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· Know your subject: You are the expert.

o Experience: build on your experiences, share with them

o Knowledge: know your subject matter better than the audience.

o Research: learn new facts or information to include.

o Practical Application: help the audience apply what they are learning

· Understand the Purpose: Know What is to be Accomplished

o Selling an idea, concept, project, product

o Informing a group, management, co-workers, customers, others

o Requesting action such as approval for a new concept, change, projects

o Status Reporting such as providing understanding of ‘where we are’ with a task or project

o Other?

· Create the Content: Plan the Content Carefully

o Title: Descriptive of the presentation

o Overview: Let the audience know what to expect

o Organize the Presentation

- Title

- Overview

- Main Points (content)

- Summary

- Action items if appropriate

- Final review

o Content: Stick to the subject, do not expand beyond the topic at hand.

- Keep it simple

- Slides need to convey information, not an exercise in creativity

- Keep words to a minimum on each slide

- Organize your materials

- Do not over power the audience with too many slides

- Remember, it is about content not ‘glitzy’ slides

- Think of any negative objections and preclude them with your content

- Anticipate questions and answer them in your materials

o Summarize: Provide a review of key points

o Action Items: List if appropriate

· Prepare to Speak: Be ready when it is time to take to the podium.

o Practice, know your content

o Know the most important 25% so you can cut out stuff if necessary

o Claim the space, go in the conference room (or other facility) and get your materials ready before the audience arrives; verify A/V equipment works

o Check out the ‘worst seat’ in the room to be sure everyone can see and hear

o Practice, know your content (yes, it’s here twice!)

· Deliver Your Presentation With Confidence: You have prepared.

o You are properly prepared and have claimed the space as yours

o Maintain eye contact with the audience

o Breathe and relax, get ‘the butterflies to fly in formation’ if they won’t go away

o Speak clearly and use the microphone if one is available

o Smile, don’t frown

o Be careful with your hands and how you gesture

o Don’t be bound to the podium, it’s generally o.k. to move around

o Don’t read the screen! Know your stuff, speak to the audience

o Follow the old saying, “Tell’em what you’re gonna tell’em, Tell’em, Tell’em again, and Sit down” This formula is actually what was outlined above! It works.

Whether it involves hiring and negotiating staff, arranging an event, signing a contract, agreeing to terms, arranging a conference or convention, or negotiating with a hotel or other conference/ convention venue, organizations must follow a professionally designed, organized, well planned, in depth and detailed negotiating strategy. While most larger organizations have far larger and better trained and talented staffs, with generally designated staff members with specific negotiating skills, that is often not the case with smaller and medium sized organizations. Those organizations often end up being poorly represented by unqualified staff, or by a well meaning but untrained volunteer, also lacking expertise. These organizations often confuse experience with expertise, and merely because someone has done it before, they believe he is a negotiator. However, while experience merely means that someone has done something, expertise requires training, knowledge and specific training in an area.

Often, these smaller to medium sized organizations hire an outside company or consultant to negotiate or arrange something in their behalf. As someone who has spent more than three decades negotiating, arranging and coordinating all aspects of events, conferences and conventions, the disconcerting thing is that I have often observed organizations “hurt” by these outside contractors, because they are often not the correct contractor for their needs.

Organizations should carefully understanding what their needs and requirements are, as well as their objectives, prior to hiring an outside contractor. For example, one of the most common errors I have observed is organizations hiring a company that specializes in group hotel room bookings, to arrange the contract for their conference or convention. While these types of companies can be quite useful with small groups using under about fifty rooms per night for their meeting, groups using more than that, especially if for more than three nights, who are also doing events, banquets, etc., at the property, often can do far better by not using that kind of organization. An easy way to understand this is to understand it from the hotel’s perspective. Booking companies are paid a commission (generally 10%) on the room revenue generated, but not on other aspects. While it is usually true that the hotel will not offer a better room rate if booked directly, it will almost always match that rate when a sufficient number of rooms are being booked. However, since the hotel has to pay the commission to the booking company, it reduces the flexibility of the hotel in terms of other concessions, especially regarding Food and Beverage, complimentary meeting rooms, and many other important concessions. An organization should identify all its needs before negotiating with a hotel, and then use a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) procedure to obtain as many concessions as possible.

The major point is that organizations should understand that the difference between optimum negotiations and adequate representation can represent a sizable amount of money, and when the negotiations are less than adequate, as I have so often observed, the savings is even more than substantial. Organizations need to emphasize negotiations as part of their overall leadership training program.

Being in debt can be a harrowing and frightening experience. The bills keep coming through the letter box and you can’t pay them. If you have more money going out there and you have coming in than you are in big trouble.

You can try and sort out these issues for yourself by contacting each of your creditors and trying to work out a deal with them. In some cases this will work, in others you will be just wasting your time.

You can seek help from a company of Debt Negotiators. If you decide to follow this route, you’ll have to check out how much It will cost you and how you will pay for it. You will have to make sure that you can afford it, and you can work it into your budget.

Debt Negotiation Services are not quick fix solutions and you should avoid any Debt Negotiation Company that offers itself up as a magic cure-all. When you settle on a Debt Negotiation Service you are happy with, you should make sure that you are only paying their fees if they have solved your debt problem.

Debt Negotiation Companies will be on your side. You will have to pay for this service, once the Debt Negotiations have been concluded to everyone’s satisfaction, but it is always comforting to know that at least you have a professional at Negotiating Debt in your corner.

You must make sure that you do as much research about the Debt Negotiation Service as possible before you sign anything with them.

The biggest advantage to having someone like this on your side is you will no longer be hassled by your creditors. The calls and letters should stop almost immediately.

A disadvantage is you may have a temporary lowering of your credit rating.