“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

Richard Steele

Happy Friday! One of my favorite things we do for Christmas is a tradition from Iceland known as Jolabokaflod, which translates roughly into English as ‘the Christmas book flood’. In short, you give friends and family for Christmas to open on Christmas Eve. By tradition, everyone reads the books they have been given straight away, often while drinking hot chocolate or a Christmas ale called jólabland.  What is your favorite holiday tradition? 

Thanks for reading!

What I’m Listening to:  I discovered DJ Riko’s super fun, remixed holiday music over a decade ago and it is awesome. If you’d like a new take on holiday music you’ve got to check out this Merry Mixmas playlist If you like it you can browse his entire collection at  http://djriko.com/mixmases.htm 

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Last week’s most clicked item:
PowerPoint Holiday Cards

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The Dangers of Virtual Workshops (And the Framework That Makes Them Exceptional)

In this post, Justin Mertes shares his thoughts on virtual workshops and shares a framework help any facilitator, project manager, or leader of any virtual meeting or workshop determine just how collaborative to make their virtual experiences with digital collaborative tools. 

https://www.crema.us/blog/the-dangers-of-virtual-workshops-and-the-framework-that-makes-them-exceptional

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Via the Daniel Wirtz newsletter which you should go and subscribe to right now! 

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The 7 Deadly Sins of Presentation Design

What is presentation design? Should you use powerpoint over keynote as a tool? How are professionals approaching presentation decks differently? How much does a professional charge to design an investor deck?

Ashley Smithers is a professional presentation designer and shares her “7 Deadly Sins of Presentation Design”. What should you avoid when designing a powerpoint presentation? Presentation Designer, Ashley Smithers, shares her top 7 tips on things to avoid in creating an investor deck. Don’t underestimate the power of having a killer deck.

Watch Now

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Small talk at work has big benefits

Dom Price tells us that feeling connected to your colleagues isn’t about high-fives at the office. It’s about being able to be your real, authentic self at work. Teams with strong personal relationships tend to produce better results. Making time to talk about things such as your shared purpose as a team, what you expect from one another, and what “fills your cup” when you’re not at work go a long way toward building deep rapport.

https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/small-talk-at-work

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High quality audio makes you sound smarter

When audio quality is high (vs low), people judge the content as better and more important. They also judge the speaker as more intelligent, competent, and likable. I’ve been wanting to upgrade my personal setup and now I REALLY need to get it done. 

https://tips.ariyh.com/p/good-sound-quality-smarter

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The State of Virtual Training

There’s no question that virtual training is here to stay. The bigger and better question is, how do we ensure it’s a successful learning method? Cindy Huggett’ State of Virtual Training Survey provides insights and recommendations for those of you who want to do it well.

https://www.cindyhuggett.com/blog/2022sovt/

• How to Design a Presentation with Ashley Smithers on The Futur with Chris Do podcast
• Your brain’s logic & function with Dr. David Berson on the Huberman Lab podcast
• How to create content quickly with Dorie Clark on the Level Up Your Course podcast

• Send personalized newsletters from a Google Sheet with Vero Newsletters
• Create simple animations in your browser with Jitter 
• Create & send a free video Christmas card with Greety.co
• Use your iPhone as a WiFi web cam with EpocCam
• Create impressive mockups with MockRocket

• Learning & Development Conference – February 2nd (Online)
• TICE Online March 22-24
• Creating a Digital Portfolio PACT May 2022

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