National Grid UK R.E.A. Southampton Branch

On 17 September, I began a run of four talks on different topics in a three-day period (I had a similar schedule back in January; it's the way the bookings fall sometimes). The first engagement was a return visit to the National Grid UK R.E.A. Southampton Branch (although when I first spoke to them in February 2005 they were simply called Lattice). They had originally booked me for 27 September but rang a few weeks ago to say that their venue, the Southampton Novotel, would not now be able to accommodate them on that day and would I be available on any of three alternative dates?

This does happen from time to time; in the past few years I have had bookings cancelled due to: a member's funeral being scheduled for the same date as the club meeting, a WI inadvertently double-booking speakers and a ladies' group  learning that a speaker from Sainsbury's was unexpectedly available, a speaker who would not want a fee and would even bring free goodies for everyone - now how could I compete with that? All of them rebooked me later.

Public Speaking Tip #27: The vast majority of your bookings to speak will go ahead on the agreed date but there are occasions when changes have to be made and you should try to cheerfully accommodate these.

One date the Southampton group offered was the 19th and I was very tempted because I had a morning booking in Romsey that day and an evening one in Basingstoke so I would be passing through Southampton that afternoon anyway and would incur no travel costs. In the end, I think I took the sensible option and chose the 17th, not least of all because I would have been lugging three different sets of props around with me all day.

Public Speaking Tip #28: Although bookings to speak  can be clustered together at times - it often seems to be 'famine or feast' - it makes sense to spread them out as much as possible. There's no point in overdoing it if there are other options available.

Despite the change of date and day of the week, about 55 still turned up and enjoyed my Patrick Campbell talk.