Canadian figure skating champion Patrick Chan had a mediocre performance in his short program. He suffered a full point deduction for not ending his routine when the music stopped. Ouch! The judges place a high value for ending on time. So does your audience. Respect the fact that your audience wants you to end on time. If you are crunched for time, cut to the message and a few remaining points. When the music stops…… the message stops.
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Besides watching all of the terrific Olympic events, I have fun listening to the athlete interviews. TV commentators often ask them about nervousness. Notice how they answer the question:
Apolo Ohno said “When I’m ready to compete, I just flip the switch.”
Charles Hamelin, the Canadian short track skating hopeful, was asked if he felt nervous carrying the whole weight of his country on his back. He replied, “I feed off the energy.”
As you are listening to the interviews, pay attention to how the athletes turn nerves into pumped-up, electric energy – they welcome the surge of adrenalin. Presenters can do the …

What do you do when your torch …… or technology fails? Here are 3 tips:
1. Find an expert
Maybe someone in the room can fix your problem, or maybe an audiovisual technician is available. Take a break and try to get the problem resolved
2. Apologize and proceed
If nothing can be done to fix the situation, apologize once and go on with the show.
3. Have a back-up plan/
Always have a hard copy of your notes so that you can continue with your presentation – no matter what. During the preparation phase, ask yourself this question: “What will I do when the A-V …

What do you do when you are ready to give a presentation and there is an overwhelmingly intense news story that weighs heavily on the minds of your audience – like 9/11 or the Hudson Bay airplane rescue or the luger from Georgia who died in a practice run? What do you do? What do you say?
It’s best to acknowledge the news story in the opening of your presentation. Everyone is thinking about it, and when you talk about it, you can almost hear a sigh of relief come over the audience. You also are allowing them the opportunity to …

Remember the Olympics opening ceremonies in Beijing? ….. or Sydney….. do you? Or do you forget? Does your audience remember your opening from last week’s presentation? Was their attention 100% as you started speaking, or were they still fiddling with their laptops and cell phones? Here are three tips that will make your next opening one for the record books:
1. Surprise the Audience
Start with a great story or an interesting question or some statistics that will blow them out of the water. I can remember one presentation I made to a city council. Before it was my turn to talk, …