The weekend read

This week, I've been at Magdalen College at the University of Oxford for the Spring Speechwriters' and Business Communicators' Conference, one of my favorites. Yesterday, I led a breakout group for speechwriters on prepping speakers for TED talks. Time to check out some breakout ideas in my finds of the week, shared via @dontgetcaught on Twitter and don't get caught on Facebook, and curated here for you. Cheers for the weekend:

• Class clowns: Facebook's considering giving you the chance to use GIFs to react to posts.
• Get real: NBC will broadcast the 2018 Olympics in real time in all time zones. Because 2018.
• Rumour has it: You monitor news coverage, so you may need this from therapists who have advice on how to monitor news in an age of anxiety.
• Let's hang out on campus: Google is changing up its Google Talk, the messaging app within Gmail, for Hangouts. Here's what that means for you.
• Freshman 11? These are the 11 fastest-growing apps in the U.S.
• Student union: Facebook's new Town Hall feature lets you find, connect with, and message your U.S. elected officials.
• The college crowd: Here are some useful tips on making a crowdfunding video people will actually watch.
• Red pencil: Google's testing an app for photo editing and sharing. And Consumer Reports reviewed 4 free video-editing apps for your smartphone.
• Reunion: Reusing blog content is a great idea...until it gets you a search-engine penalty. Here's how to do it safely.
• Week in review: On this blog, I shared From photography rights to pizza: Prep your comms team for protests. On the Moderating Panels blog, you also can find 5 last-minute moderator tasks before the panel starts.

Next, I head to London for a conference on virtual reality and immersion journalism, followed by my workshop, Creating a TED-Quality Talk. 

(Creative Commons licensed photo by Adrian Scottow)

Don't get caught unprepared, speechless, or without a message, but do catch me on Twitter, on Google+, and on the don't get caught page on Facebook--all great places to add your comments to the discussion. Subscribe to my monthly newsletter, Speakers & Communicators, to make sure you don't miss a thing on my blogs and get the first news about new workshops and projects.