DO YOU REALLY NEED ALL THOSE NOTES?

British Prime Minister, David Cameron, today gives his speech to the annual Conservative Party conference under more pressure than he was a short time ago. Foremost amongst the reasons for this increased pressure is a single speech last week by the Opposition Labour Party leader, Ed Milliband. There was one thing about the Milliband speech which proved to be a political game-changer - at least temporarily and maybe for much longer. And it had little to do with any bold new Labour policy idea or attacks on the government's style and substance. The thing about Ed Milliband's speech which has really got notice was that it was delivered without notes. Ed Milliband...Look Mum, no notes. There was universal agreement among commentators that this was Mr Milliband's most confident speech - where spoke without any lectern, autocue or papers while surrounded by audience members on all sides. Now speaking fluently without notes for nearly an hour and to grip the audience throughout is an impressive thing to do. David Cameron has been known to do the same to much acclaim - such as one still remembered note-free speech he gave when running to be his party's leader.  David Cameron - Hey I can do it too What the note-free speech enables both leaders to do is to convey their personality and their message far more powerfully than they would otherwise come across. In Ed Milliband's case, being freed from notes helped him become seen as a more genuine and impressive figure - who spoke from the heart and connected emotionally with those in the audience and on TV to a far greater extent than ever before. Here's around four minutes of it. So if you're not seeking high political office, then what does the Milliband experience mean for you? It shows that when you give a presentation and you do it without notes (or without using slides as a memory prompt) that you can potentially have a far bigger impact and move the audience far more in the direction you want them to go.

HINTS TO HELP YOU DO IT What people often find when they leave the notes behind is that it's easier and more liberating than they thought. But you don't have to go completely down the Milliband route, to gain a benefit. You can make a big difference by just using fewer notes - and often less obvious notes. Rather than holding large pieces of paper, a tiny card in your hand to remind you of your main points tends to be far more useful to you if you get lost, and allows you to connect much more clearly with your audience. And if you are wedded to some notes, at least have points where you can depart from them. One of the best times to do this is when you're telling a personal story. Because you it happened to you, then it's imprinted on your mind and so much easier to tell without any prompts. Being freed from the notes will allow you to sound more naturally conversational. And it will allow you to keep eye contact with your audience which underlines the point that your speech is really for them. TRY IT YOURSELF While you can spend a lifetime to taking your speaking skills to a higher level - and become ever less reliant on notes along the way - most people can make a transformational difference to their presentations in a very short space of time. It's a distinctly learnable skill. A couple of half-day sessions or a full day dedicated to training for it typically makes a big difference to people's performance and confidence. It allows you also to know what to leave in and what to leave out - and how to structure your speech for maximum effect. It can make your pitches for business far more persuasive. Michael Dodd Communications runs bespoke presentation training sessions inside organisations - in boardrooms, hotels and conference centres. There's also an open session of "Presenting with Confidence, Impact and Pizzazz" coming up on 5 December. And if it's the killer questions you might get during and after your talk that put you on edge, there's an open session of "Giving Great Answers To Tough Questions" on 30 November. The early bird offer on both these Central London sessions at:  http://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/presentation_training.php THE NEW AFTER DINNER SPEECH Why is this strange character being photographed outside a McDonalds? McDonalds in Budapest 2012 And surely, as it's in the magnificent city of Budapest, there are more impressive things to picture than a fast food restaurant! Well every picture tells a story, and this is to illustrate one of the more bizarre elements of my new after dinner speech called "Tales and Tips From Six Continents". I made my first visit to Budapest in 1988 - just before the anti-communist revolutions swept across Eastern Europe the following year. But in Hungary they had embarked on their own economic revolution even before the communists were thrown out. Taking advantage of the more enlightened approach to governing by the then Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, some of Hungary's leaders were pushing to see what they could get away in terms of economic liberalization. And what they managed to do took them far beyond anything that was happening inside Mr Gorbachev's own country at the time. I remember doing an interview in Budapest with the economic advisor to the prime minister who was vehemently in favour of free market forces - to the extent that would have made the then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher proud. One of the signs of this was that when I arrived in Budapest the first McDonalds in the communist bloc had just opened amidst much excitement.  McDonalds in Budapest 1988 It seems crazy now, but people would queue for hours in Hungary get hold of a Big Mac - and to get a taste of America which for so long they'd been told was such an evil place. On my recent trip to Budapest it was fascinating to talk to those Hungarians who remembered the amazing moment of their first McDonalds visit back in the days when communism was being challenged. But the early-starting revolution in Hungary wasn't entirely smooth. There was still resistance from the secret police whose job it was to do whatever it took to keep the old-style regime in place. While I was interviewing dissidents in Hungary in 1988 the secret police made their presence felt in one particular interview with a young female environmental activist. Ecological campaigners were regarded by the old-style communist authorities as being a particularly sinister threat - as they opposed the production-at-all-cost mentality which was causing massive water and air pollution throughout the communist bloc. I was conducting the interview in a quiet spot in a major western-style hotel in the Budapest city centre when a man emerged beside us heckling the environmentalist, snarling repeatedly in broken English "You are nothing, you are nothing". At first I thought he was drunk, but as the tirade continued it became clearer that he wasn't. To her huge credit, the environmentalist refused to be intimidated, and insisted that we continue the interview regardless. It felt at times as if the harassment might turn physical. But never did. My interviewee said the secret police constantly sought to disrupt the environmentalists' efforts - and she was determined not to give in to them. And she didn't. Eventually the man gave up and left...though goodness knows what he wrote on her file. It's these and other stories from my time reporting and speaking on six continents that makes up my new after dinner speech. But I'm afraid that there are no stories from the seventh continent - Antactica. At least not yet. So if you want colourful tales about penguins on ice for your after-dinner entertainment, you'll have to look elsewhere. Keep smiling, Michael