Harman's Cross Village Club
I was back in the Swanage area last Thursday afternoon, this time speaking at the AGM of the Village Club in Harman's Cross, a hamlet a little way outside the town. This was a short-notice booking which came in when I got back home from my previous Swanage talk. I was asked to stand in due to a speaker from the Monkey World Ape Rescue Centre having to cancel as he was busy giving 24-hour care to a baby woolly monkey so the villagers of Harman's Cross had to make do with a grown-up hirsute comedy writer instead!
Fortunately they had all been informed of the change in the programme at the business meeting before I arrived. There were nearly 50 there, I did about 55 minutes (Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer) and got a great response and a large number came up and chatted afterwards.
I had never actually been down into Harman's Cross before, either as a speaker or on any of my Purbeck coastal walks. Like Kington Magna in North Dorset, where I spoke last October, it has a few hundred people but no pub, etc, although it does boast a Post Office (well, for 3 days a week anyway!) and two service stations as you come in. And, like Kington Magna, it has a thriving hall, although this one is an old Nissen hut which they are busy raising funds to replace. The rural views from its windows are superb but I tried not to allow these to distract me while I was speaking! Another interesting aspect of this setting is that a station on the Swanage preserved steam railway route is yards from the hall.
Incidentally, eleven days is not the shortest notice I have had for a booking in this area; in 2004, I had been up writing all through one Monday night and I got a call at 10am to ask if I was available to speak to the National Trust in Swanage at 3 o'clock that afternoon as a speaker had just cancelled! I agreed, travelled over, delivered my talk to about 70 people without sounding too tired ('Dr Theatre' helping out again?) and it went very well. It is best to get some sleep before speaking, though!
These are two examples of covering cancellations for audiences who were appreciative right from the start but you may have short-notice engagements where you are not so fortunate so you might need to bear the following in mind:
Public Speaking Tip #121: Sometimes if you are a replacement for a speaker on a totally different subject from yours who has dropped out, this may not be announced until you are sitting there waiting to be introduced and you might have to hear groans of disappointment and perhaps even see the odd person leaving before they get to find out whether you are any good or not! You just have to be thick-skinned and give your presentation all you've got. Do this and you will have some audience members coming up afterwards and saying they preferred your talk to the one that was originally booked!
Something which did happen at Harman's Cross was that for the first time ever, I ran out copies of my booklet to sell - I was a couple short - but the talk went so well that there will be other bookings for this group and I will have another chance to sell them then.
Public Speaking Tip #122: If you sell anything at your presentations, such as books, recordings, etc, it's not a bad idea to have some simple order forms that people can fill in on the spot or take away so they can buy your merchandise through the post at a later date. This is useful if you sell out or potential customers want to 'think about it'. You could even leave some with the organisation for members who were absent - especially if your goods cover the content of a 'how to...' presentation. This idea may work particularly well if you are speaking a long way from where you are based.
My thanks to Keith, a club member, for the lift from the bus station and back again. As usual on my visits to Swanage, I went for a brief walk up to Peveril Point once I was back in the town. It was too dark to see much but old habits die hard!
An interesting fact Keith told me is that there are 120 clubs and societies in and around Swanage, an area with a population of around 10,000. Even if many don't book speakers or my subjects would not be suitable for them, that still leaves a fair number. In recent years, I have spoken to:
One of the two men's Probus Clubs
Swanage National Trust
Residents at a McCarthy and Stone complex
Worth Matravers Ladies' Club
A group meeting of three local Women's Institutes
Corfe Castle Probus Club
Durlston Women's Institute on two further occasions
Swanage Ladies' Luncheon club
and, of course, Harman's Cross Village Club
I have some repeat bookings coming up but doesn't this show that these are probably just the tip of the iceberg? I must find out about some of these other clubs and societies and send out a mailshot.
Public Speaking Tip #123: You discover new markets all the time; even relatively small towns can have a surprisingly high number of organisations which book speakers. Do you know about all the clubs and societies on your doorstep which might be interested in hearing you speak?
|
|
||||
|
"This is an unusual blog; the art of public speaking is crucial to politics and yet there's not much devoted to it specifically. This blog does, with posts combining accounts of the writer's recent engagements with some handy hints. Given some of the turgid speeches we're forced to suffer in the Commons, more MPs could do with reading it". politics.co.uk
"Nick spoke at our joint meeting with Kingston 41 Club. It was a brilliant evening. Nick is an engaging speaker, witty, topical and very interesting. He spoke for three quarters of an hour without notes, a most knowledgeable man. I cannot recommend Nick enough and can assure you that engaging him is a worthwhile endeavour. I wish you a great evening like ours". Manny Martins Vice Chairman of Hamble Valley Stick Club and 41 Club Regional Councillor, Region 24.
"Your speech to our 9 Rotary Clubs in North Surrey was much appreciated by me and I have received lots of feedback which was very positive about you. It was so refreshing to hear someone who has the wit to make us laugh throughout the evening without resort to 'blue' material and swearing. I do hope many others will get the chance to experience your talents". Howard Smith, Assistant Governor Area 1 Rotary District 1140.
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
provided by The Free Dictionary 
Visit Sta.rtUp.Biz - The Small Business Social Network |
Tuesday, January 29
Short notice speaking around Swanage a speciality!
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Tue 29 Jan 2008 10:32 PM GMT
Sunday, January 27
Thanks for a Proper Vote of Thanks!
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Sun 27 Jan 2008 01:38 AM GMT
Milford-on-Sea Probus
On Tuesday, I made a return visit to Milford-on-Sea Probus, this time to deliver my talk about Patrick Campbell. I was greeted at the South Lawns Hotel by the club's very friendly Programme Secretary Stan Kirtley and, after coffee and their short business meeting, I spoke to 35 appreciative members and guests for 50 minutes and then took questions. Then Mr Richard Mallory, who had been making notes throughout my presentation, proposed the vote of thanks. And it was a good one. It turned out that Mr Mallory is himself a fan of Patrick Campbell's writing and he had even brought along a copy of a Campbell book, one of several which he has collected over the years. He mentioned what my talk had meant to him personally. He added material from the notes he had made to the content he had prepared beforehand. He provided some extra information about Campbell without in any way trying to 'top' what I had said. What he said was warm and sincere and long enough to have some substance but without being in any danger of overrunning! And I really appreciated the effort he had made because not everyone gets it right. Some people say very little (it can be very difficult to follow a humorous speaker anyway) and I don't so much mind that. But there was one 'vote of thanks' that I will always remember... A few years ago, a Rotary Club in Hampshire invited me to be the guest after dinner speaker at their 20th Anniversary Charter Evening. It was a big 'do': black tie, Toastmaster, Rotary District Governor and an Archdeacon among the 75 attending - and six Rotary speakers on before me including a (rather long) slide show about the club's history. It was after 10pm by the time it was my turn to speak and I agreed to cut my material short as the event was overrunning. Even so, late into a hot summer's evening, after a large dinner and so many other speakers, the audience response was somewhere between lukewarm and just about OK. There was one last speaker to go, a Committee member proposing a vote of thanks to me. From the moment he started, he appeared determined to make full use of any time I had cut from own speech. He launched into a series of shaggy dog stories, totally different from the type of connected humorous anecdotes and observations which I deliver. He also read out a number of funny press clippings but whereas the ones I include are examples of amusing misprints and other unintentional humour, he just regaled the audience with newspaper articles about bizarre events which had been reported as such (there's no unintentional humour when the item is preceded by a punning headline with an exclamation mark!) He seemed to speak for almost as long as I had and yes, he got laughs. But what I most remember about that event is the succession of his fellow Rotarians who came up to me afterwards and profusely apologised for what they saw as the bad manners of one of their own who had tried to upstage the guest speaker. Public Speaking Tip #120: A vote of thanks should be warm and sincere without being sycophantic. You should mention what the speaker's material has meant to you. Make notes while they are speaking so you can combine observations about what they have said with any pre-prepared content. Failing to do this will result in a vote of thanks which appears to lack spontaneity. By all means add a little extra of your own about the speaker's subject but remember: you are there to propose a vote of thanks to them - not to upstage them! After my talk to Milford Probus, I enjoyed a very nice lunch at the hotel and was then given a lift back to Christchurch by Robin Haggett, a prospective new member of the club who had been visiting as a guest (they are looking for a few more to join). On the journey, he told me some fascinating tales connected with speaking in public and performance, firstly about his appearances on the TV quizzes Countdown, Eggheads and Family Fortunes (where his family won £3,000!) and secondly about his comedy award-winning son who is a clown with a small but very successful circus! Wednesday, January 23
Let him - or her - speak now!
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Wed 23 Jan 2008 07:26 PM GMT
Prince Charles speaks - as a hologram!
The Prince of Wales gave a powerful six-minute speech about the environment to 2,500 delegates at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi on Monday. Except that he didn't. His content may certainly have been powerful but it was actually pre-recorded in the drawing room at Clarence House last November and then projected as a hologram. The 3D HRH didn't want to leave a massive carbon footprint by flying with his entourage to the United Arab Emirates so he chose an alternative and very newsworthy method of getting his message across: Fascinating and environmentally friendly - but also perhaps a little worrying. And it's not just the wonders of modern technology such as holograms, videoconferencing and podcasts which me make wonder about the future of speakers actually giving live presentations in the same room as their audiences, there's also the little matter of future generations' attention spans. We live in a sound bite society and the clips you hear on news programmes are perhaps half the duration they were a few years ago - and they were brief enough then! Meanwhile, as a member of the audience at a talk I gave yesterday pointed out, TV producers often seem to believe that viewers cannot stay with a segment of speech on a programme unless it is accompanied by loud and, ironically, distracting music. I am fortunate to speak to mature audiences who are used to listening to longer talks on a regular basis. They would feel short-changed if I only did a few minutes and certainly would not want me to be accompanied by music or other gimmicks! And for my part, I have the excitement of a live performance, often in front of large groups of people I have never met before. And when I leave, I often feel as if I have made that many new friends - even if I sometimes never see them again. About 20 years ago, my partner Val and I started regularly visiting folk clubs. There seemed to me to be something romantic about the performers' lives: travelling, finding the venue, meeting the person who had booked them, setting up, performing for a fair fee to a small but appreciative audience in an intimate setting, chatting to some of the real characters afterwards, selling the odd recording and occasionally reaching a larger audience at a festival or even on radio or TV and earning bigger fees from private bookings. I'm not musical but years later, public speaking gave me something comparable. My venues are usually hotels, community centres and village halls rather than pubs and I sell books not CDs but it's similar in most ways, right down to having the festivals, radio, TV and corporate work in my credits. I love the whole business of public speaking, especially because, as an essentially very shy person, it's still sometimes hard for me to believe that I can do it. I love going past a venue where I have spoken in the past, seeing the lights on and knowing that the club or society still meets and is hearing a speaker. The building next to my flat is a Natural Science Museum which puts on about 80 talks a year (I have, of course, been in there!) and I am always pleased to see their car park full. And it gives me great satisfaction to know that I have trained a number of students who are now regular speakers on the circuit themselves. But everything moves on. People lead busy lives and many organisations which book speakers are forced to close down because they cannot attract new, younger members or find volunteers to serve on their committees. I have seen so many disappear. We should all enjoy the luxury of attentive live audiences while we can. Public Speaking Tip #119: If you are a speaker, then you should, as the saying goes, 'make hay while the sun shines' before new technologies, declining attention spans and changing tastes diminish the number of opportunities to speak. Few experiences can beat the satisfaction of delivering a decent length presentation to an appreciative audience who are just feet away from you. |
Categories
This Month
Month Archive
Login
Favourite Websites
Blogroll
Directories, Feeds and Resources
 "
>BlogCatalog
Blog Directory"
>Blog Dirs
 "
>BlogFlux "
>Bloggapedia "
>Blogged
Bloggernity.com"
>Bloggernity
BloggerNow.com"
>Bloggernow
Blogger Talk Blog Forum"
>Blogger Talk Forum
 "
>Blogging Fusion "
>Blog Hub "
>Blog-Search
Review My Site"
>Blogs for Small Business
 "
>British Blogs
Blog Directory"
>DMEGS
Fire Fox "
>Download Browser
 "
>Feed Boy
Public Speaking Training directory"
>FreeIndex
 "
>Loaded Web "
>Million RSS "
>myblog2u
|
||