I came across a public speaking tip by Heidi Miller over at Talk It Up! blog. It works well as a sort of follow on from my last blog post. Heidi talks about seminar presentations. Here’s a quick extract from that article:
Public Speaking Tip #6
“Here’s the thing. For most seminar presentations at conference, you have an hour. You are not going to be able to change our lives in an hour. You are not going to be able to give us 10 things we are going to be able to absorb and implement in an hour. You are not going to be able to change our entire way of thinking about something in an hour…”
She’s absoutely right of course. Of the speakers I’ve seen who don’t have any specific training other than being in a managerial position, most do exactly this.
They try to cram in a lot of infomation, without sparing a thought for us listeners who might not even know where to begin to implement any suggestions. Or even to understand the exact take away value from what they are telling us.
I certainly learnt something from Heidi’s article.
To read the full article click here.
2 comments
Thank you for writing this thought-provoking post! I will certainly check out Heidi’s article too!
I want to let you know about someone I have had the pleasure of hearing several times and I’m going to add a quote to my comment.
I have been to many Seminars (probably why my blog is doing so well!) and I have heard a lot of people and I think you are right – about 99% of the time (maybe a little more than 99%, this isn’t a scientific comment ;).
I HAVE heard from some speaker who DO convey something of use to the listener, IMHO, and certainly John Childers falls into that category.
Sometimes it’s mindset you really need and there are people out there for that too. John seems to give super and pratical information – and he just keeps going, and going and… you get the idea.
Here’s that quote I promised:
“A great yogi is anyone who has achieved the permanent state of enlightened bliss. A guru is a great yogi who can actually pass that state on to others. The word guru is composed of two sanskrit syllables. The first means ‘Darkness,’ the second means ‘Light.’ Out of the Darkness and into the Light. What passes from the master into the disciple is something called mantravirya: ‘The potency of the enlightened conciousness.’ You come to your guru, then, not only to receive lessons, as from any teacher, but to actually recieve the guru’s state of grace.”
-Elizabeth Gilbert from “Eat, Pray, Love”
It seems to me that John Childers may be a guru.
Maybe that is what you are looking for!
Pam Hoffman
http://seminarlist.blogspot.com
Author
Thank you Pam, for the comment and the interesting quote about the Yogi that came from Elizabeth Gilbert’s book.
I agree with you Pam. There are people who give “super and pratical information”. I didn’t mean it to sound like a broad generalisation. It’s just that in some of the temporary jobs I’ve had in the past, this was the experience I had.
Speakers not being able to give valuable content or being able to structure their ideas.
Seeing speakers like that reminds me of a quote from Groucho Marx: “before I start speaking, I have something to say”.