Sunday, January 18, 2009

Free Download of an eBook, T J Walker’s Secret to Foolproof Presentations

T J Walker is offering a free download of the Acrobat .pdf file e-book version of his forthcoming 176-page book T J Walker’s Secret to Foolproof Presentations. I downloaded it, glanced at it and saw some useful information on rehearsing. I have no connection with Mr. Walker other than that I sometimes read his Insights blog. Downloading the eBook puts you on his email list, which I later unsubscribed. So far I have not gotten any other unsolicited email to indicate my information went anywhere else.

There is a chapter titled “Should I rehearse, and for how long?” which begins on page 23 of the Acrobat file (page 9 of the text). He says that you should always video record your presentation. If you do not already have a camcorder, then he suggests other possibilities such as a cell phone or web cam. He also suggests that you might go buy an inexpensive Flip digital video camcorder.

My cell phone does not have video, and I don’t have a webcam. I had a tripod, but not a camcorder. So, I took a trip over to my local thrift store and for ~$10 got a huge, old, VHS camcorder kit (complete with a hard case for storage). There was no battery (but I got an AC adapter for another $2), and the recorder mechanism was dead. What I wanted was just the video camera, since I already have a DVD recorder hooked to my television. I stopped at Radio Shack and got longer cables (another ~$10) to connect the camcorder to the phono jack inputs on the front of my DVD recorder. Presto - my living room has become a video studio for practicing presentations!

at

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 18, 2009 at 5:02 PM

    Richard,

    Great tip on the download and strategy for recording presentations.

    Over the years I have recorded myself quite abit but not lately - and I need to!

    Don't we all......

    Michael

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard I. GarberJanuary 19, 2009 at 9:51 AM

    Michael:

    Your comment got me thinking about how to audio record my next speech at Toastmasters. My first thought was to bring along a big old CD/cassette/boombox and record a cassette. Another possibility was a pocket-size Sony digital voice recorder I bought several years ago. The Sony has a headphone jack, but no digital connection to transfer the sound file to my computer.

    Then I remembered that I have a little Sandisk 1 Gb MP3 music player and FM radio which also can record voice. I printed out the right page from the instruction manual about how to navigate the complicated menu, and then tried a 5 minute recording. A recording is stored as a Wave Sound files that I can move to my PC for permanent storage. On the PC I can play it via Windows Media Player. The file size is about 1 Mb per minute, so I could save ~1000 minutes (16 hours) of voice recording if I cleared out all of my music. Also I could archive around 10 hours of audio on a single CD.

    ReplyDelete
  3. S. JoshiJanuary 8, 2012 at 11:15 AM

    Hi Richard,

    Could you mail me an ebook of T J Walker's Secret to Foolproof Presentation on shubhsavar@gmail.com? I really want to read after reading your post.

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  4. Richard I. GarberJanuary 8, 2012 at 2:26 PM

    Mr. Joshi:

    The promotional link for a free download has expired.

    You can read a preview of the first 34 pages from this book at Google Books.

    You can purchase a PDF version here for $10 US.

    ReplyDelete