1. Extensively talking about your background and achievements

Sure, we want to hear about where you come from and about your work experience, but just enough to put your presentation in the right context. As a rule of thumb, if you are going to talk for 60 minutes, 6 minutes should be enough to talk about yourself. If you REALLY have an interesting story, make it 10 minutes.

Once the presentation is over you can always leave your email or website address for the people that want to know more about you.

Pay attention to the tone you will be using as well. There is nothing worse than a presenter bragging about his achievements, titles and success stories.

2. Using foreign expressions or proverbs

Some time ago I was watching a presentation about crisis management, and at one point the presenter went like this:

As the Italians say, “A mali estremi, estremi rimedi,” that is, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Instead of thinking “Wow, this guy is really clever,” which was probably the reaction the presenter was expecting to raise on the audience, I thought: “Wow, this guy is really a dork…”

Use foreign expressions or proverbs only if they are absolutely necessary to convey the meaning of something.

3. Using fancy words

The previous point applies to fancy English words as well. You might think that using big and complex words will make you sound smart, but in reality it will only make you sound pompous, and there is a chance that you will end up confusing part of the audience as well.

Keep it simple. The easier for people to follow your thoughts, the better.

4. Excessive self promotion

Ever saw a presentation where right in the middle the guy started talking about how cool his company was, how wonderful their products were, how their sales volume was sky rocketing and the like?

It is sickening.

Remember that the purpose of your presentation is to deliver value to the audience, and not to deliver a sales or promotional pitch for your services or company.

5. Using complex charts and formulas to demonstrate your expertise

If you are going to use charts, formulas or any other mathematical reasoning, make sure that they are simple and easy to understand.

Do not assume that people will know the stuff. Explain the graphs; explain what is on the x and on the y axis; explain why that curve is going upward and so on.

6. Presenting too much information

When planning your presentation, think about the main message that you want the audience to take away, and work around it.

You might know the topic inside out, but you won’t be able to put all that information inside people’s heads in 60 minutes no matter what.

What is worse, if you try, they won’t absorb anything whatsoever.

7. Not interacting with the audience because you are the expert

Monologues are boring.

We might not be as knowledgeable as you on the topic you are covering, but we have interesting ideas and questions to share.

Talk with the audience, let them ask questions, get them involved with the discussion and so on. This will add a whole new dimension to your presentation, bringing you closer to the attendants.

Anyway, if you are in the process of creating one, or think your current resume could use some help and polishment, check out this very detailed article with 44 resume writing tips.

Here are the first 10 items:

1. Know the purpose of your resume
2. Back up your qualities and strengths
3. Make sure to use the right keywords
4. Use effective titles
5. Proofread it twice
6. Use bullet points
7. Where are you going?
8. Put the most important information first
9. Attention to the typography
10. Do not include “no kidding” information

So, for the rest of the resume writing tips, just check the article.

An excerpt from Technology Review

This tiny phone, which is slightly larger than a domino, is capable of sending and receiving calls and text messages. It can store contacts and MP3s with up to 16 gigabytes of storage capacity, and it has a small but usable screen and a sparse keypad that lacks numbers. Launched this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Modu can be used as a stand-alone phone. But more important, it can also be slipped into a variety of “jackets,” such as in-car MP3 players, Global Positioning Systems, and larger cell phones, that expand the Modu’s functions and change its look.

The phone is targeted at the current generation that caters to new mobile phones once every couple of years. For the Modu it would be about changing the casing for a new one, essentially keeping the core module intact.

The product reflects immense innovation (the designers even did away with the keypads to make the product stick to a small form factor). But the criticism for the device comes on the lines of changing the consumer mindset. People do not follow a system of purchasing accessories and the main mobile phone separately.

An excerpt from Yahoo Tech

What’s different about Modu phones are its interchangeable enclosures that transform it into a totally different device. To change the way it looks, you just pop it into a different Modu jacket, likely to be available in every color and design. To give it new functionality you just slide inside a Modu mate device, which will include things like media players, digital photo frames, digital cameras, GPS devices, and even cordless telephones.

Crave has some great pictures on the Modu and some of the jackets.

Organic electronics is one emerging field that is is very promising when it comes to continuing this trend of miniaturization. Organic electronics would be utilized in creation of flexible ultra-thin even foldable circuits. Such material could be used for displays in electronic news papers or billboards for instance. Also, they could lead to development of super-thin mobile devices with crystal clear display.

When it comes to creating the next generation of electronics, the manufacturing process also needs to be revolutionized. Traditional processes that were based on coating the surface of the circuit with semiconductor material and then etching them away to form the required conducting patterns have been found to be very wasteful.

There are several other techniques that are being experimented and depending on which gets wider adoption, the whole economics of organic semiconductor materials will be impacted. On one hand there is the printing technique – special ink-jet printers injecting drops of plastic semiconductor on a substrate in the desired pattern. And then there is the newer technique of making organic semiconductor material self-assemble around source and drain electrodes.

An excerpt from Technology Review

The new method eliminates the need to pattern the semiconductor layer. Once the researchers have patterned the source and drain electrodes using lithography, they dip the circuit in a special chemical to treat the electrode surface. Then they coat the circuit with a thin layer of an organic semiconductor solution.

The new technique makes the manufacturing of organic semiconductor circuits much more simpler and practical.

• Handicapping the Best Countries for Business: India? South Africa? Russia? Which are the best countries for a firm to invest in? In a new book, Professor Richard Vietor looks at the economic, political, and structural strengths and weaknesses of ten countries and tells readers how to analyze the development of these areas in the future. Read our Q&A and book excerpt.
• Jumpstarting Innovation: Using Disruption to Your Advantage: Fostering innovation in a mature company can often seem like a swim upstream—the needs of the existing business often overwhelm attempts to create something new. Harvard Business School professor Lynda M. Applegate shows how one of the forces that threatens established companies can also be a source of salvation: disruptive change. Plus: Innovation worksheets.
• Businesses Beware: The World Is Not Flat: With apologies to Thomas Friedman, managers who believe the hype of a flat world do so at their own risk, says HBS professor Pankaj Ghemawat. National borders still matter a lot for business strategists. While identifying similarities from one place to the next is essential, effective cross-border strategies will take careful stock of differences as well.
• What’s to Be Done About Performance Reviews?: What can we do to make performance reviews more productive and less distasteful? Should their objectives be scaled back to just one or two? Should they be disengaged from the determination of compensation and, if so, how?
• Understanding the ‘Want’ vs. ‘Should’ Decision: Pizza or salad? Consumers use different approaches to buying things they want (pizza) versus items they should buy (salad). In their research on online grocery-buying habits and DVD rentals, Harvard Business School’s Katy Milkman and Todd Rogers, along with Professor Max Bazerman, provide insights on the want-should conflict and the implications for managers in areas such as demand forecasting, consumer spending habits, and effective store layout.