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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