PLEASE BE KIND TO THE SPEAKER
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll
be pleased to come speak to your group. I’ll bring my
laptop but do you have a data projector for my PowerPoint?”
“Yes,” she said. “No problem.”
“And there’s a screen at the venue?”
“Yes,” she repeated. “No problem.”
And so I arrived. And found problems.
I was the after-dinner speaker. The room was long and narrow,
with the dining tables set down the centre, almost no space
at either side and no suitable spot for the projector. There
was a ceiling-mounted screen at one end. It was, however,
unusable for it was centred smack-bang over one of the tables
and if we’d pulled it down it would have been grazing
the salt shakers.
Solution: someone found another portable screen and set it
up in a corner and I shoved some tables to one side to create
a clear path between projector and screen. I eventually did
my presentation crammed into a narrow space against a wall.
There was more. Although I’d been assured a sound system
wasn’t necessary, I could see that a group of older
audience members at the back were straining to hear. Which
meant I had to speak louder - and that makes the voice sound
strained.
Every speaker can tell you stories about unhappy room setups.
Smart speakers make it their business to turn up really early
so as to fix any potential problems. But sometimes you’re
stuck with what you’ve got – as happened at a
conference where I was on at breakfast time in a room packed
with diners. They told me to speak from behind the hot buffet
table, peering over a row of those burners with the big silver
hoods. Not at my height, baby. I managed to find a spot where
I could at least be visible, but it was far from ideal.
The solution is, of course, for speakers, event planners and
venue managers to communicate ahead of time to prevent hitches
arising in the first place, but it takes a while for novice
speakers to learn this.
I once turned up to speak at a charity lunch in the huge dining
area at Eden Park’s ASB Stadium. Everything looked great
– an eager-looking audience, a fine sound system and
sea of crisp white tablecloths and gleaming glassware. There
was just one difficulty. The rostrum was set in the centre
of a wall of north-facing huge glass windows. The morning
had been grey but as I began to speak, out came the winter
sun, full and low. Suddenly I was harshly back-lit. People
at front tables had to turn away from the glare. Some shielded
their eyes behind their hands. The whole thing became an exercise
in discomfort.
Since then I’ve learnt that those windows can be curtained,
but at the time I didn’t know and did not arrive at
the venue early enough to ask for the mike and some tables
to be shifted. Lesson learned!
Another speaker-slip I’ve seen was at Auckland’s
Carlton Hotel. When the moveable walls are opened up its ballroom
is a huge cavern. Amplification is essential. Accordingly,
the hotel supplied a mike on the podium. But the world-famous
author was unhappy.
“I hate mikes on lecturns,” she announced. “Is
there a lapel mike?” But there was no technician on
hand; she could use only what had been provided.
Lapel or head mikes are better for confident speakers because
they can roam the stage and have their hands free for expansive
gesturing. They see a lecturn as a rapport-hampering barrier
between them and their audience. (On the other hand, nervous
speakers love a lecturn because it gives them a place for
their notes and something to hang on to, but that’s
another story!)
Anyhow, Ms Famous Author decided her best tactic was to abandon
the podium altogether. She strolled around the tables as she
spoke (or rather, shouted), relying on natural volume to get
her message across.
That was fine when she was coming towards us but hopeless
when she turned and walked away to the vast room’s other
end. The audience could only hear her in bursts.
It doesn’t take too many experiences like that to get
very picky about what works and what doesn’t. In the
interests of happen event planning, here are things that should
be pinned down in advance.
- Sound system. If you’ve got more
than 40 people in the room, yes you need one. Does the speaker
prefer to use a hand-held, lapel, head or lecturn mike?
If she’s a woman, has she remembered she’ll
need a pocket in her clothes or a least a belt upon which
to clip the mike’s battery pack? Men have pockets
and belts aplenty but women’s dresses often have neither.
(The worst nightmare for speakers who rely on aids like
whiz-bang PowerPoint shows is for their computer or projector
to play up. If they’re worth their salt they’ll
be able to carry on anyway, but if disaster does strike
do your best as a meeting planner to give them calm support.)
- Lighting. At many venues lighting is
dim and dreary and speakers finish up standing in a dark
hole between downlighters, or perched right under a light
that casts unflattering shadows. If you brighten the scene
with a spotlight, try to ensure it doesn’t blind the
people at the mike. One speaker I know takes her own halogen
lamp along with her, on a stand, not so much to light her
face as to provide a warm ambience in rooms otherwise lit
only by chilly neon tubes.
- Seating. Chair placement can make or
break a seminar. Straight rows are the worst. Those rigid
lines remind audience members far too much of being bored
to death at school! What’s more, those seated at the
far left and right get a cricked neck watching speaker and/or
screen. Most speakers prefer chairs to be set around them
in curved rows. It’s more friendly. Audience members
are more likely to interact and loosen up when they can
see each other’s faces. And off-set chair placement
tends to make for more space between seats, thus avoiding
elbow rubbing.
- Water. It sounds simple, but please
make sure the water supply is clean and fresh.
It’s not nice to reach for
a drink and see the previous speaker’s lipstick smeared
on the glass. And, according to the experts, it should just
be at room temperature. Iced water can ‘freeze’
the throat and make the voice seize up.
There’s more: don’t forget the power of music
to set good moods. Soften big, boring spaces with enough foliage
to make a difference. And please make sure that the wait staff
don’t barge in with dessert, coffee and clanking spoons
while the final speaker is still in full flight.
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