news

saying thankyou

The biggest problem was deciding where to host an event. A lot of our work is in London and in the Midlands, but our customer base spreads from Derby to Cambridge and from Hull to Wimbledon. So wherever we held an event, most customers would have to travel.

In the end the spectacle of the London Eye proved to be just what was needed. We were joined by several customers including Richard Higgs from Strategic Thought, a short hop away in Wimbledon; as well as Irene Stephenson of Seven Seas, with a rather longer journey from Hull. As Irene said "Drinking champagne at dusk on the Eye is certainly a memorable way to celebrate".

As well as celebrating and saying thank you to many people, there has also been time for reflection and planning. In particular we are looking at ways to help our customers with the challenges posed by web presentations and video conferencing. Of course, I also have to think of where to hold next year’s party!

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presentation critique

It means one of our consultants will come in as a complete outsider to openly and honestly give feedback on your presentation. The areas we look at most commonly are:-

Objectives – finding out exactly what reaction you want from your audience

Audience need – considering all the information which you feel is vitally important and applying a ‘so what’ test

Structure and framework – ensuring there is a clear and logical structure for the presentation

To answer the question about value for money, we recently spent a morning working with Zygon, the leading enterprise software company specializing in catalogue and product content management. Zygon’s Marketing Director Maeve McDonald said "When Christine arrived we were happy with 80% of the presentation, but we weren’t sure how to put across the rest of the information. She quickly brought clarity to the remaining 20% and then helped us to polish the whole presentation from beginning to end. It was the outside perspective that really made a difference and was definitely value for money".

The difficult question is ‘will it bruise my ego?’; suffice to say our customers know that we want them to succeed and communicate well. As one of our customers says ‘If it is a be clear day then I just leave my ego at home!’.

If you know someone who might benefit from this service please tell them to give us a call. Remember if they are not entirely happy with the advice then we will not raise an invoice. There really is nothing to lose.

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spotlight on graphics

One of those guys is Stuart Keil. For the past 8 years Stuart has designed and drafted the graphics for presentations used by a number of international blue chip companies and we are delighted that he is working with us.

We know that people remember great visuals that are professionally prepared. So once the consultants have spent time working out what needs to be said and how, it is then Stuart’s turn to make sure that the visuals and support material are every bit as professional.

Stuart understands that businesses need the freedom to make last minute changes to their support material, so he often uses PowerPoint together with industry standard graphic applications, to give you the flexibility to customise your presentations yourself. Of course if you want something really ‘flash’ he can do that as well.

These are some of the things that Stuart believes in:-

Visual language – finding ways to present your information using images that your audience will understand; avoiding bullet points wherever possible

Less is more – putting less information on a slide means that the audience are more likely to remember it; putting too much on a slide means the audience will read the slide rather than listen to you

Simple animation – using animation that enhances what you are saying and aids your audience understanding; not animation that detracts from you and confuses the audience

Excellence – finding just the right image for your presentation can take a lot of time, but if your presentation needs it, he will either find it or create it 

And last but by no means least. . .

Flexibility – working when and where you need him; whether that is at your office or at ours, during office hours or through the night

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Contact be clear on 0845 456 7094 or enquiries@beclear.co.uk