Often, I like to drop by (actually, I have an RSS feed) Tom Antion’s Great Public Speaking blog to grab an idea or two on speechifying. He always has good advice, and his post of a couple weeks ago on how to close a speech I found helpful, and thought I’d pass it along.  His suggestions:

  • First of all, Tom advises that it is the “worst mistake” to speak too long (and I would add it is better to stop without covering all your material – much of which won’t be remembered anyway – than run beyond your allotted time and “annoy” your audience),
  • Your closing should be well-planned, and as prepared as other parts of your speech.
  • Consider using humor in your speech (but one needs to be careful here, especially in the closing, because it could backfire on you),
  • Involve your audience (ask them to do something during your talk, and at the end, emphasize an action item for them to take away from the talk), and
  • Just make sure to have a powerful closing (so the audience feels good about having spent the time listening to you).

Now, the gadget. Thanks to Barbara Walter Price at BWPrice’s Marketing U blog, I learned about a terrific tool to aid in making presentations. Check out her post about Interlinks Electronics and their Remote Point Presenter VP4300. Features include:

  • 900 MHz RF presentation remote and USB receiver; up to 100-foot range
  • USB receiver with 32 MB storage for presentation files
  • Receiver plugs into any USB-enabled computer (so you can leave your own laptop at home)
  • Intuitive controls, thumb controlled mouse, laser pointer, trigger control
  • Special effects software

There is a cheaper model, the Remote Point Global Presenter VP4350 ($169 vs. $199 at Interlink), without all the bells and whistles. They also have cheaper models, but I really like the features of the VP4300. And you can get them cheaper at Amazon (click VP4300 or VP4350) and TigerDirect (VP4300 or VP4350).

See if this neat gadget wouldn’t help dazzle your audience (in addition to your terrific speech of course, especially the great closing).