intermediate Twitter. (That's me.)
3. Advanced Twitter. (I'm not there, but will point you to who is, and ways to get there.)

So if you are already using Twitter, skip to points 2 and 3. But if not, here's why...

1. Why Twitter in the first place. Who cares about "What are you doing now..." chats anyway?

• I've been testing Twitter (I think I'll call it "T" for brevity) for the last five weeks for the ROI on time. It is worth it. And forget about the "What are you doing?" question - the Twitter folks should can that phrase. It's for kids chatting - not relationships and business.
• T is about giving value and getting value, and thus building valuable relationships.
• Through T I've connected with several key influencers that are important to my business, and many new friends who aren't. I've seen $10,000 raised in 48 hours just on T, and have already raised over $1,000 myself for The Salvation Army (my favorite cause.)
• I've learned a lot by the references to blogs and other people I wouldn't have known - useful business info and interesting general info.
• T (and other social media) is a big part of today's communication marketplace, and leads to the most powerful communication of all - face-to-face.
• Because of T I tried to work out spending an extra 4 hours for dinner to meet with a new T friend (it didn't work out though, but surprised at the interest generated by T for the face-to-face connection.)
• Because of T I connected with and filmed Nancy Duarte and had an interesting post.
• Gained exposure on several radio/podcasts/blogs that wouldn't have happened.
• Strengthened or renewed connections with friends and family.
• I've been entertained. (And my wife has been very patient during the T learning curve.)

 2. Beginning and Intermediate Twitter.

• For the last 5 weeks I've been intensely Twittering. I have about 500 followers (friends or associates is a better word) and follow about 450. I'm not trying to build up thousands right away like many, but to find people of like minded interest and value. If you build it, they will come. Here's what I've found...
• TweetDeck is an indispensable tool. It's a good interface generally, but it is essential to 'Group' your Friends. After a few hundred friends you can't effectively follow all their tweets, so don't try. Go into your Tweet Stream now and then, but group your best friends. I use A, B and C, with A being family and must see, B being interesting and valuable, and C being "Oh, that's a good Tweet, let's see if there are more where that came from."
• T has no rules. Too many take advantage of this freedom and just blather too much. They create Tweet Clutter. So be valuable within the freedom of no rules.
• Give information. Reference a blog post, or an interesting article, or an Alltop link. Be valuable. I try to have half my tweets as reference of value, and the rest a combination of comments (replies), ReTweets and maybe a quote or proverb. Now and then I'll throw in something interesting I'm doing, but maybe nobody is much interested so I don't do that too often. But within your value you do want to show personality.
• I'm amazed at the number of T "Stars" who just blather - or spend too much time talking to their inner circle, or just keep telling us "What they are doing now." Who cares?
• But you may not want to "unfollow" someone you know or respect just because they blather. All you have to do is to not put them in a group you regularly check. They can blather, but you don't have to listen.
• Another great tool is FriendOrFollow - where you can find out quickly, and alphabetically, (this is very time consuming in the Twitter application), who is or is not following you. 
• Use Favorites to favorite a Tweet to save it and refer or retweet it later.
• I do look at people who follow me, and follow most if they look interesting, have a website, and have pretty equal follows and followers. And I look for new interesting people to follow through links from the people on my A and B lists.
• Other good tools that you can look at are Twitpic,  Twitwall,  SocialToo,  TwitStats,  and if you want to know how you are doing TwitterCounter. And there are many more you will find once you get started.
• If you have an iPhone, (Correction 12/9  Twittelator Pro CAN ReTweet - I just needed to read the instructions (here). So Twittelator Pro goes to the top. I had said) "Tweetie is the best application ($2.99 at the App Store.) Twittelator Pro is good, but you can't automatically ReTweet. Tweetsville is great except it crashes to much for me, and Twitterfon is OK."

3. Advanced Twitter

• Since I'm not there, let me point you to some folks who are, and whom you will want to follow, and you can also check out their key posts. Take the best and leave the rest:
• Guy Kawasaki - one of the best internet and application gurus, gives useful information and has over 30,000 followers.. Be sure to see his posts Looking for Mr. GoodTweet  and Twitter as a Twool.
• Jim Connelly is from the UK so you can connect with him at night if you're in the US. He is not only good and friendly, he may have the best bang for the Tweet of them all. Be sure to read his How I Attracted 8,000 followers in 8 Weeks.
• Chris Brogan is a guru who is very well liked on Twitter, and has a very good post on If I Started Today.
• Perry Belcher has a video that is good on how he attracted 5,000 in 90 days.
• John Jantsch of DuctTapeMarketing is great and has a great post on Twitter for Business
• Jay Ehret I met through Twitter only, but we are going to meet in Austin when I visit son Sam (@deckermarketing) over Christmas. I find his blog posts onTwitter  very valuable, and he is worth following.
• And an interesting post on the Twitter SeeSaw.

Blogs, and Twitter, take time. So I'll stop now. But I hope you proceed to the next level in both.

And I'm at @BertDecker! I'd like to follow you...

Presentation Zen - a best blog

If you follow blogs on communicating, you certainly know of Presentation Zen and Garr Reynolds. If not, sign on now, because...

Everytime I try to find a great post of the week in Alltop's speaking category, there rarely is any that beats the depth, interest and visual power of Garr's work.

Here is his new post and recent review of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers - a great new book reviewed countless places. But no review is as interesting as the Presentation Zen offering.

Presentation Zen blog stands head and shoulders above most of the rest because it is:

1. Thorough. He does his research. Presentation Zen is deep, whether exploring type fonts or kinetic typography, or a book review, or great speaking, or the subtlety (or power) of a TED presentation.
2. Design oriented. Because of this Garr is visual. Almost always he has video demonstrations of his points - a great tool. And he explains in graphic terms.
3. Personal. You know his perspective and personality. He writes with a direct and personal style. It is interesting. He gives his opinion but doesn't espouse causes that get in the way of his message. He keeps his focus on his one cause - good design.

So Presentation Zen is this week's Alltop top hit. Although I think I'm going to exclude him from weekly picks from now on since he would too often be the pick. Just subscribe to his blog and get him regularly.