Public Speaking

Search, Work

A few months ago I was asked to present at the Online Retailer Roadshow in Brisbane, which is a single day conference organised by Reed Exhibitions covering a broad array of topics associated to online marketing.

Historically, I’ve found a lot of one day conferences to not have enough depth in them or they aren’t able to attract the really great speakers but I was completely impressed by the line up for the conference & was in the esteemed company from people like:

  • Kieran O’Hea
    Chief Digital Officer – Brisbane City
  • Faye Ilhan
    Head of Online – Dan Murphy’s
  • Joshua McNicol
    Head of Marketing – Temple & Webster
  • Steve Tosh
    Director Omni-Channel – Dick Smith

My presentation was on unbeatable SEO tips or search engine optimisation for the uninitiated, ie how to make my website have great visibility in Google. 

Since the conference was about online retailing, I decided that I’d cover off a raft of foundation items, technical problems that aren’t handled well in ecommerce websites, tips on building links to their websites, outpacing their competition with great content and maximising the effect that social media can have on a site – which while not a ranking factor for Google, correlates well with rankings due to the fact that great exposure/awareness for a website generally leads to things that do affect rankings taking place such as links.

After getting the majority of my presentation organised, I gave myself a practice run through in the boardroom at work and despite the fact that the boardroom was empty – I felt really nervous for some reason. After I got going, everything began to fall into place and I worked my way through the content without a great deal of effort.

During the run through, I thought I was going fast – spending a limited amount of time on each of the slides and topics but despite that I was way over my 30 minute time allotment – so I cut slides out of the presentation.

It turns out that I should have cut even more slides out of the presentation as even with the reduced content and me still feeling as though I was tearing through the topics – I went over the time limit at the event as well but the organisers gave me a few more minutes which was great.

It’s difficult to find the balance of going too advanced or diving deep into a topic and not providing enough detail for the audience. I know from conferences I’ve attended that nothing frustrates me more than a presentation that I don’t learn something from – so I tried to avoid that with my content by focusing on items that could genuinely improve their online business if they took action to address the problems.

For my first public speaking engagement with an audience of over 100 people, I feel it went really well. There were a lot of people taking notes and photos of my slides while I was presenting, so I think that is an indication that they were finding value in what I was speaking about.

Now that my first one is out of the road, I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for more opportunities – it is a lot of effort but it’s good fun and you get to meet other business owners and professionals which I really enjoy.

Downhill Skateboarding

Sport, Videos

I came across this short but fantastic video of a bloke named Liam Morgan tearing down a steep hill in an urban area on his skateboard. What is great about the video is that it is raw, no cuts, no edits, no fancy camera work or angles – just Liam shredding down the hill au naturel on his skateboard.

Pay particular attention to how fast he is going in different sections of the hill and how often he is sliding on his skateboard, not just the big power slides he does but just trying to navigate through turns his skateboard is sliding all on its own.

Remember, don’t do this at home kids – Liam Morgan is a trained professional. These sorts of disclaimers usually include a comment about the stunts being performed in a controlled environment, well that one doesn’t apply this time!

The video is by a skateboard accessories company named Blood Orange and I think Liam is wearing their gloves, using their grip tape on his skateboard deck and might also be using their wheels as well.

Movember 2013

Life, Photos

Movember is a great initiative to increase community awareness for men’s health issues, whether it physical or mental and that when men are living with some sort of a health issue that they are treated the same way that women are – with care and compassion.

Alistair Lattimore - Movember Concept

Each year at Mantra Group a number of my work colleagues grow a mustache in support of Movember and in the last nine years, for whatever reason I’ve never participated. This year is the year of change and I’ve joined our head office team and am attempting to grow a superb Mo by the end of the month.

There is a catch though, my Mo is a little scared and is only willing to brave the worlds criticism if he is supported through donations to help research and community initiatives through the Movember foundation.

Donate Now!

Click the Donate Now! link above and while its loading, get your wallet out and have your credit card ready. When my Movember page loads, click the Donate To Me button below my photo – I’m confident that the larger your donation, the more awesome my Mo will be, so be generous!

Chicken Cam

Humour, Videos

I love creative advertising and LG Mobile have outdone themselves. The lead into the ad where you see Dave the cameraman and his camera rigging inventions sketched out and some he has made were hilarious but when Lizzy is introduced, it got interesting in a hurry. All the different uses for Lizzy and the new GallusCam or steady feather camera technology were fantastic, especially the little chicken noises you can hear at different parts of the ad.

Who needs a GoPro?

Blurred Lines vs Defined Lines

Music, Videos

Robin Thicke is an American-Canadian musician who recently put out a very catchy song named Blurred Lines, which has been a massive success around the world and the official music videos (both censored & uncensored) have received over 200 million views on YouTube alone.

The content of the music video with either scantily clad (censored) or topless (uncensored) models dancing & prancing has unsurprisingly drawn criticism around different groups around the world.

As part of 40 comedy skits put together by Auckland University Law students for their annual Law Revue, one group of inspired students thought they’d do a feminist parody of Robin Thicke Blurred Lines, named Defined Lines. Since it is from a feminist point of view, the lyrics have been rewritten, reversed and the models are now scantily clad blokes. For those that are easily offended, the content and lyrics are a bit rude in places but it is really really well done – very creative!