Larry Bailey

Whether you are an corporate executive or an entrepreneur, a military officer or an engineer, the ability to speak well in public is vital. Perhaps you are a medical researcher demonstrating a new surgical technique at a seminar. Or a sales manager outlining a new commission plan to your national sales force. Or the head of a small business trying to land a big account. It is essential that you deliver an effective presentation.
In A Practical Guide for Business Speaking, consultant and educator Edward Bailey offers a thorough, down-to-earth, easy-to-use handbook that contains everything you need to give the best presentations possible. Bailey offers a gold mine of detailed advice as he takes you through the process a step at a time. He stresses that most presentations succeed or fail in the design stage. He then shows how to design your speech for maximum impact--using a "blueprint" and clear transitions to keep the audience focused--and how to use examples to avoid one of the worst pitfalls of public speaking, abstraction. He describes the many kinds of visual aids available, from overhead transparencies, to flip charts, to blackboards and whiteboards, and he discusses the pluses and minuses of each. He tells you what to look for when checking out a room in advance--for instance, see if the projector focuses well, if the room is cool enough to prevent drowsiness, if the microphone works, and so on. (Bailey provides a nineteen-point checklist for setting up the room in an appendix.) In addition, he offers solid advice on how to rehearse before a talk, how to break the ice with the audience, how to design your own visual aids, and how to handle question-and-answer periods.
Perhaps what is most impressive is the wealth of detailed advice presented here. For instance, when using a pointer, hold it in the hand closer to the screen (with the far hand, you turn your back on the audience, making it harder to hear you). When designing a visual aid, use at least 18 point type, and seldom use all capital letters (sentences of capital letters are harder to read). And when reading from a text, don't staple the pages--constant page-turning distracts the audience. Instead, keep the pages loose, and slide each page to one side as you finish it.
Based on years of experience, A Practical Guide for Business Speaking is a must for anyone who speaks in public. You can read it in an afternoon, but it will improve your presentations forever.

About the Author:
Edward Bailey has a national reputation as an expert in business speaking and business writing. He is Professor of Business Communications at Marymount University near Washington, D.C. He is also widely published and a consultant to top clients in business and government.