A lot of great things have been going on not only at Presentation Advisors, but in my life as well, so I wanted to get you up to speed.
But before that, I wanted to take a second to thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope through this blog or any of my musings, both online and live, has helped you become a better presenter, presentation designer, marketer, or person. I truly write this blog to help others as the blogs of Garr Reynolds, Nancy Duarte, and countless others have helped me. I owe much of my success thus far to those who have helped me, mentored me, introduced me to people and made an effort to elevate me in this world. That’s why I made the 2011 resolutions that I did, and hopefully I’ve done well through the first quarter.
SPEAKING
I’m nearly through a whirlwind of speaking engagements where I spoke four times in a matter of two weeks (which is a lot for me!). I have one more training session on Tuesday and then I’m preparing for my talk at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association’s School of WOM conference from May 9-11 in the Windy City of Chicago. If you’d like $200 off registration, simply type in the discount code “FanofWOMMA.”
It’s been ten years since the last (and only) time I’ve been to Chicago, so I’m looking forward to going back. I’ll be presenting a 90-minute workshop helping brands unearth their stories on behalf of Story Worldwide. The presentation is designed (with enough time to practice and prepare) and I’m really happy with it.
Also, I’ll be heading back to the great city of Austin to speak at the Presentation Summit, held at the Hyatt Regency from September 18-21. The Summit offers three tracks of concurrent seminars — covering design, delivery, technology, and PowerPoint technique — featuring the industry’s premier experts and trainers. I’ll be speaking Monday morning in the Design It track about The Art of Storytelling. Last year’s conference SOLD OUT all 225 seats, and 2011 looks no different, so make sure you register early to confirm your spot.
BLOGGING
I’m writing a whole lot more as of late, though you may not have necessarily noticed because much of it is outside of this blog. I commit to write at least twice a week here at the Presentation Advisors blog, but in total I’m writing about 5-6 posts a week. I write once or twice each week at the Post Advertising blog about all things content marketing, social media, and the like. The blog is actually undergoing a pretty intense redesign and once launched (late-May) it’s poised to take over the Marketing world! I’ve even guest posted at the Social Fresh blog as well.
I’ve also joined the super talented blogging team over at the oneforty blog. In case you don’t know, oneforty is the social business software hub that helps connect businesses to the online tools they need. I’ve already published my first post about how to engage and expand your community with Facebook Questions. This is going to give me a better opportunity to dive deeper into emerging online tools – something I felt I haven’t done to the best of my ability as of late. You can find my posts on oneforty every Wednesday.
DESIGNING
While I don’t divulge client relationships on here, I do want to mention that I’ve had the opportunity to work with some great clients as of late and they’ve all been referrals from people I’ve met through social media. You may say that social media ROI is difficult to measure, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. As Gary Vaynerchuk likes to say, “What’s the ROI of your mother?” Being active in social media and attending events has helped my professional live grow and there’s no doubt that I’m getting back far more than I’m putting in financially.
I’m also carving out the type of client I most like to work with. Since I’m a small presentation design company, I like working with other small, nimble individuals and agencies. In order to feel comfortable with the way that I design presentations (more imagery, less text, ditch the template), it takes an open-minded culture and a passion for the topic.
So that’s it! I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend and we’ll catch up next week.
Image courtesy of Robert Vega on Flickr
