My apologies for the lack of blogging recently; I have been pretty busy with talks and speechwriting over the past few weeks so I now have quite a few posts to add, each, as always, containing at least one useful presentation skills tip...

New Forest Veterans of Normandy

On 28 March, I spoke on My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer to the Normandy Veterans Association New Forest Branch in Ringwood.

There were around 60 there for this morning meeting, including a number of women who, I assumed, were wives, widows or daughters of veterans. Many members travel considerable distances to attend, for example, Mr Ball, their Speaker Secretary, comes in all the way from Yeovil.

They were a very good audience and I received a number of compliments afterwards.

I mentioned last year that I had collected all the DVDs of the World at War TV series given away with the Daily Mail. The night before this talk, I made a point of once again watching the programme devoted to the Normandy Landings, not because I was going to mention anything about them in my talk, but simply to remind me of the incredible shared experience of this remarkable audience.

Public Speaking Tip #187: Doing some background research about your audience - even if none of it will be used for tailored content - helps to give a speaker a fuller appreciation of them.