In August 2008 Marc Hogan was bet £1 that he couldn’t become a stand up comic in less than 12 months and perform a one man comedy show at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival in August 2009 for 21 nights. He won the bet!

If you live in the UK you have probably already cast your vote for the UK election (what do you mean, you haven’t?). I’m not going to bore you with my politics, but the one thing that fascinates me about this election, is the power of a great speech.

I know the Sun “Newspaper” (a matter of opinion) back in 1992 claimed they were the ones who persuaded the electorate to vote Conservative, and maybe that’s true. But this year, Nick Clegg who nobody knew (not even the other parties – they thought Vince was the Lib Dem’s leader) managed to put 10 points on the Lib Dem poll rating after one assured performance on TV.

I don’t know any newspaper that managed that after one article. So whoever wins, remember a good performance on a stage, or in a meeting  is far more effective than any email or report.  So rather than email your boss your new idea, go and knock on his door for a quick chat instead (and wear a shiny gold tie).

News just in:

Sun Page 3 Model “NIKKALA, 26, from Middlesex ” is encouraged to hear that 12 Labor big-hitters could be  out. She said: “In ’79 the Conservatives won with a 5.3 per cent swing.  Tony Blair did it in 1997 with 10.3 per cent. So the swing to the Tories  doesn’t need to be huge. I predict nine per cent.”

Thank God for Nikkala , she may not know how to spell, but she really does have an understanding of government. She should be careful, Silvio Berlusconi will want her as an M.E.P.

Click here to watch Marc’s showreel. If you would like to find out more about Marc, visit www.marchoganlive.com or to book him for a speaking event please contact your favourite speaker bureau.

In August 2008 Marc Hogan was bet £1 that he couldn’t become a stand up comic in less than 12 months and perform a one man comedy show at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival in August 2009 for 21 nights. He won the bet!

A little while ago Marek Kriwald from Parliament Communications, introduced me to  a new presentation concept from Tokyo called “Pecha Kucha”.

The concept is simple, you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images forward automatically and you talk along to the images.

So a whole presentation should take no longer than 400 seconds (6 minutes and 40 seconds).

I like the idea at networking events but like Marek, I’m not sure if I’d like it to become the industry standard.

At an average corporate event you have six 45 min to 1 hour presentations. If we went to the 20×20 format that could mean 54 presentations in a day! Or of course we could have all 6 presentations in the first forty minutes and the rest of the day at the bar (which one would staff prefer, I wonder?).

However there is a useful lesson to be learned from this discipline.  If you have a slide – why is it up there, and what is the quickest amount of time you can talk about it and best explain it?

I love the cinema however it’s very rare that I don’t think it could have been 20 minutes shorter (or in the case of Transformers 2, two hours twenty minutes shorter!) however, I’ve seen brilliant and interesting 2 hour presentations and dreadful 45 minute ones.

The amount of time isn’t everything, what’s more important is interesting and audience relevant content!

Something to think about… You can find out more about Pecha Kucha here.

Click here to watch Marc’s showreel. If you would like to find out more about Marc, visit www.marchoganlive.com or to book him for a speaking event please contact your favourite speaker bureau.