Marketing Articles About Presentations

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Making the Informed Choice in a Business Internet Marketing Opportunity. Every business can have the option of using internet marketing to achieve its goals and gain success. The opportunity presented by this option can be highly advantageous on your part that you may want... (03/09/10 09:01 AM)

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Silicon Valley Parents Want Entrepreneurial Kids. Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal: The focus of recent weeks may have been on Olympic Athletes, but only 1 in 10 who responded to a recent Business Pulse survey said that they would prefer their child to become one. Readers were presented with a very limited set of career choices for their children in the Silicon Valley/San [...] (03/04/10 09:00 PM)

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Microsoft Outlook 2010 Will Make Social Media Mainstream.

Microsoft Outlook 2010 Will Make Social Media Mainstream

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

ShareMicrosoft Outlook 2010 Will Make Social Media MainstreamThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing For many readers of this blog social media is mainstream, but I travel the highways and byways of this country and experience first hand in my workshops and presentations the amount of folks that “just don’t get” social media. I think they’ve heard [...] (02/19/10 09:00 AM)

Extending Your Presentations Through the Backchannel.

Extending Your Presentations Through the Backchannel

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

ShareExtending Your Presentations Through the BackchannelThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing The term “backchannel” was coined in the field of Linguistics in the 1970’s to describe listeners’ behaviors during verbal communication. It is commonly used these days to describe the behavior or conversation going on in social media while a speaker is making a presentation. In [...] (02/05/10 09:01 AM)

Five Ways to Create More Value in Your Presentations. During challenging economic times, buyers look for value. The more value you provide, the more likely you are to become the provider of choice. Presentations offer you excellent opportunities to provide that value at different stages of the sales cycle. Here are five ways to create more value in your ... (02/02/10 09:00 PM)

I Need a Caption for This Image.

I Need a Caption for This Image

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

I Need a Caption for This ImageThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I used this image in a recent presentation on social media to help set the table for one of my primary themes – social media is not a single tool or tactic, it’s more of a strategy or behavior. Suggest a caption in the [...] (01/20/10 09:00 PM)

CES Coverage and a Few Finds.

CES Coverage and a Few Finds

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

CES Coverage and a Few FindsThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing As many of you may have noted by some posts here and on Twitter I attended the recent CES show in Las Vegas as a participant in the AMEX OPENForum booth. I gave presentations on social media and was joined by Anita Campbell of Small [...] (01/10/10 09:00 PM)

Look at Business Presentations as a Process, Not an Event. If you look at creating an effective presentation as a process rather than as an event, you'll quickly realize that it isn't a Sisyphean task. A process has the advantages of being both learnable and repeatable, so once you master it you can streamline development time and increase the returns. (12/29/09 09:00 PM)

Webinar review: Effective Lead Management executive summary. We had a great turn out for our recent B2B Lead Generation RoundtableWebinar “Effective Lead Management: Learn How to Convert Marketing Leads into Sales Pipeline.” In case you missed the live presentation, there are still two ways you can review... (10/28/09 09:00 AM)

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Inbound lead nurturing presentation. I had a great time with being a professor at the inbound marketing university. Here's my presentation deck on inbound lead nurturing (CV201) via #IMU for those who missed it. #8 IMU: Inbound Lead Nurturing (CV201) View more OpenOffice presentations... (06/22/09 09:00 AM)

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How Toyota Followed Baby Boomers. Last week I presented on a panel with Professor Arturo Perez-Reyes (UC Berekeley) at an event in San Francisco we put on with Jupiter Research. One story the Professor shared about Toyota was something I hadn't heard before... He said that Toyota followed the baby boomer generation as a market. They looked at the demographics and spending power of that generation. I think it went something like this... They started with the Corolla, then Celica for when they got into college, then Corona/Camry, then launched Lexus when they had discretionary income. They followed the 'bulge' of spending the baby boomers had. It's an interesting way to think about the markets you're going after. Is it big? how will it evolve? How will it effect your product strategy? (04/03/09 09:00 PM)

Lead nurturing putting the human touch into action with video and email. I had a great time doing my webinar on putting the human touch into lead generation sponsored by Citrix Online and we had almost 1600 people register. Wow! In my presentation I emphasized how lead nurturing is about timing, consistency... (02/25/09 09:00 AM)

Top 10 Decker Marketing Posts from 2008. After looking at the top posts for 'my other blog' at Bazaarblog, I'm doing the same here and looked back at the top (most popular) posts from 2008 on my Decker Marketing blog: Three Reasons Why Contribution > Community 6 Best Practices for Agencies Geoffrey Moore "Provocative Selling" Presentation 8 Tips for Selling Social Marketing to CFOs How to LIVE RICH 81 One-Liner Marketing Ideas 193 Creative Marketing Ideas The 5 Stars of a "Rockstar" Employee 9 Guerrilla Marketing Answers Top 10 Best and Worst Speakers of 2007 (02/24/09 09:00 AM)

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Share Your Politics.

In every presentation and seminar, I'm always telling folks that they need to put the ShareThis button on their sites (notice, I still don't have it on mine..what a slacker). Well, if your is a site that covers political topics (I wish I could, but refrain...), then here's another reason.

ShareThis is now tracking political content shares. Needless to say, Sarah Palin is a hot topic!

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Share Your Politics.

ShareThis is now tracking political content shares. Needless to say, Sarah Palin is a hot topic!

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Some Thought Leadership on Thought Leadership Marketing. I had the distinct pleasure of presenting to the Reno-Tahoe chapter of the American Marketing Association today. The topic was Thought Leadership Marketing. What a fun group! The deck from the event is below.

Thought Leadership Marketing

view presentation (tags: thought leadership marketing)

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Geoffrey Moore "Provocative Selling" Presentation. Geoffrey Moore presented at Austin Texchange a couple weeks ago. It was a great event. A lot of buzz from 300 entrepreneurs and executives in attendance. His topic was "Provocative Selling: How to Break and Enter Markets...Even in a Downturn". The biggest takeaway for me was that 'leads' don't work when selling something new in a downturn. You have to have the warm introduction and participation from executives, and create a sense that something is missing in the prospect's business without your solution. Geoff gave me permission to link to his slides from our Austin Texchange site here. Also see pictures from the event. Incoming President Charley Dean (Silverton Ventures), Geoffrey Moore, and Sam Decker (outgoing Texchange President) (06/30/08 09:00 AM)

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Off to the ALI Social Media Summit in Chicago.

If you're in Chicago between Monday and Wednesday, drop me a line!

I'll be presenting at the ALI Social Media Summit in a pre-conference workshop. Check it out:

How To Use Social Media To Enhance And Improve Your Internal Communications Efforts - And 7 Steps To Take Your Internal Social Media Program To An External Marketing Program

Some people may think that social and emerging media tools are just for customers. However, they can greatly improve your internal communication, peer networking and knowledge sharing and management initiatives if used properly. This workshop will show you how to leverage the most prominent social media tools to strengthen your internal communications processes and improve the effectiveness of any customer-focused organization. If you're considering social media for customer/external communications, this workshop will also give you specific insights and help you to 'eat your own dogfood' before going headlong into social and emerging media & marketing with your customers and prospects.

Each attendee will take away:

A comprehensive understanding of each and every internal social media tool available to their organization
Concrete examples of organizations that are employing these tools
A roadmap of where to start and how to progress in your internal social media endeavor
Develop the business case to sell internal social media based communication tools to management
The seven steps to taking social media from an internal endeavor to an external marketing program
A comprehensive workbook which explains how to learn more about each of the tools discussed

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Advice and Feedback.

I don't have to do much writing on my current assignment -- the Staffing Plan that I've talked about the past couple of days is my major contribution to the proposal in terms of new writing. Since this is a re-compete, my client has first-hand knowledge of the project and the ability and resources to write most of the sections.

So my role is primarily to provide advice and suggestions to the client, as well as feedback on their written sections. I will likely also be involved in some re-writing and editing as the proposal moves toward its final stages.

So what does this advice and feedback involve? Well, much of it has focused on interpreting the RFP, which contains a good deal of unclear information about what should be addressed in the proposal and where it should go. So I offer suggestions to my client about what the content of the various sections and ways that the information might be presented. "What should we say here?" or "What do they mean by this?" are questions that my client has been asking.

As drafts of proposal sections are completed, my client sends them to me. I review them and check them against the RFP requirements to see if they have addressed what the RFP has asked for. I also provide comments on the drafts using 'track changes' in Word. Some of my comments relate to RFP requirements; others relate to the content -- whether more detail or more specific information is needed, whether there are gaps or internal inconsistencies, etc.

I like this role a lot because I can advise people what to do without actually having to do the work myself. It's a welcome break from the intensity of writing.

(03/12/08 07:31 AM)

Referrals From Great Sites.

Every once in a while I take a look at the Google Analytics reports for my website. These reports provide detailed statistics about the number and type of visitors to a site, where they came from, what pages they visited, etc. The reports contain a lot of data and take a while to review, which is why I only look at them occasionally.

But one of the reports I do like to look at is the Referring Sites Report, which indicates which sites referred people to my site via a link. And if you are interested in grants (both government and non-government grants), grantwriting, or grant research, you'll want to take a look at some of the websites that send the most visitors to Proposalwriter.com . Among my top 10 referring sites are:

The Grants Information Collection at the University of Wisconsin. This fabulous site has a wealth of information on grants, funding, and other related topics. I'm delighted to say that they link to my site on four different pages. They have consistently been my #1 referral site.
My #2 referral site is The Foundation Center, which sends visitors to my site via links on 3 of their many pages. If you want grant-related information from the nation's leading authority on non-profits, The Foundation Center's site is one of the first places you should investigate.
The third site that sends the most visitors to my site is the US House of Representatives. Somewhere among the its many pages there has been a link to my site for several years. Except I don't know where it is, and oddly enough the link is to my Guestbook. I've never taken the time to try to figure out how people get to my site from this site.
#9 on the list is the University of Michigan's Proposal Writing Help Page, which of course contains info and links on proposal writing.

In addition to Google Analytics, I use Google Webmaster Tools to find out how many other sites have links to mine. At present, Webmaster Tools shows that there are over 4,100 external links from other sites to the various pages on my site. But this number seems to include quite a few dupicates, so it's hard to tell what the real number is.

Nevertheless, I'm pretty satisfied.

(03/06/08 09:01 AM)

Red Teams.

I never heard the term "red team" until several years after I began my proposal writing career. My employers never used them and it wasn't until I started working on my own that I encountered organizations that used red teams on certain proposal efforts.

Basically, a red team is a team of outside reviewers that a company brings in to review a proposal once the final draft is completed. Many organizations don't incorporate a red team review process because: (a) it can be expensive; (b) they can't spare the time; and (c) the idea has not occured to them. But if you are preparing a proposal that is very important to your firm, using a red team can be a valuable and worthwhile activity.

In a nutshell, the process works like this:

Your company identifies people (perhaps 4 or more) to serve as red team reviewers. These people should not have been involved in the proposal in any way, and in fact it's best if they are outside your organization. You will probably need to pay these reviewers a consulting fee for their time. Depending upon the size and complexity of the proposal, the red team review can take from one to several days.

Before the red team begins their work, you'll need to prepare for them. They will need a packet of materials, including the RFP, your final proposal draft, the proposal outline, checklists, instructions, and other relevant materials. These can be put in binders that are distributed to each reviewer. The red team will also need a conference room or other space where they can read and meet.

Once the red team assembles, the Proposal Manager or another member of your proposal team may give a verbal presentation on the proposal: what it is about, some background on the issues, what problems have been encountered in developing the proposal, etc. The Proposal Manager also goes over the instructions with the review team. These instructions should be as specific as possible -- they should tell the red team reviewers what you want them to look for. For example: Is the proposal theme clear and consistent? Are the benefits of your approach desirable and clearly stated? Does the proposal address all of the RFP requirements? Is it convicing? How can specific problem areas be fixed? How could the overall proposal be improved? Etc., etc.

The red team begins its review, first working individually to read the materials and document their comments and impressions. Once this is done, they meet as a group to discuss their findings and to prepare a set of recommendations. When the review is completed, the red team presents its comments and recommendations to the proposal team, which then incorporates the reviewers' suggested improvements.

Besides red team reviews, there are also pink team reviews. But that's a topic for another day.

(02/21/08 09:01 PM)

Future of Online Retailing -- Four Predictions. Forrester and Jupiter report that more than 70% of online shoppers seek out user reviews before making a purchase decision. MarketingSherpa reports that 84% of consumers prefer the opinion of other consumers vs. experts. Hundreds of retailers including WalMart, Best Buy, HP, and the Home Depot have followed Amazon’s lead by allowing their consumers to review products in the online channel. Consumers demand social commerce solutions and retailers are driving measurable results. As consumers are presented with increasing choices, channels, and messages, they will continue to turn to peers to discover, research, and make decisions about products and services. Retailers will need to utilize technology and best practices to provide authentic, relevant, and effective social commerce solutions to retain their customers into the future. 1) SOCIAL CONTENT IS GOING MULTI-CHANNEL The future of reviews and social content is going beyond the product page and into other channels such as mobile phones, kiosks, print collateral, online advertising, and social networks. It is clear that consumers rely on social content to make purchasing decision. They will expect to be able to access to this content regardless of channel in order to inform their purchasing process. The retailers that provide this multi-channel access will develop competitive advantages in their markets to attract and retain consumers. Additionally, more retailers will see the value of integrating social commerce with CRM and other “back-end” channels. Retailers will start to leverage social content as a key input into driving decisions in marketing, sales, advertising, customer support, and... (12/09/07 09:01 PM)

10 Elements of Sustained Greatness. Last week I attended and spoke at the Word of Mouth Marketing Summit hosted by WOMMA in Las Vegas (get the presentations here). The conference this year had great energy. Keynotes by Richard Tait of Cranium and Jeff Bell of Microsoft Xbox were inspirational. And it was much more executional-focused than previous years’, perhaps because of the focus on social technologies / online. Many conversations -- which I get very interested in -- were around the cultural aspects of word of mouth. What does it take to succeed years beyond ‘the launch’? One night, in the Rio hotel room, I watched a documentary on Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini (boxer), a champion boxer. He said, “It is very hard to get to the top, but it is even harder to stay there.” I would assert that the hype of ‘being on top’ or the ‘coolest new thing’ for a person, topic or company usually lasts no more than 2 years. Toys is the best example. Think of Cabbage Patch Dolls, Pet Rock, Tickle Me Elmo…the hype for these lasted less than two years. It is the rare entity that can sustain greatness. But it happens for companies like USAA and Costco who keep a watchful eye on customer satisfaction. Or for entertainers, like Madonna, who sustain their visibility and music through reinvention every two to three years. Or books like Blink and Good to Great stay on the best sellers list because of their timeless wisdom and application. The ingredients to... (11/19/07 09:01 PM)

Thirteen Ways to Establish and Build Credibility. I meet up with an amazing group of women business consultants periodically. Recently the topic was on ways to build credibility. I love the thirteen points that the group came up with: · Keep your word. · Present your materials... (09/18/07 09:00 PM)

Glide Mobile Lets You Check Out PowerPoint Slide Shows on Your iPhone. While Google (GOOG) is still supposedly fooling with the finishing touches to its Web-based version of PowerPoint, one startup already has it working on a mobile phone. Transmedia out of New York City is finally bringing PowerPoint presentations to the iPhone and other mobile devices with it's Glide Mobile service. One of the sorely missed features of the Apple iPhone is full compatibility with Microsoft Office. Out of the box, you can read Word documents on it, but you can’t edit them. And don’t even think about running a PowerPoint slide show. But starting later today, Transmedia CEO Donald Leka tells me, Glide members will be able to go over to glidemobile.com on their iPhones (or Blackberries or Treos or Nokias) and show people slide shows that they’ve uploaded to Glide. They can even edit them or create new ones from their iPhone (assuming they have a lot of time on their hands). They can also type away on Word documents to their hearts content—a feature that was implemented a few days after the iPhone hit stores. If a small startup in New York City can make Word docs and PowerPoint slides work on the iPhone, why can’t Apple (AAPL) or Microsoft (MSFT)? (09/17/07 09:00 AM)

John Moore's Marketing Lessons from Starbucks. Last week was the first event of this year for Texchange (my first as President). The speaker was John Moore, author of Tribal Knowledge and top marketing blog, Brand Autopsy. The title of John's presentation was "Business Wisdom Brewed from the Grounds of Starbucks". John was a senior marketing guy at Starbucks and Whole Foods. I told him Texchange was an audience of (mostly) B2B entrepreneurs and executives, yet his seemingly B2C message didn't disappoint. The lessons learned from Starbucks are applicable to any company. Essentially your employees are your marketing. The culture and passion inside is what becomes visible outside. John calls it inside out marketing. Another point I should make, that I brought up to my discussion table. In order to create a brand like Starbucks, or any great brand, the key is to decide what NOT to do. Again, what NOT to do. Strip away activities, messages, and resources from anything not core to your core. He presented several principles to the audience. Here are the two I liked most:Building the Business Creates the Brand GIST: Starbucks was too busy building a business to worry about something as nebulous as branding. Because Starbucks was busy working in and on the business, the by-product was the creation of a powerful brand which connects on so many levels with people around the world. Rarely, if ever, can you sprinkle magical branding dust to create an enduring and endearing brand. Starbucks Tribal Knowledge tells us you cannot create a brand... (08/23/07 09:00 PM)

6 C-Level Questions for Your Idea. I was reading a great blog entry today called How to Sell an Idea. Within the article there was a hot tip highlighting questions C-level execs will ask. I think that part alone deserves highlighting. Remember that any idea that ultimately rolls up for approval at the C-level should START with a primary points that meet the objective and challenges of the C-level audience. This is a helpful checklist to run any presentation or idea through: Chief Executive Officer: Will it increase the value of the firm? Chief Financial Officer: Where's the return on investment? Chief Operations Officer: Can we execute on this plan? Chief Information Officer: Will it run on our systems? Chief Marketing Officer: Can the world understand it? Chief Sales Officer: Will our customers buy it?... (04/22/07 09:01 PM)

Do you give good PowerPoint?. Do you have a great PowerPoint presentation? Slideshare is hosting The World's Best Presentation contest. My father, Bert Decker, and friend, Guy Kawasaki, are two of the four judges. As such, I don't think I can enter...but you can! Just upload your best PowerPoint presentation and you could win an Alienware PC. Of course, for the Mac loyalists who know guy that aren't excited about Vista, you can hope for 2nd or 3rd prize...an Xbox. This contest does not give you the benefit of sharing your verbal presentation with the slides. IMO, a PowerPoint contest isn't a presentation contest, it's a slides contest. Notwithstanding, here are three suggestions that might help you win...and create better slides in the future... Read Guy's PowerPoint tips. Read Garr's tipsRead my father's tips (dispersed throughout his blog)... (03/20/07 09:00 AM)

Career Tiip #14: Show and Know Metrics. Once I was in a meeting at Dell, and someone said the company could stop on a dime. A colleague retorted, We’d stop because of a dime!” As funny as that is, this kind of agility is only possible in a metrics-oriented culture. Friends who have left Dell for new companies are amazed at how metrics-deficient their culture is. They are shocked how employees don’t understand the basics of a PL, and so they work to add KPIs into the business that feed the PL. As a result, these new employees are MVPs to executives because they speak their language. A little over a year ago I visited my undergrad college, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and met with the Dean of Business Marketing. I told him marketing graduates need to be more analytically-capable and trained than they were when I went to school. He agreed, and in fact they were in the midst of planning restructuring of the curriculum to focus on analytics. Demonstrating focus and proficiency in measurement will help your career. By showing a command of measuring your activities, you will appear in much better control of your area…and thus be given more responsibility. Executives will have more confidence in employees who can manage and measure, and are comforted by employees who can speak and present in their language. However, don’t make the mistake of getting stuck on the guard-rail of internal measurement. Balance your perspective with customer feedback, customer measures, and creative thinking. Make some principle-based... (01/23/07 09:01 PM)

Career Tip #13: Answer First. Answer First means that in any communications setting you should give the answer first (your point of view, recommendation, conclusion, finding, etc.) and then follow with details. This is applicable when you come into your manager’s office to propose an idea, or when you’re presenting a proposal to a group, or if you’re in a 1x1 with a peer talking about a new direction. Many people do it the other way around – build up the background, details of decision criteria, lay out all the options, and eventually they get to the recommendation or decision is. When you load someone up with a bunch of words before you get to the point, you’ve diluted your point. Presenting answer first is also the right way to write press releases and typically how newspaper stories are written. The gist of the story is usually found in the first two paragraphs, and the rest of the article is details. Why answer first? Executives communicate that way, and they want to be communicated to that way (in 1x1s or in a presentation). Why would an executive promote someone who rambles or seems indecisive? Answer first forces you to communicate your point or decision early in a conversation, and that portrays authority and confidence. Giving the punch line in the beginning causes people to pay attention to the details, if they are needed. And if they aren't needed, and the executive or audience approves of your 'answer' or decision, then shut up! Because ‘less is... (01/21/07 09:00 PM)

Three Parts to a Sales Presentation. You’ve prepared, and done your homework. Finally you are about to sit down with your prospective client – or perhaps do a group presentation. Think of three parts to the presentation, and it will make things much easier and smoother.... (12/12/06 08:47 AM)

Red Teams.

In a nutshell, the process works like this:

Your company identifies people (perhaps 4 or more) to serve as red team reviewers. These people should not have been involved in the proposal in any way, and in fact it's best if they are outside your organization. You will probably need to pay these reviewers a consulting fee for their time. Depending upon the size and complexity of the proposal, the red team review can take from one to several days.

Before the red team begins their work, you'll need to prepare for them. They will need a packet of materials, including the RFP, your final proposal draft, the proposal outline, checklists, instructions, and other relevant materials. These can be put in binders that are distributed to each reviewer. The red team will also need a conference room or other space where they can read and meet.

Once the red team assembles, the Proposal Manager or another member of your proposal team may give a verbal presentation on the proposal: what it is about, some background on the issues, what problems have been encountered in developing the proposal, etc. The Proposal Manager also goes over the instructions with the review team. These instructions should be as specific as possible -- they should tell the red team reviewers what you want them to look for. For example: Is the proposal theme clear and consistent? Are the benefits of your approach desirable and clearly stated? Does the proposal address all of the RFP requirements? Is it convicing? How can specific problem areas be fixed? How could the overall proposal be improved? Etc., etc.

The red team begins its review, first working individually to read the materials and document their comments and impressions. Once this is done, they meet as a group to discuss their findings and to prepare a set of recommendations. When the review is completed, the red team presents its comments and recommendations to the proposal team, which then incorporates the reviewers' suggested improvements.

Besides red team reviews, there are also pink team reviews. But that's a topic for another day.

(12/12/06 08:42 AM)

RFP Delays.

The government RFP you've been waiting for has been announced in FedBizOpps. The announcement isn't the actual RFP -- rather, it's what's called a "synopsis." Basically, the synopsis contains the RFP number and title, a short description of the project and, most importantly, the expected RFP release date and due date. It's an advance notice that the RFP is coming, which hopefully gives you a little time to do some pre-planning and scheduling for your upcoming proposal.

But the anticipated release date comes and goes with no sign of the RFP. Days or even weeks may pass and still no RFP. What's going on? You call the Contracting Officer whose name and number appeared in the synopisis and ask him or her when the solicitation will be released. Sometimes they'll give you a new release date; often they'll tell you that they are "still working on it." So now all your pre-planning and scheduling has gone to hell in a handbasket.

This happens more often than you might think. Right now, two of my clients are waiting for RFPs that are critically important to their businesses. The synopsis for one of these RFPs appeared in May; the other RFP was scheduled to be released on June 30. Neither of them have arrived. Not only does this create havoc with my clients' schedules, it presents problems for me (and other consultants' schedules as well). We are all sitting around in limbo because the government doesn't have its act together.

Most experienced contractors have gone through this waiting game any number of times. The real question is: why? The answer is ???

(12/12/06 08:42 AM)

[Conference Calls Unlimited] Zane's 10 Rules for Creating EMPLOYEE Evangelists. http://zane.typepad.com/ccuceo/2005/04/zanes_10_rules_.html I loved Guy Kawasaki's 10 Rules for Creating Customer Evangelists. They were crisp, concise; His presentation of these rules at WOMMA Summit was engaging, smart, inspiring. But who carries out your mission to "Make Meaning"? Or who "Localizes... (12/12/06 08:04 AM)

[Sociable Media] The First Five Slides: Unlocking the Story Buried in Your Presentation. http://www.sociablemedia.com/articles_first_five.htm... (12/12/06 08:04 AM)

Applying for an SBA Loan. From the Small Business Administration When applying for a loan, you must prepare a written loan proposal. Make your best presentation in the initial loan proposal and application; you may not get a s ...

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Buying a Replacement Car: New or Used?. How satisfied are you with your present vehicle? Unless additional safety features, increased fuel economy, or other compelling reasons really justify the cost of a newer model — or you're sick ...

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Using the AutoContent Wizard to Create a Basic Presentation in PowerPoint 2000. The easiest way to create a new PowerPoint 2000 presentation, especially for novice PowerPoint users, is to use the AutoContent Wizard. This wizard asks you for some pertinent information, such as yo ...

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How to Present to Investors. "On Angel Day each startup will only get ten minutes, so we encourage them to focus on just two goals: (a) explain what you're doing, and (b) explain why users will want it. That might sound easy, but it's not when the speakers have no experience presenting, and they're explaining technical matters to an audience that's mostly non-technical." (08/08/06 09:02 AM)

Exhibitor U. and TS2 (look, a rhyme). I went to Reed Exhibitition's "Exhibitor University" program yesterday, held in Chicago at the TS2 trade-show trade-show. Well worth the three hour drive each way!

The presentation was by exhibitor 'turn-around artist' Jefferson Davis. He knows his stuff and is a great presenter. His material didn't cover the nitty gritty of how to do the tactical stuff, but I'm hoping that Reed puts on future programs to do this.

Anyway, I'll be likely putting up a series of posts based on his materials.

TS2 was an interesting show to walk during our long lunch break. It was an interesting mix of exhibitors who would be trying to sell to people like me, and others targeting the exhibition trade. While there was much to comment on, here are two:

The Skyline rep offered me an industry-focused white paper on exhibiting. He walked me over to where they had five different white papers guarded by a plexiglass cube. Apparently they did this to make it clear that you needed to 'get swiped' in order to get one in the mail. Seemed a little preposterous.
The coolest find was a guy offering animated electroluminescent signs. Their website attempts to duplicate the effect, but in person they are show-stopping.

(07/29/06 02:28 PM)

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