Making your message stick - presentation skills for information professionals

On Tuesday the 12th of November I'm running a workshop on presentation skills in London. So many of us have to do presentations now, and it makes a big difference if you feel confident about it, and know some tips and tricks to make presenting easier and more effective. I'm really looking forward to it - it's the first time of doing this outside the British Library, where it's gone down really well. We'll be covering how to make lovely PowerPoints (even if you have to use a dreaded template), how to make your audience remember the things YOU want them to, tips for presenting itself, an introduction to Prezi and a bunch of other stuff too. You can read some of the kinds of things we'll be talking about in this 10 non-standard tips for public speaking post  and this presentation on making presentations...

It's hands-on, at PCs. The details, including a booking form, are here.

One of my favourite ever pieces of feedback came for this course (it was unsolicited, too):

What I enjoyed so much about the presentation workshop:

 1.      Expertise in the subject matter

2.      Relevant and highly useful information: presented and practiced

3.      Clear and engaging presentation style

4.      Professionalism with a great sense of humour, no hidden agenda

5.      Dedication to collaborative professional development, to high standards, to excellence

... so I promise it'll be good! :) Hope to see you there.

Ned

Digital Marketing Toolkit workshop, 21st May, Edinburgh

Next month I'm running a workshop on marketing information services using new technologies. It's a course I really enjoy teaching - during the full-day we discuss marketing with video, mobile, online publishing, geolocation (Foursquare), actual real-life useful things to do with QR Codes, social media... The emphasis as always is on talking not just about why they're relevant, but what actual next-steps you might take towards using them.

The course is being put on by UKeIG - full details can be found on their website.

Here's some pariticpant feedback from last time we ran it:

• Really useful, great delivery. Thanks!
• Brilliant workshop, well done!
• Perfect; taught me more about things I was using and also some new
• Excellent day
• Very informative, paced well
• Hugely useful
• Thought it was a great overview, got a lot from it .

So, I hope to you see some of you there!

Digital Marketing Toolkit - workshop December 5th

A brief post to let anyone interested know that I'm running a one-day workshop, at York St John University on the 5th of December, on behalf of UKeIG. It's all about marketing with new technologies. Moving beyond the social network basics, this course will look at how to identify which technologies will be useful for marketing your organisation, how to use them effectively, and tips, tricks and general best-practice for marketing online. Topics will include marketing with video, viral marketing, mastering geolocation (such as FourSquare), mobile apps, publishing online, getting the most out of QR Codes, and taking social media marketing to the next level.

I'm also keen to accomdodate any other apsect of digital marketing that people would like to cover - if you're already booked on the course then let me know what you'd like to cover (and if you're not attending, I'd still be interested in the kinds of things you'd like to see covered on a course like this...).

Details of the event (including a booking form) are on the UKeIG website.

Hope to see you there!

- thewikiman

Social media for organisations: getting the basics right

A quick post to let people know that Megan Roberts and I are running a one-day course for UKeIG, on social media for organisations. It's open to all but aimed mainly at information services - and it's all about using social media at an organisational level rather than a personal one. Anyone who's started a library twitter account or facebook account will have quickly come to realise that the needs for library accounts are very different to the needs for librarian accounts! The idea of the course is to equip you with the knowledge and confidence to be able to use social media successfully - we'll be exploring best practice, seeing how the leaders in our industry use the tools, and answering thorny questions about how to deal with tricky situations online. Pretty much every information service needs to be using social media in its marketing these days; it's not that intimidating when you know what you're doing, and it represents a fantastic opportunity to achieve a lot without spending a whole bunch of money...

Details, including a the booking form, are on UKeIG's website.

When and where

The course takes place in York, at the York St John University, on the 4th of  September, from 09:30 - 16:30.

What the course covers

We'll be talking about what social media is, how it works, and how the approaches involved differ from traditional forms of marketing. We'll cover why you should be using the tools available, how you can tell if it's working, where to start in terms of platforms, netiquette, identifying stuff to talk about online, and using tools to manage the burden. Specific platforms covered include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Slideshare, LinkedIn, Flickr, and yes, Google+ and Pinterest!

There'll be plenty of hands-on experience of using the tools in question.

A potential follow-up workshop...

I'm running a separate workshop in December (also for UKeIG, at the same venue) which operates both a stand-alone session and a follow-up for attendees of the social media for organisations course.  It's called the Digital Marketing Toolkit, and it's all about using emerging technologies to market your service: full details are on the UKeIG site.

Hope to see you there!

- thewikiman