UNITE, Christchurch
The former National Federation of Royal Mail and BT Pensioners is now known as UNITE and on 11 August, I made a return visit to their Christchurch branch. Once again, I was speaking at a holiday park, this time Hoburne Naish between Highcliffe and New Milton.
My eczema had cleared up enough for me to able to wear normal shoes for talks again but I had a very long walk from Somerford to the venue due to some alterations to the bus services! Nevertheless, I arrived just in time.
The Clubhouse was (as usual) sweltering and because of its size and layout, even an audience of about 60 there is always rather spread out. In the end, I condensed my Groucho Marx talk into about 10 minutes less than usual and I was worried that they might feel short-changed but from the number of very positive comments afterwards, it seems that I judged it just about right on that very hot morning.
Public Speaking Tip #239: As speakers, we like to give value for money but - just occasionally - the best option for everybody may be to cut the presentation a little short, for example, when speaking in a very warm venue on a muggy summer morning!
