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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.

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Public Speaking? I was driven to it!

by Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking) on Wed 23 Jan 2008 06:03 AM GMT

Durlston WI

I had a great deal to do last Monday before I set off to give an afternoon talk in Swanage: I proof-read the 250 items of original observational humour that I was sending to a radio presenter and then I wrote my fortnightly 600-word article for the Radio Magazine. I then made notes from the online versions of most of that day's papers so that on the 65-minute bus ride over to the Purbecks I could use these as inspiration to write a minimum of half a dozen topical gags and observations for another radio presenter and a similar number for a further comedy client! I thought I was going to miss the the Wilts and Dorset service150 thanks to a connecting bus which was being driven so slowly that it would have been faster if we'd all got out and pushed but I did manage to catch it and by the time I arrived at Swanage, the material had all been written and emailed from my Blackberry in time for the respective deadlines so I made my way to the Mowlem Theatre for the WI.

Public Speaking Tip #115: If you own a car, using public transport to get to a speaking engagement may sound unthinkable (and it is certainly true that some venues are not accessible by bus, coach or train anyway) but it does have the advantage that you can use the travelling time for work - perhaps even some last minute revision or mental rehearsal of your presentation material!

People are frequently astounded that I travel to speaking engagements all over England by public transport. I have even had the odd club book me but then cancel when they have discovered this - despite there being very regular buses virtually to and from the door of their venue (thank you very much, a certain ladies' church group near Christchurch! If I can get to talks in Driffield, Grimsby, the West Midlands and Herefordshire then why would Burton have been a problem?)

Many car owners seem to be fascinated or even utterly perplexed by my means of getting around. The first time I ever spoke at a local Probus Club lunch, back in 1996, I was asked by their President to tell him something about myself for the introduction. It was at a time when I had become really busy so I told him that as well as having written for two BBC radio topical comedy series for many years, I was now writing humour for DJs on a daily basis and supplying scripts for cabaret acts and speakers. I added that a few months earlier I had performed a stand-up spot on a Radio 2 programme and had been interviewed afterwards by George Melly and that the previous year I had been on TV in a revival of What's My Line?

'And how did you get here today?', he asked.
'I was given a lift by one of your members, Mr So-and-so', I replied.

This was my introduction:

'Well, gentlemen, our speaker this afternoon is Nick Thomas. Now, I've been talking to Nick and he's a very interesting chap because he tells me he doesn't drive!'

Public Speaking Tip #116: Introductions may not always turn out the way you were expecting. Don't let this throw you!

The members of Durlston WI had heard me twice before and this time the subject was 'I Must Write That Down!: A Commonplace Book'. Regular readers of this blog may remember that this was the new talk I delivered to Southbourne Literary Society back in November. I was now presenting it to a different type of audience and although the subject itself is a literary one, I replaced some of the readings with personal anecdotes, some of them drawn from my other talks but new to this group. I must say this revised version fitted the allotted time perfectly - I was recording it and the 45 minute tape finished exactly as I was delivering the final quotation! I have already taken further bookings for this talk so it was pleasing to see that it appears to work for other audiences besides literary groups.

Public Speaking Tip #117: If you have specific presentations which you deliver on a regular basis to different audiences, aim to have more tried and tested material than you need to fill the time slot. This way, you can 'pick 'n' mix' the content so that it is more tailored to a particular group.

It also means that you could, perhaps as an emergency measure during a presentation which is not going as well as you had hoped, replace part of your planned material with something which might just work better with that audience.

Durlston WI put the speaker on just after the 2.30pm start of their meeting, unlike most Women's Institutes who have their business meetings and sometimes a tea-break before the talk. This is fine just as long as neither you or your audience members are running late!

Back in the late 90s, I spoke to another Purbeck area WI two years in succession. They started both these meetings at the very early time of 2pm and put me on straight away. Furthermore, the part of the room I was asked to speak from was right next to the door. On both occasions, a succession of latecomers arrived at regular intervals throughout my talk and had to walk past me to get in the hall! I would have no objection to speaking there again but can you guess what changes I might ask for if they book me a third time?

But there were no such problems with the 25 ladies at Durlston and after the tea and biscuits I left and they got on with their business meeting.

I have been trying to think when I last had a sequence like the first five talks of this year - all of them for ladies' groups for identical fees (plus travel where they were a bit further afield). It's funny how the bookings fall sometimes.

One thing I have to mention about my last half dozen talks is that merchandising has been virtually non-existent. This has been due to a combination of my having visited some organisations before so members have bought my booklet already, certain places having a 'no selling rule' and perhaps people watching their spending during the post-Christmas period.

I certainly intend to write other books to sell besides 'Nick R's in a Twist!' but I am still considering what form the next one will take. Humorous anecdotes about my writing experiences as opposed to speaking? Will that have the same appeal? It all needs to be carefully planned.

Public Speaking Tip #118: If you earn extra income through merchandising at speaking engagements, this will drop during repeat bookings unless you have a new item to offer/the organisation you are speaking to has a number of different members attending.

No visit to Swanage is ever complete for me without a walk up to look out across the bay from Peveril Point. One of the disadvantages in my not having a car is that I have to lug all my props, etc. around with me after a talk which means that I can never combine a speaking engagement with an unencumbered walk around a scenic area so I carried my heavy bags up the hill and got caught in an incredibly heavy rainstorm on the way down but never mind; overall it had been a good day.

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