Six Trade Secrets to being a great speaker.

By Patti A. Wood, M.A., CSP

1.Make the speech about the audience not about you, the content. or data-filled power point slides. As a presenter, face to face with an audience you have an opportunity to connect with people in a unique way. You can form a relationship with a group, with all its synergy and back and forth flow of questions and ideas. When you connect with an audience you can not only inform them, but move them in a way no handout, brochure or manual can. But you must reach out and connect. If you are standing with your back towards your audience reading an endless barrage of detailed slides, you are not creating a magic relationship with your audience.

The energy drink beverage trend is readying for a change and leading the way is beverage development firm PTM Food Consulting (http://www.foodconsultant.biz). Owned and operated by food scientist Pete Maletto, the company has grown immensely the past few years producing innovative energy drinks for their clients.

Zach Whelan, a client for PTM Food Consulting with his startup company Des Moines Beverage, said his energy drink is more than "just another energy drink." Zach said that he approached Maletto about creating a new product that was different than all the rest. "While I looked at other firms to develop my energy drink, I found that all I was going to get was boiler plate drinks that everybody else had with the same usual ingredients, but we wanted to stand out. I then asked around to quite a few people in the energy drink industry and many recommended PTM Food Consulting. After one conversation I knew he was the guy that had the creativity and knowledge to produce a new type of energy drink for us that would give us the market edge we needed. A few days later he proposed some really innovative ideas for the market we were targeting and then just six weeks later we had an unbelievable tasting energy drink that not only provided a no crash energy, but increased libido as well. He did an unbelievable job and we were so happy with his communication, level of involvement and innovative service," said Whelan

Vocus, Inc., (NASDAQ: VOCS) a leading provider of on-demand software for public relations management, today announced that CTO Mark Heys has been named one of the D.C. area's Top 10 SmartCTOs by SmartCEO Magazine. According to SmartCEO, the awards program recognizes innovative, trend-setting and visionary technology executives who are making an impact on their company's present and future success.

Mark Heys, chief technology officer of Vocus, Inc.

"I am honored to be selected as one of this year's winners," said Mark Heys, chief technology officer of Vocus, Inc. "As the demands of the PR industry constantly evolve, Vocus continues to research opportunities to enhance our product with the latest technology to maintain a scalable, reliable and innovative platform that meets the need of the PR professional."

What do the unemployed in the Bay Area want for Christmas this year? A job, of course, and help with their job search. After that, the hip and savvy guide for the under- and over-employed, "Time Off! The Unemployed Guide to San Francisco" tops the list, according to several retailers.

The book has been enormously popular as a gift item," says Cory Villano, owner of the creative gift store Wishbone, located in the Sunset district in San Francisco. In fact its been our number one selling book this year."

Navisso Search invites the general public to test it’s newly launched product Navisso.com. Unlike other popular search engines, Navisso Search (http://navisso.com) is a web search engine that does not rely on external search feeds. Navisso Search utilizes automated crawling technology to identify web sites for inclusion in the search index.

NavissoBot, the search engine’s indexing robot, crawls the web frequently on a regular basis in order to locate new web pages as well as identify changes that have been recently made to existing pages. The crawling process is fully automated and maintained from more than 10 different locations worldwide.”

NextUp.com (www.NextUp.com) announces that its Text-to-Speech program TextAloud 2.0 has been honored with a nomination by the 2005 Shareware Industry Awards. A versatile tool that uses the power of voice synthesis to "speak aloud" documents, web pages, e-mail and more, TextAloud 2.0 was released in October 2004. Text is seamlessly converted into spoken audio, which can then be played back on PC, or saved to an MP3/Windows Media file for easy playback on portables like the iPod, Rio, iRiver, PocketPC, and dozens more. TextAloud was nominated in the category of Best Sound Program or Utility.

The devastation to Louisiana and Mississippi from Hurricane Katrina is heartbreaking and direct mail company, The Ballantine Corporation, is helping out with financial donations.

For all clients Ballantine produces work for during the month of September, they will make a donation in the client's name to the American Red Cross. They will then receive a card acknowledging this donation.

"Every little bit helps and we want to do our share," said John Cot, Executive Vice President of Ballantine. "Our thoughts and prays go out to all the victims affected by this disaster."

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) January 7, 2006 – Gameroom Designs owner Todd McClure has decided to close his second, and largest, retail billiards supply store located in Bedford Texas, a Dallas suburb, and go into the wholesale distribution end of the business to promote his own unique brand known as “McClure Tables” (www.McClureTables.com) on a national level.

“After years of carrying other brands,” said McClure, “we realized that we did not have any features or benefits that gave the retail dealer any advantage or reason for the consumer to choose one brand over the next, so we designed our own line of products, and while we set up a dealer network we decided it was a good time to get out of the retail end of this business, sell our entire inventory of $1.5 Million, and go nationwide, strictly wholesale, with our own line”.

Empire Today LLC (Empire Today, www.empiretoday.com) announces the launch of its annual 'A Gift For You' Turkey Promotion beginning October 22 and running through December 30th. Customers purchasing any Empire product including Carpet, Hardwood Flooring, Laminate Flooring, Ceramic Flooring, Window Treatments, Bath Liners, Shower Enclosures, Custom Windows, Vinyl Siding, or No Clog Gutters will be entitled to 'A Gift For You' free coupon for $10 off any JENNIE-O TURKEY STORE® product courtesy of Empire.

At the 2008 Merchant Risk Council Conference, Cyveillance's director of product management, James Brooks will speak about recent trends in blended phishing attacks and provide best practices and processes for organizations to proactively protect themselves and their customers. With increasingly sophisticated techniques and the widespread use of malware, criminals continue to successfully exploit the Internet to commit ID theft and fraud despite increased awareness of these attacks by users. Attendees will learn about the "business" of phishing for ID theft, along with methods organizations can employ to both restore and ensure long-term consumer confidence in online commerce.

Who:

James Brooks is Director of Product Management at Cyveillance and is responsible for online threat and fraud security services. With over 14 years experience in the security industry, James possesses a thorough understanding of security technologies, network and Internet environments, and Internet intelligence strategies. Previously, James worked at NTT/Verio and Genuity, and also held various technical positions with U.S. Naval Intelligence.

Mike Dudek and Zygoquest Group "seeking to unite" announced they served as advisor to Vin Thompson on the sale of Command Business Systems - a Canon dealer and CDA member. Terms of the transaction are confidential.

About Command Business Systems (www.commandbusiness.com)

Vin Thompson has owned and operated Command Business Systems since 1974. Command has been an authorized Canon dealer since 1975 and has been recognized by Canon as "Top Dealer" for three consecutive years. Command also sells Kyocera-Mita and HP printers.

The new SuperScrape™ Impressions logo floor mats and Hog Heaven™ Impressions anti-fatigue logo mats are suited for indoor or outdoor application. Both of these floor mats use a new state of the art printing process capable of extreme graphic quality while ensuring the durability expected of a commercial quality mat by molding the image into the mat.

SuperScrape Impressions Indoor-Outdoor Logo Door Mats

The SuperScrape Impressions logo floor mats logo entrance mats offer a superior printing surface for your company logo or promotional message. Molding a digitally printed polymeric material into a durable nitrile rubber creates Multi color images. These mats are impervious to sunlight and perform beautifully in all types of environments. There are unlimited color options available. Photo-realistic images, print ready artwork, tones and shades are all produced with unparalleled detail and clarity. You may also choose from our standard palette featuring 25 vibrant colors. Super Scrape Impressions are perfect for any application where colorful logo mats or message mats are needed. Suitable for indoor and outdoor use, the high traction surface effectively removes and traps tough dirt, grime and water from shoes. This mat is also resistant to oils and chemicals.

Author, weekend warrior and marketing consultant Gareth Bird is now offering some extra special gigging help to semi-pro and amateur musicians.

From now until the end of July, two instantly downloadable E-books about finding gigs and getting great crowd reactions playing live are available together at a special reduced price.

Gig-Getter: How to Get more Gigs than You can Play, the author's first gigging E-book,

has already helped bands and solo artists in more than 15 countries across the world to get gigs without an agent, manager or even a website.

The Coalition of Community Pharmacy (CCPA), comprised of the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), today released the results of a study on the safety of the US pharmaceutical supply chain and the impact of a federally mandated track and trace system on the retail pharmacy segment of U.S. prescription drug supply chain, if implemented.

The study found that existing changes in supply chain security including changes in state laws regulating wholesaler licensure have deterred instances of counterfeit drugs in the U.S. drug distribution channel since 2005; track and trace technology is still years away from widespread deployment in the US supply chain; and the cost of implementing track and trace technology would cost pharmacies between $84,000 to more than $110,000 per store in the first year alone, along with other substantial costs for implementing track and trace systems.

Bryan and Jeff Eisenberg of Future Now, Inc. help companies sell more products and services. Although they apply a complex process to designing websites and other ‘persuasion entities’ they create for their clients, they would likely agree with that somewhat simplistic description of what they do. A new book from the brothers bursts at the bindings with practical applications, and some of the best is delivered in their thinking on good old-fashioned sales.

In “Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?” the Eisenbergs discuss what they call “sales topology” – or the science of looking for patterns and distinctions among particular sales interactions. Like much of the original and instructive material introduced in the book, what makes the thinking important is its intense focus on the customer side of the equation.

- www.toprankresults.com - TopRank Online Marketing, a leading Minneapolis based search engine optimization (SEO) and web site marketing consulting service has expanded its client roster with the addition of 5 new clients and the hiring of additional Internet marketing staff. The expansion in business is indicative of TopRank's acknowledged expertise at helping companies increase sales and brand visibility online.

TopRank provides search engine optimization and marketing services with an emphasis on serving clients in technology, engineering, financial services and retail industries. New SEO clients include: Evolving Solutions, DDL, AKA Enterprise Services, Tekna Seal and Interactive Intelligence.

Oshyn, Inc. announced the launch of a strategic marketing Web site for Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B) for Volkswagen. Oshyn develops custom Web sites and applications that meet the needs of its clients and their customers. CP+B is a full service advertising agency with creative, media, planning/research, account service and production for print and broadcast.

“I am extremely happy that we were able to help CP+B do more and with higher value for its customers,” said Diego Rebosio, Chief Executive Officer of Oshyn. “Our agency clients appreciate having a trusted partner who knows technology and integrates well with their teams.”

PartsTrain.com announced the launch of their updated website to further serve the needs of their customers. One major addition is their comprehensive, online auto parts catalogue, which facilitates a much faster and user-friendly ordering process. More than 100,000 car and truck parts are available in a variety of makes and models from only the finest manufacturers in the industry at extremely low prices.

The intuitive layout of the new website provides a step-by-step guide to selecting the exact auto parts needed, treeing down from the make and model of the vehicle, to year-specific parts. The pricing for the selected part is displayed with easy access to the online order form, equally easy to follow.

Bringing the Voice of the Customer into the organization to provide a direct and systematic impact on competitive strategy and process improvements is one of the most compelling challenges facing businesses today. Two best selling ASQ publications, authored by the Principals of Market Value Solutions, have effectively addressed that challenge in North America and have been reprinted for distribution in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives.

Competing for Customers and Winning with Value brings together two powerful concepts: customer value and competitive planning. The combination of these two tools provides an engine for generating breakthrough strategies for market dominance. Competing for Customers presents a competitive planning template that enables organizations to actually harness their value creation and value delivery systems to enhance their market performance. It details a planning system that focuses at the level where the organization makes money: selling products or services to buyers in specific markets or market segments. For many readers, this system will challenge the way they look at their competition, their markets, and their industries. Competition will never look the same.

In his crime novel Phantom Justice, published June 2008, the author appears to make the case that our laws with regard to the worst criminals in our land must be changed. Author C Wolf Forrest states: "We require new, additional, definitions for Crimes against Humanity. Whereby a person is proving to be a sociopath or psychopathic killer of others against all mores of the public or individual welfare, we cannot afford to let such strain of humans survive, continuing to wreak their havoc among a peace-loving people. It seems that the very reasons claimed to cause their unrelenting crimes against humanity are, in present circumstances, used as excuses as to why these crimes are committed and for those reasons, we must feel sorry for them and/or permit them to use such arguments in our courts of law. We do not agree. These organisms must be eradicated as a virus infecting the host."