I’ve been a David Letterman fan since I first saw his shows in the late 1980s. I loved the irreverent send-ups, self deprecating humour, the sharp quick wit. It was New Yorker wise cracking, stand up delivered with a huge smile. It was fresh. David was having as much fun as everyone else. In January 2010,...Read More

In my previous post I related the story of my history teacher Peter Sibley, who we suspected was not exactly reading every (any?) word of our essays, over 30 years ago. 15 years pass. I am now a teacher myself, in far flung Singapore, and have helped organise a cricket tour back in the old country,...Read More

  At this time of year many of us are invited to a multitude of events, be they business breakfasts, lunches, sundowners or full scale conferences. This week I’ve attended all formats, and next week looks to be no different. In what was a high quality week, I was privileged to hear Fortescue Metals Group Chair...Read More

Public Speaking is an art form, borne of confidence, passion and clarity of thought. It also takes preparation, and time (experience). I used to hate the notion of being singled out in class, now, 40 years on, I love the chance to speak in public, and try to improve every time. 13 years of school teaching probably...Read More

I remember being very sceptical about Twitter when I first came across it in 2008, but being encouraged to give it a go, and then persist with it, it slowly became my favourite (and most useful) of all the social media. I can’t really imagine life without it now. { As some of you may...Read More

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc&w=601&h=338] For those of you frustrated by terrible use of English, ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s latest parody ‘Word Crimes‘ is  a delight. Set to the music of last year’s infectious hit ‘Blurred Lines‘, he rips into the abbreviated, sloppy expression too often spouted on social media, emails or texts. Released 4 days ago, it’s already had 7 million views on...Read More

[slideshare id=35465689&style=border:1px solid #CCC; border-width:1px 1px 0; margin-bottom:5px; max-width: 100%;&sc=no] On Thursday night I gave a presentation on ‘Naming your Startup‘, (see slides here, or above) to the Perth Founder Institute. In many ways, the name of your company can mean everything, and nothing. You could name it “Blaghhh” or “Twitter” or “Google” or “Snapchat”...Read More

It was a wintry English day in late 1988, and I took my A-Level class to the Westminster Hall in London for an Economics conference. On the bill was the the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (Treasurer) John Smith, but he could not make it on the day, so his very young looking 35 year old parliamentary private...Read More

We love stories. We are wired for stories. Over the generations, we learned from our elders as they used stories to widen our eyes and make us listen and remember. And so information was passed on through the ages. I get out to quite a few presentations these days, and in the past few weeks alone have...Read More

We’ve all endured it. We’ve all been there. The presenter clicks to start their power point presentation and the screen flashes up a slide chock full of bullet point phrases, which they then proceed to read out, one by one. Each slide has yet more bullet points, in diminishingly sized fonts. You slowly and surely...Read More