Have You Determined Presentation Objectives?

Audience always expect clear guidance about what is expected of a Presentation. Smart objectives to your presentation help you and your audience. My clearly stated objective for this topic on -Have You Determined Presentation Objectives?" -is: "By the time you complete reading this article, you must be able to apply and ready to use them effectively in your future Presentations."
This is summary of my article published in ezinearticles.com
To read full article click:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Have-You-Determined-Presentation-Objectives?&id=957413

Rotary showcases Career options at Khammam

The students who are pursuing graduation would always like to know what's next. In order to help build and carve their own career and future, Rotary Club of Khammam [ Rotary International District 3150] Andhra Pradesh,India has organized a mega Career Event on 30th January, 2009 from 2 pm to 5 pm at Khammam town [ http://khammam.ap.nic.in ]. This event showcased two topics: (1) Career as Company Secretary and (2)Career in Civil Services. Being Chairman of Rotary District Career Guidance, I have taken the responsibility of identify the presenters, assisting the Rotary Club to plan & implement. I was also requested to act as moderator for this Career Guidance Seminar. What impressed our team on reaching Khammam was the rousing reception at the Railway station followed by the Rotarians' hospitality and honor accorded throughout the day. The first topic "Career as Company Secretary" presentation was shared by Cs.Rajnish Poppot, Vice-Chairman and Cs.R Chandra Sekhar, Executive officer on behalf of Hyderabad Chapter of Company Secretaries. It was explained to the audience, most of them pursuing graduation, that the CS course is recognised as a statutory profession and abundant opportunities are available. A detailed brochure was provided to every participant. Shri Amarnath Varanasi, Director-Apex Center for Exams, Hyderabad who spoke in the regional language -Telugu on "Career In Civil Services". He impressed the participants with the How, Where & When logistics of Civil Services examinations, its preparation and success mantra. The ovation of 800+ young aspirants at the end of the Seminar was a true reflection of the excellent arrangements and efforts put in by Rtn. Malladi Vasudev-Programme Co-ordinator; Rtn. K Veerabhadra Rao-Club President; Rtn.A Venkateswarlu-Club Secretary. I took the opportunity to visit "The Rotary Artificial Limb ( Jaipur Limbs ) Center" a prestigious project of the Club which has been rendering services to the community at large since June, 1992. This project is unique of its kind in the whole of South India. Government provided the club with land in heart of the town and Rotarians built a Meeting Hall as well as Artificial Limb Center. For more details visit http://www.rotarylimbcentre.org I was also elated to be the Guest Speaker at the evening joint meeting of Rotary Club of Khammam and Stambadhri and spoke on "Rotary Volunteers". It was a pleasant surprise to receive a grand felicitation by the Club with a shawl & garland for my support in this Career Event.
Please view the Photo Slide show at: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/surya342/CareerEventRotaryClubOfKhammam#

Golden moments as broadcaster on Vijayawada Radio

The Government owned -All India Radio [Akasavani],Vijayawada,Andhra Pradesh, India has been organising several events to mark its diamond jubilee celebrations. This station was officially inaugurated on December 1, 1948. I was associated with this station and its staff for over a decade [1974 to 1985] as a part-time broadcaster known as Casual Artiste. I am delighted to know through Newspapers and TV that recently a get together ‘Vajrotsava Sambaram’ was arranged and provided a rare opportunity for several past and current broadcasters of All India Radio, Vijayawada station to meet each other and collectively go down the memory lane. Though I missed this occassion, I recollect my fond memories and sweet experiences during my stint in the All India Radio:

1. The first broadcast assignment was a feature on Diwali celebrations and customes followed by various states in India. This feature with prerecorded interviews with residents of telugu speaking youth from various states linking my commentary was produced for about 20 minitues Yuvavani -the youth programme well received by the listeners.
2. With my development of voice modulation and compering skills within one year, I could make myself fit as a full fledged Casual Artiste to render pre-recorded and live programmes in 25 minutes Yuvavani broadcast at 6-25pm daily. This listinging rate was high due to its content and time.
3. My job was to attend two hours prior to the schedule broadcast,under the guidance of the Programme Executive scribble announcements in telugu, prepare the participants / artistes for either recording or live performance, collect from Library signature tune [every programme on AIR should be commenced and ended with a designated recorded instrumental music over which main Announcement of programme goes], spool tapes, film tune Gramophone 78RPM / 45 RPM /33.5 RPM records and music fillers. Spend in rehearsal room [also called recording room] about 20 minutes with preparations of my own performance alongwith live performance artistes and move over to the main studio for live take-off. I was also assigned Women, Children, News, Workmen, Music and Agricultural Sections of AIR to conduct interview emenint persons, create features, attend Outdoor Broadcast recording, reading employment news, short stories, reading letters from listeners, participating in dramas, editing and voice over dubbing works. My favourite assignments were news reading and announcements which I used to emulate Late Shri Tirumalsetty Sreeramulu, Shri Kalakrishna, Shri Malladi Suribabu, Shri Maadugula Ramakrishna etc.,
4. My fond memories include:
   

• Conversation recorded with Dr.Jayaprakash Narain IAS [presently Lok Satta convenor] who was in final year of MBBS during 1977 in Guntur Medical College when I was assigned to cover Medical & health exhibition.
• While creating feature on young NCC cadets learning skills of gliding at Vijayawada-Gannavaram Airport was a thrilling experience.I accompanied the Instructor of the Glider [ a motorless two seater aircraft ] which was flying over the city for about one hour for recording actual instructions and safely returned to land.
• My friends, family members, fans and admirers who visited to witness my live performance in the studio particularly during Krishna Pushkarams celebrated once in 12 years, [ What is Kumbhmela to Allahabad, Krishna Pushkaram is to Vijayawada]
• Planning, commitment for quality and time consciousness were given priority for adjudging any broadcaster like me. I was adjudged as A1 Grade Casual Artiste both in terms of audition test and routine gradation given by the Duty officer [who listen Radio and report for review]. Punctuality is given top priority as the studio clocks were to be adjusted / matched with Greenwich mean time twice in a day. This was essential as the Vijayawada Radio need to relay News / National programmes from Hyderabad or New Delhi.
• Hundreds of post cards received by AIR containing the views & accolades of listeners from several parts of state about my performance made me feel like a Celebrity on many occassions.
• Many a time my photographs taken on my broadcast assignments were published in AIR monthly official magazine VANI as seen in this blog - Eminent writer was interviewed by me [right].
  

I am grateful to Vijayawada Radio, for whatever I am now.

Pc2Web TIPS - End It All !

Have you ever used End Key on your computer keyboard? Have you strayed away from it because you don't really know what it does? The End key is located in the little section of keys to the left of the numberpad on computer keyboard. It's right under the Home key and right in between the Delete key and the Page Down key. Well, hit this 'End' key to move the cursor to the end of the line, paragraph, page, screen, cell, or document depending on the program and where the cursor is currently positioned. The End key can actually do different things, depending on the program you're using it with. Its main use though is to help get from the top of a page to the bottom quickly,using a key combination such as pressing the Shift key and the End key together would highlight the text from the cursor to the end of the line. It's really one of the keys to save time. Hence do try it out and make it a habit to regularly use towards this End!

A Guest From Arkansas-USA

Group Study Exchange (GSE) is a program sponsored by the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International that enables young people in the early stages of their careers to participate in a month-long cultural and vocational exchange. Since 1965, more than 57,000 individuals (almost 12,000 teams) from 100 countries have participated. For each exchange, the Rotary Foundation matches two Rotary districts from different parts of the world. Team members learn about the host country's culture and institutions, observe how their vocations are practiced abroad, and establish personal and professional friendships. Team members are hosted by Rotarians and live with host families. Teams make a number of presentations in the Rotary events, participate in vocational visits and enrich with guided tours to places of interest.
In January 2009, the Rotary International District 3150, Andhra Pradesh, India [ I belong to Rotary Club of Secunderabad West in this Rotary District] has received a GSE reciprocal team from Rotary District 6150, Arkansas State, USA. Our Club has hosted on 23-25 January, 2009 this GSE team consisting of three women [non-rotarians] and a Rotarian team leader. I have hosted Mrs.Karen Pallone, a veterinary surgeon belonging to Rose Bud [ 200 families live in this town ] near Little Rock city, the capital of Arkansas State in USA.
I have arranged a guided tour for Mrs Karen to the college of Vetenarary sciences in Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University in Rajendra Nagar, Hyderabad. I accompanied her during the 3 hour guided tour in this massive Institution wherein Mrs.Karen interacted with students, teaching faculty and visited the University exhibition. We have also visited the Charminar [ the prestigeous symbol of Hyderabad as seen in the photo in this blog ] followed by a shopping at Lepakshi -the state owned handicrafts shoppe.
My family has got an excellent opportunity to know more about Arkansas in USA and their culture. As Arkansas is a picturesque place, it is called The Natural State. Bill Clinton the former President of America [who visited Hyderabad in 2002] hails from Arkansas. The world's only diamond park open to the public where one can prospect for and keep any stones found in this park. Mrs. Karen presented us a book "Picture Arkansas" + the country Flag + a pen set with insignia of their State Governor's signature + Lapel pins of the State etc., During the farewell party to the GSE team by our Rotary District Governor Rtn. Dr. Sarat Babu, the impressions and experiences of team members as written in our Club's Guest Book include the words of Mrs. Karen...
"SURYA has been an amazing host & seen that all my dreams & mission in India have been completed before I leave. It has been an amazing journey, I will not forget. Thank you all."
I must thank Rtn Raghava Rao & Rtn Harikrishna -our Rotary District chairs for GSE teams for providing us a wonderful opportunity to host GSE team member from Arkansas-USA.

How to protect & register your BRAND - Seminar.

I have received a brochure for a day long Seminar on "Registering & Protecting Your Brand" being organized in Hyderabad,India on 24th January, 2009 [Saturday]. The topics are: Introduction to Branding, Importance of a Brand - Doctors' perspective, Emerging Legal Issues in brand registration, strategies for effective brand building. One hour time is devoted exclusively for an interactive session. My friend Rtn.Vijayanandan Reddy, CEO of TRICON will be the lead resource presenter along with an official of Trade Mark Registry office, Government of India and a host of other speakers. I recommend you to attend this Seminar to enrich yourself. You can view the details at: http://www.transworldtraining.org/tw/aspx/PR_Brand.aspx and download brochure [2mb size] from: http://www.transworldtraining.org/tw/Docs/TW_Broucher_Final.pdf

SANKRANTI - a festival of Pongal delights

Every year 14th January is celebrated as SANKRANTHI or PONGAL which marks the change of season, when the rays of the sun become perceptibly stronger and we notice an end to the winter in India. This turn in the sun's course takes place at the point of time when it enters the zodiac sign of Makara or Capricorn. The day-duration increases and the night decreases from the day of Sankranti. Whether we call it Sankranti or Pongal, the period abounds with harvest rituals. City or a village, the charm of this four-day festival continues in Andhra Pradesh State in India. We the Telugus [whose spoken language is Telugu] like to call this festival 'Pedda Panduga' meaning big festival. The whole event lasts for four days, the first day Bhogi [today to celebrate with family members], the second day Sankranti [day dedicated to the worship of Surya-the Sun God ] , the third day Kanuma [day to worship the cattle] and the fourth day, Mukkanuma [day is devoted to merriment and socializing] Notwithstanding the fast changing times, this festival captures the quintessence of `Teluguness' in all its entirety, the traditional practices and customs continue to hold their own even today particularly in villages. Read my collection of an article in telugu language [pdf file ] to reflect how the spirit is still alive in rural places: http://www.suryanarayana.com/resources/SankrantiInVillages.pdf Sankranti is a favourite time to discard the old and welcome the new things & initiatives. Let us celebrate this festival with all delights.
Wish you happy SANKRANTI.

Pc2Web TIPS - Firefox Session Restore Utility

Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer are two most popular and reliable internet browsers on the planet. But which one is more user friendly and preferable? Of course, the internet user community is divided about this. However I use both simultaneously.

Have you ever heard of the Session Restore feature in Firefox? The Session Restore feature basically restores a browsing session for you if Firefox happens to crash or Software crash due to unexpected issues such as power outage or problems with a website or software errors. Firefox may close or your computer shuts down unexpectedly. For example, you're working along in Firefox and you have close to 5 tabs open at once. When everything settles down and you turn your computer back on, you can open Firefox again and it will ask you if you want to restore your previous session or not. You can then either go back to what you were doing or start a brand new session. How cool is that?!
Firefox can be configured to restore all windows and tabs that were open when the application is closed or terminated unexpectedly.To set up the Session Restore feature for your Firefox browser, simply go to Tools, Options and under the Main tab, look for the first section that says "When Firefox starts." Use the drop down menu and select "Show my windows and tabs from last time." Click OK and you'll be all set. You never have to worry about losing one of your browsing sessions ever again. So, go on and work in confidence! If Firefox continues to experience errors when windows and tabs are re-opened, you can launch the browser without restoring these items. Click Start New Session.
A Caution: Session Restore may keep you logged in to sites that you were logged into before you closed Firefox. If someone else used your computer after you, they could access your account on these sites. If this is a concern then you should not configure Firefox to open all windows and tabs from your previous session ("Show my windows and tabs from last time" option described above).

Rotary District 3150 Conference at Warangal - My impressions

As a Rotarian and Vice-Presidnet of Rotary Club of Secunderabad West and District Chairman for Career Guidance 2008-09 of Rotary District 3150 [comprising 70+ Clubs] in Andhra Pradesh State, India, I attended the two day Rotary District Conference [named as SANDADI ] on 2nd and 3rd January, 2009 at Warangal hosted by Rotary Clubs of Hanamkonda. Here are my impressions:

1. All the topics and the speakers in the all the sessions were very interesting and worth listening to know more about Rotary and Seva related topics. It was pleasant to listen to the Chief guest Shri M Gopalakrishna IAS [Rtd] who is known for his vocabulary in English & Telugu that make the audience spell-bound. What surprised me was that when I met him during lunch time, he remembered my name and profession [Company Secretary] even though I met him several years back during my presentation at a training programme for the Corporate Top Executives organized by him as Chief of Institute of Public Enterprises.
2. The 1st plenary session on Service projects moderated by dynamic Rtn Ravi Vadlamni has been innovative to make Rotarians known the impact of the service projects.
3. Second plenary session on " New Generations" was aptly moderated by Rtn.Dr.Vijendra Rao, Past District Governor. The speech on Yuvatha-Navatha-Bhavitha by Shri Gollapudi Maruthi Rao -Film actor & writer - compared the generations and advised the Rotarians to take up projects to help youth to keep up values and shine as better citizens.
   
4. The highlight for the first day end event was the Fellowship Night. A well planned cultural programme followed by house of friendship started early and concluded by 10-౦౦ప్మ్
5. The 3rd plenary session on International Service was taken up on second day morning. This session was handled by Rtn Sam [Past District Governor] who has given overview of Rotary Foundation and introduced the inbound Group Exchange Programme teams. The GSE teams made power point presentations that helped to get to know about 7 team members and two team leaders from Rotary Districts 6150 Arkansar USA and Rotary District 5960 Minnesota,USA. The Hindu News paper has published a worth noting photograph in their edition on 4th January, 2009 with a caption: "Showcasing tradition" with a description:" AWED: Two foreign delegates at a seminar organized by Rotary Club admiring the cut-out depicting rural way of life in Warangal on Saturday."
6. The best part I liked was the 4th plenary session on "Vocational Service" wherein ten personalities from Film, Medicine, TV, Legal, Sports, Community Service, Education and Mimicry fields have been chosen and felicitated with Vocational Service & Excellence Awards followed by their acceptance speeches and briefly showcasing their talent. Distribution to the audience a leaflet containing the Awardee's profiles would have saved time during this session.
7. Though I could not be available for the 5th plenary session on Club Service by Janab Mustaq Ahmed from Kakinada, I understand from my Rotarian collegues the speech was outstanding on "Manushulantha Okkatey" .
8. The 6th session again handled with a poetic introduction by Rtn Ravi Vadlamani [Past District Governor] about the Prajakavi Dr.Andhesri a poet who has written songs for few movies. Hailing from a rural place with only primary education had a distinction of being honoured by Kakatiya University in Warangal with a Doctorate. He rendered his lyrics and songs on mankind.
9. The concluding session on "My Impressions" by Rtn Joitabhai Patel the Past District Governor from Gujarat & the Rotary International Representative for this conference. This was followed by short speeches by Rtn Suresh -District Governor Elect 2009-10 on Year Ahead while Rtn Rajyalakshmi V [ District Governor Nominee 2010-11] about "The Year After".
   
10. I thank Rtn.Sameer Kumar -the Communication Committee Chair who accepted and published my article on "9 Essentials For Creativity" in the Conference Souvenir [Pages 18 & 19] and our Club poster in page 25 which was published as a paid advertisement given by club and partially supported by me and Rtn Dr. Jayashree Desai. This poster can be downloaded from our Club website at: http://www.clubrunner.ca/Data/3150/3553/HTML/50434/Poster-RotaryClubOfSecunderabadWest.pdf
11. All our 8 members of the Club traveled to & fro by Cars visited the famous Thousand Pillar Temple in Warangal. We enjoyed and enriched with this District Conference. Our Club Secretary Rtn. Devendra Desai bagged the lucky winner prize. Catering and stay arrangements were excellent. A special provision for Speakers and the VIPs lunch and dinner could have arranged instead of making them stand in long ques. A feed back sheet from participants in such conferences help the organizers to excell in future events. We were delighted to receive an SMS on our mobiles the very next day from Rtn Sarat Babu -the District Governor who thanked our participation to make the Conference successful. In all the organizers the Rotary Club of Hanamkonda who hosted for the first time an event like this attended by 800+ delegates deserve appreciation for their best efforts to make this Conference quite memorable.
    

I am on LinkedIn

I have found, LinkedIn is a growing professional and business networking platform that offers good opportunities for (re)connecting. LinkedIn is a web-based social-networking service. It is one of several online networking sites aimed squarely at the professional and business community friends. What attracted me is its membership (more than 20 million people), easy to use interface, provision to load more details about me and facility to get advice from experts who are also connected and willing to share their expertise. I have created my own group "PresentationTips" to share thoughts and ideas for better Presentation. The best advantage of LinkedIn is that it provides a place to create a professional and structured profile that people can easily find on the web. I've been a member of LinkedIn for a while now. And here I am on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/suryanarayana

This user-friendly web-profile has become an effective extension to my virtual Business Card. I'm using LinkedIn to continue my existing personal or business contacts and look for new introductions.

I wish to invite you view my brief profile at http://www.suryanarayana.in which points to http://www.linkedin.com/in/suryanarayana and click JOIN NOW to post your initial details to add me as your connection.