I’ve been working on an article on how to give great presentations; one of the topics we are including in Thought Ensemble’s IT relationship management training. The thesis formed recently as I was coaching my little brother during his preparations for a presentation he was going to give to hundreds of choral directors on sight-singing techniques. My little brother is amazing in front of groups; he has a combination of charisma, humility and passion that engages all kinds of audiences and choirs. I was helping him with the structure of his presentation, a primary topic of the article, something I believe is critical to help a presenter with expertise and passion take their audience’s engagement to the “lock-in” level.

More on that thesis later; I just read Seth Godin’s blog after hearing from my brother about the success of his presentation. While I’d love to say my coaching on the presentation design was the secret sauce, I think these two elements really sum up the intangible connection he establishes with his audience. The audience must respect the presenter and the presenter must love his audience… any great presenter I can remember had these connections.