Content Management - Public Speaking - 5

If Churchill had had a speech writer in 1940, Britain would be speaking German today
- James C. Humes

A good speaker has an eye on the content as well as on the method of delivery. Unless one is a seasoned speaker one should not accept public speaking assignments at very short notices. This may not give one enough time to make proper preparation.

Relevance

Relevance to the topic gets the importance. Simple digressions are used to retain the interests of the audience. Digressing into various other matters, returning to the subject and bringing the talk to an end quickly, won’t add credit to the speaker.

Treatment

The topic requires differences in treatment based on the audience. They may be young people below fifteen or above fifteen; young men and women, middle class gathering, religion oriented, only men, only women, mixed, club invitation, passed fifty, or motley. One can not use the same approach, even if one is talking about cinema.

The venue will also have a say on the treatment of the topic; the club, the closed school or university auditorium, an exclusive meeting hall, or the open place. The venue will also give the speaker an idea on the nature of the audience; their seriousness or lack of it and their imbibing level.

Preparation

Let the speaker prepare his own speech as that would make him familiar with what he has on his notes, if he carries one. I know about busy speakers who employ freelance writers to prepare their speech and make a hardcopy and read from it, jotting down the broad topics in the margin. What would happen, if the speaker had little time to peruse the pages?

Create your own power point presentations or get it prepared well in advance so that you make a study of that. A speaker once sent the materials to a freelancer and got the presentation created while he was on his way to the venue. If you don’t have time to study the presentation, you may find it impossible to fuse it relevantly into your speech. The same is the problem with maps and charts or slides and photographs.

Flexibility

There should be flexibility. The preparation should take into account possibilities of last minute changes. There may be occasions to slightly change the approach or to modify that to suit the immediate needs that arise on stage.

Contingency

The speaker should be prepared for any contingency. If he is going to talk on controversial topics, there may be discussions and so one should be ready to face protracted question and answer sessions. If there are many speakers one may have to be on one’s toes. Listening to them and adding relevant comments during one’s speech will make the audience realize the seriousness with which one has approached the topic.

Knowledge is confidence

One should have the required level of knowledge of the topic and that will give him enough confidence while talking about it.

In toto, the management of the content should, without explicitly telling it, show the audience the seriousness the speaker shows in executing the assignment given to him.

"We learn from failure, not from success!" - Bram Stroker

Coducting the self Good speaker Fear at Podium Public Speaker