Events and Public speaking: What’s your handicap?

Most people approach public speaking with about as much enthusiasm as weekend golfers facing their first tee-shot... and sadly most business events set internal company speakers up for failure before they even open their mouths…

If you’ve ever played golf, you’ll know the feeling. Walking up to the tee on the 1 st, you feel your palms go sweaty, your throat dries up and you begin to wonder why on earth you even agreed to play the damn game in the first place. Your peers are watching; there’s an air of expectation and you know it’s up to you to perform. So, after selecting a club and whilst trying to look as nonchalant as you can, you have to step up and prepare to do your best…

At least golf, beyond that first tee, usually becomes more enjoyable. Public speaking doesn’t. The American comedian Jerry Seinfeld once quipped that when it came to a funeral, more people would prefer to be in the casket than delivering the eulogy, and he was right.

The phobia of public speaking is so widespread and strongly held that several thousand people around the world today, like myself, actually earn their living by speaking professionally at corporate events and functions. Whether speaking on behalf of a company or to its customers or staff; the demand for professional business-to-business speakers is at an all time high, and never has it been more applicable.

Our 24/7 image driven, internet and media saturated world is forcing business to raise its communication standards. We live in a world where no-one has time to read an annual report any more, where politician’s have had to learn the art of the ten second ‘sound bite’ and a world in which the cult of instant celebrity is worshipped and revered.

The mastery and use of time, as well as an ability to capture and hold the imagination, is all important today.

Are you ready and able to stand up in this frenetically paced attention deficient world and instantly speak to your staff/ dealers/customers and/or the media with credibility and earn their respect, trust or admiration? Better still, are you suitably prepared to do so? I’ve watched globally respected executives die on stage all around the world. I’ve seen battle hardened generals wither in front of an audience and highly revered managers lose all their credibility in under three minutes. I’ve seen normally genial extroverts become dry-mouthed fumblers and watched experts instantly turn into gibbering idiots. All in all I’ve probably witnessed more than my fair share of corporate blood baths, yet many of which needn’t have been as bad as they turned out to be.

Beyond the basic inability of many people to present well in public, I believe a lack of due diligence and care in pre-preparation and execution of the events themselves was probably more responsible for disasters I’ve seen than mediocre or poor speakers.

Just as a golf course needs to controlled and managed, every staged event needs to be similarly and properly set. Due care and thought has to go in to all aspects of a function, such as the comfort of the audience in respect to such things as pre-event queuing, registration, climate control and seating plans.

Lighting needs to be coordinated, adjusted and controlled, not just switched on or off. Sound systems and speakers need to be in place for anything over fifty people, and preferably all run by a competent on site technician who can raise and lower the volume of the sound and lighting output to suit the audience.

Overhead slides, flip charts and lecterns should be banished to the archives or charity shops forever, along with hand held microphones and speaker ‘notes’. PowerPoint slides need to contain less than forty words each, if they are needed at all, and the now infamous ‘clip art’ should only ever be seen or used by teachers of preparatory school children. Fonts and backgrounds should be mutually conversant and pie charts and bar graphs eliminated forever.

Never ever allow should anyone be allowed to use children, animals or a live internet connection during a presentation, for obvious reasons; and always, without exception, you should ensure you have a full rehearsal.

Agendas should be balanced and audience sensitive. Most people need comfort breaks and sustenance to get them through a day. Executive summaries should be made available immediately after each keynote or plenary session and question and answer sessions must always include microphones for the audience’s use.

A raised stage platform is essential for any audience greater than fifty people and cabling must always be taped to the floor.

And then we come to the choice of speakers.

As a general rule, CEO’s and sponsors should be prepared, and prepared to be brief. No-one enjoys listening to the Commander in Chief rattling on for hours about how well/poorly they’ve done from a set of hastily scrawled cuff notes. Five minutes is ample, thank you.
Financial presentations should be compulsorily aimed at non-financial people and Human Resources people should be prepped to be empathetic rather than hectoring. Marketing people should always let their work speak for itself and Sales Directors should be reminded of, and forced to address, the real world.

All speakers must be at an event at least an hour or two before it begins, no matter what the hour/day/traffic patterns, with no exceptions - and all presentations (to be run from a central and modern laptop, preferably via a remote wireless presenter mouse) must be loaded and checked for spelling, grammar, colours and content by someone responsible and senior at least 24 hours before the function.

Never, ever, under any circumstances, should you use ‘good old Bob’ the office clown, or the actress from a TV soap opera as the Master of Ceremonies. A good MC is the glue which will bind the event, not the star attraction between speakers; and a solid professional Master of Ceremonies will do more than anyone else to make the event run smoothly.

Don’t try and take photographs during the event or awards ceremony – even if you are using a professional photographer. It takes time for people to be brought from their seats to the stage and after the CEO has pressed the flesh and handed out the award, it is really boring and time consuming for the audience to sit and watch the winners being photographed. Rather do this outside, afterwards, in an attractive posed setting whilst everyone else is otherwise engaged.

When it comes down to brass tacks though… let’s go back to that first tee; the careful choice and selection of the speakers themselves; which is critically important to the event. Just as you wouldn’t send a non-golfer down to the golf course to play a four ball with your top customers or suppliers, nor should you ask a non-speaker to step up to the microphone. Certainly, whilst all modern corporate executives today should train to be speakers – and there are plenty of places to teach them to be media and stage conversant –if they can’t do it right now, don’t ask them to.

In a world where only first place counts, and in an environment where you only get one chance to make that impression, either get the training done fast, or hire the services of a professional. It’s as simple and straightforward as that. Why handicap yourself any other way?

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