Last week I had the pleasure of appearing in Juvenile Court in Alexandria, Virginia with my 16-year-old son Sam and 30 other 16-year-olds and their mom or dad. We were there for the driver’s license presentation ceremony. Sam actually earned his driver’s license several months ago and has been driving legally with a paper permit. But our state requires you to appear in court to receive the official license from a judge. The judge was very pleasant and reassured the new drivers that today is a...

On Tuesday, we concluded the IBTTA workshop on Incident Management, Safety and Security in Denver. There were so many excellent speakers and moderators and so many wonderful exchanges in the question and answer sessions, it’s impossible to summarize the entire meeting in a small space. Instead, I offer a few of the observations I shared with the assembled delegates at the conclusion of the meeting. Here goes… On a blisteringly hot day in southern California, a team of professional...

In this essay, I am suggesting that the speakers at IBTTA meetings consider abandoning the use of PowerPoint presentations. I don’t have any objection to the use of PowerPoint per se. The rare presenter can use PowerPoint in an exceptionally effective way to deliver a powerful message. However, I believe the way speakers commonly use PowerPoint is often a barrier to the principal goal of speaking to an audience: helping people understand something by leading them through an experience. Before...