Off the cuff speaking

One word. Don't.
"Off the cuff" is a bad idea unless you are a natural raconteur, and even then. Winston Churchill is the source of many amusing and witty ripostes. These were not spontaneous, but prepared in advance and filed away for the appropriate occasion!
Always prepare fully for any sort of public speaking. That does not necessarily mean write a speech, but make sure you have researched all the areas which might arise in questions, have your facts at your fingertips, know your subject inside out and also know what level of understanding your audience have so that you neither talk down to them or over their heads. Know how long you intend to speak for and stick to that and don't try to be witty or amusing unless it truly comes naturally.
Too many people think they can speak "off the cuff" and it is all too clear when they can't. There is a reason behind training and practice in public speaking.
What age group/type of audience are you expecting to speak to?

Make your opening words count, to grab their attention. I used to talk to groups of older people about the then-new Pension Service. They knew broadly the kind of things to expect. I opened with "do you remember rationing? If so you are probably a customer of The Pension Service"

Write bullet points on cards which can be managed better than paper notes. If using IT don't make it Death By PowerPoint. Again bullet points and you expand. If mouth dry put 1/4 Polo mint under your tongue

Remember the 10 Ts. Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them. (Summarise)

Good luck

Agree with Alea don't go 'off the cuff' unless you're a natural at it. Always have something prepared and if you can't have notes, practice beforehand.

I used to record what I wanted to say and play it back several times. I also used to use ....are they called mnemonics..Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain, sort of thing...so I'd remember the salient points.

Finally re nerves, if you get them, don't think about yourself, instead think how important your listeners are.

Practise...not practice!

Always remember your audience is almost certainly on your side (unless it's a contentious issue). They aren't waiting for you to fail.

So glad I started this thread.
Thanks very much.
Many of these points I wouldnt have thought of at all.

Alea - age, older people mainly. That doesnt help either as in some things they know more than I do.

What I have to do mainly is to get them up to date on things. Somethings contentious but not often. And true Badenkate, few if any would want me to fail.

never heard of mnemonics. Will google that. Sounds like it would help.

PowerPoint. Hope I dont have to do that!

Under what circumstances are you making hese off-the -cuff responses? Who are your audience? Is it words of welcome to a group, introducing a speaker, giving a vote of thanks or in a debating situation? in each circumstance the approach may be different.

I think there are several good ideas here but it would be good to know what you're speaking about.

I agree - no powerpoint unless it's arresting pictures or you really need it for some sort of diagram or maths.

If you can, do without a written out speech - just use very brief notes with reminders. Or write the speech and then condense it to notes/reminders. No one likes being read to and it loses the all important thing, eye contact and the ability to adapt.

And humour is always good every now and then to leaven a speech - when appropriate, and it almost always is. Keep it short and leave the details to questions. Also, if you're doing a number of talks on the same subject, try to remember the questions you were asked - they may point to things you should include.

The other thing is to arrive early to test any technology (eg mike/laptop connection and make sure you have contact details for the organisers and the address and post code for satnav or bingmaps or old-fashioned maps - and that if driving you can park!

M0nica
welcome, introduce, vote of thanks, but not debating.

alchemilla - definitely couldn't do humour, so wouldn't even try.

Oh that is straightforward enough. Make sure you have the speaker's name right, exactly what the talk is about and if you can refer to just one thing that you really liked in the talk, refer to that in your vote of thanks. Do NOT as a past NADFAS chairman used to do, rehash the talk/lecture for another 10 million mutes. Boring!!

Clearly what should have been "10 minutes " has come up as "10 million mutes!" Sorry, silly iPad. (At least it was not "10 million minutes.")

If anyone could talk for ten minutes off the cuff, you certainly could Alea.

Mustn't do a thread about a thread though.

I must be very dim. I can't see any problem with a thread about a thread. What is the reason for what seems to be an official rule ?

I once went on a course - rhetorics especially for women. We were videoed, which was a real eye-opener. In my case, I was continually trying to do something with my hands, and seemed to be pushing my sleeves up (unnecessarily) all the time. So holding cards or a pointer would keep your hands more still and take away the audience's attention from movements in that area.

Wear a more defined lipstick than you normally would, don't wear distracting or flappy clothing, or anything that doesn't look right or match.

In other words, practise in front of a mirror or a critical friend or relative. This will also help with nerves and even show up difficulties you might not have thought of.

Good luck with it!

I once trained as a group leader for a well-known weight loss organisation. The training stood me in very good stead for both teaching and political speaking. Don't work from a script. We were taught how to use 'cue' cards as reminders of what was to come next. Obviously we had to research the topic thoroughly before we could successfully use this technique. I 'trained' my (ex)H to use it when he had to give a presentation as part of a job interview and he got the job! Nowadays Powerpoint makes this much easier. When I was a local councillor, I had to make impromptu responses to political opponents and the only way to succeed was to be very well briefed - know the subject inside-out.

Know your topic, read your audience and, if you can, make 'em laugh!
It will become easier over time. They'll want you to do well and you'll get to enjoy it -and that transmits! Go for it.

Thanks once again.

Perhaps I had assumed that someone was either a natural or they weren't. It hadn't really occured to me that people may have practiced, and got a lot better with it over time.

In my list of what I have to do more of in the future, I should have put information giving.

hmm,I am going to have to put time into this whole subject, big time.

I think cue cards would help. I can do some of it on my own and use cue cards as reminders. I dont think that would come across too bad.

On two occasions, I have made what I thought were really good topical jokes and they fell completely flat. I think it was my throwaway delivery that wasted my 'creative' efforts!

obieone Welcoming people is straight forward. Say how pleased you are to see them, make some general comments about how many people are there, how nice to see new people/ all our regular members, possible comment on weather, little non-contentious matters like that, then morph into the introduction (make sure you speak to the speaker in advance to get a few biographical details etc) state their name, subject they will speak on, their expertise, possibly info about how they acquired it or achievement in this field, then sit down. Opening remarks and intro should be as short as possible. The audience has come to hear the speaker not you.

For the vote of thanks, listen to the talk, make few notes on anything particularly interesting or surprising the speaker said that impressed you. Then thank the speaker for coming, refer to aspects of the talk, ask the audience to show their appreciation in the usual way and as they applaud, sit down and give a sigh of relief, job done.

The people that know how to do it, where or who did you learn it from please?

A good way to learn is to observe how more experienced speakers perform. If you are proposing a vote of thanks, do a bit of homework on the speaker beforehand as well as taking a few notes on the talk he/she has given. It can be as brief as you like as long as you say the right things!

Is this for a WI meeting obione?