Their delivery becomes ho-hum. They tend to read off their laptops, forget to make eye contact with the audience, and sit instead of stand. Good examples of speakers with passion are Tom Peters, Bob Berring or Arthur Miller. To illustrate how these tips apply, let me describe the highlights of a conference I recently attended at the L.A. Chapter of ASTD on Building the High Performance Organization. Although training isn't the same as presenting, you can't train without strong presentation skills.
Trainers make their living with their presentation skills.
I anticipated the conference to demonstrate top of the line presentation skills and was not disappointed. Both were totally engaging and neither used PS or any other technology. Both relied on humor, stories and memorable word pictures. The audience was mesmerized. As an Art of Leadership.