Hola, All! Tomorrow I am giving a speech at my Anecdotally Speaking Toastmasters meeting on "One way speakers can connect with their audience". I got the inspiration for the speech from when I attended a conference in Chicago last summer. (All the speakers were authors). On Friday night the speaker was really good, because I heard people say how much they liked her. She didn't stand in one spot, but walked among the audience. I don't think she was exactly boring; all I know is that the longer she spoke, the sleepier I got. I did everything to stay awake........shifted in my seat, took deep breaths, moved my legs alot. I even tried rotating my head............until my chin hit my chest and woke me up! I was so glad when her speech was over! This speaker did not connect with me. The next day after lunch I had signed up to hear Speaker B. I had read two of his books. They were the kind that you could hardly put down because they were so interesting! I was real excited to hear what he had to say. When I walked into the back of the room, I looked for a place to sit near the front. Since there weren't any available, I sat near the middle of the room. This turned out to be a blessing for me because the whole time he talked, his voice was monotone. It neither went up or down but stayed the same. Holy Cow, did he not realize that we had just eaten lunch?? All the blood was headed to our stomachs to digest our food, and not much was headed to our heads! I thought to myself, "Oh, no, another boring hour!" But, then, his presentation required him to TURN OUT THE LIGHTS!! Oh my lord, off to dreamland I went. (Actually that was nice since I hadn't slept well the night before and it gave me some time to get refreshed.) The next morning was a different story as the main speaker walked across the stage in her sassy purple party dress, acting like she owned the place. I liked her immediately! She told the audience to get off their booties because we were going to have some fun! This woman knew how to connect with her audience. I immediately recognized that I liked her style, and am using it in my speech tomorrow. My club doesn't know it yet but I'm going to get them off their booties, and we are going to do some jiving to the song "Shake Your Booty!" I know that it's going to be alot of fun!
Since most of you know that I want to be a public speaker and speak in front of thousands,
I want to know what kind of speaker do you connect with? What kind of qualities must the speaker have to hold your interest? What keeps you awake during a speech or presentation? I welcome any suggestions because they will just make me a better speaker.
Have FUN!
Dawnie
No comments:
Post a Comment