Off the cuff speaking

All helpful posts.

I can see now that off the cuff speaking is a no-no when I dont have to.

A young minister once asked his superior what he should preach about. 'Preach about God and about 20 minutes.'

Obieone I used to be a professional speaker, hope the following tips help.

Never speak off the cuff
Ask how long you have to speak and keep to it, keep a watch by you.
Make notes beforehand - I used a mind map
Have a beginning, middle and strong end.
Never apologise
Never say 'I hope I haven't bored you'
Practise out loud at home
Don't rush
Finally keep your talk shorter than anyone dared hope

Ha-ha Crun throwing money at the audience is a novel idea ( but may just work!)

The first time I had to speak in front of others I decided to hide my nerves by keeping my hands in my pockets. Fine until I got to the bottom of the first page of my notes and reached to turn them over, all the small change in my pocket went flying across the floor because it had got stuck to the sweat on my hand.

I remember being told that the art of public speaking can be summarised in six words: Stand up, speak up, shut up. It is a very good rule.

If in doubt, keep it short and sweet.The amount of long rambling boring public speeches I have sat through taught me that.

I am no good at snappy one liners either. I can always think of them afterwards!!

!


I wish I could think of a witty reply, but can't

When I was working I used to do a lot of software training where I would be stood in front of a group that could comprise of staff from the most junior level up to and including government ministers. The best advice I was ever given was

ABC......XYZ

Always
Be
Cheerful
.
.
.
eXamine
Your
Zip.

On every course I would also write this on the whiteboard and wait for someone to ask what it stood for. Always made for a good icebreaker!

If no one else does it, you will have to say a few words about things like health and safety. I often start by saying there is no fire drill planned for today, but if the alarm goes off you exit through that door and assemble on the car park. Or in other words 'just follow me'

Despite or perhaps in answer to Jingl's backhanded compliment, I have been involved in debating (school debating society) and public speaking since my teens, whether as the chairman or speaker.
It has stood me in good stead for school assemblies, women's groups I have belonged to, in fact any large or small gathering.
If you are ever really nervous, my mum used to tell me to think of the audience all sitting naked in front of you - it should make you smile and help you get over your nerves (that is, if you don't collapse in hysterics instead)

First stood on my feet and talked to a group at school when the English teacher selected me as a potential debater, probably because I was always in trouble for arguing with teachers. I totally froze and sat down after waffling for 30 seconds. My sister assured me that I had made a total mess of it.

Since then it has simply been a matter of opportunity and practice. It can still be pretty nerve wracking. The worst was finding myself the only woman at a conference with 90+ male delegates and being selected to give the vote of thanks on a technical subject I did not really understand. The consolation was watching all the men queuing for the loo while I had the ladies to myself.

rosesarered, no.

Obieone I learned by doing it. No easy way or specific teaching how to do it. I like PowerPoint and like putting together presentations but don't always use it.

M0nica has summarised it perfectly.

Make sure any notes or cue cards are in large, bold type, glance at them if you need to but try to look at the audience and look at the speaker when you are introducing or thanking him or her.

Is this for a WI meeting obione?

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!

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.