Speech Advice - Be Heard

Last week I had the misfortune of attending a "lecture" on the Eichmann Trial, in Palm Desert.  

I don't remember who put it on and I'm not going to mention the speakers by name because I don't want to embarrass them.  At least two were sweet older gentlemen and a third was an academic from Loyola Marymount (who seriously needs speaker training).

I will say, however, that I walked out of the lecture mid-way, after the third speaker.  Can't remember ever doing that.

Now why would I do that?  Because the speakers weren't speaking, they were ranting.  And even worse, they were ranting to the wrong audience.  The audience of probably 100+ attendees was made up of 50 - 80 year old Jews.  This is an audience who already knows the damage of the holocaust and the evilness of those who perpetrated it.  Some of them were probably survivors and lots of them have family who didn't survive.

This was supposed to be a lecture and discussion about the Eichmann Trial itself. 

Instead what we got was as follows (at least until I walked out):

They started the program without telling us what was going to occur and instead just played video clips from you tube. OK, I'll play along for a minute or two, but unfortunately they didn't bother to download any videos to their computer, nor did they bother to download the links directly to their desktop.

So we got to watch them go into their email for video clip link after video clip link.  Yep, we got to see their email list, and each email that they went into to get the clip. Oh, and there was the nifty "so and so is now online" Skype pop up that entertained us every few minutes as well.

Unfortunately they tortured us with this silliness for about 15 minutes, the last 8 - 10 of which was just streaming download pauses and 10 seconds of video then another streaming download pause.  

The only thing more irritating than sitting at a speech/lecture and watching a video try to download is watching Oscar speeches.

Bad enough.... but then...

Speaker #1/MC: basically just told a story of his father's escape from Germany.  I'm guessing more than half the audience had heard similar stories from their own parents while growing up.  What was the point? 

Speaker #2: basically paced back and forth telling us how evil Eichmann was and how Hannah Arendt's "the Banality of Evil" was completely baseless.  OK... tell this audience something they don't know already.  And stop pacing, it's distracting.

Speaker #3: this lovely older gentleman was the worst, simply because all he did was rant about what a horrible person FDR was and how he was totally complicit in the Holocaust.  Still not sure what he was trying to do either. 

I walked out after Speaker #3.

What are the lessons?

• Organize your conferences even if you are an all-volunteer force. Your audience should be treated with respect and that means respecting our time. Even retired people get annoyed when their time is wasted.
• Prepare your audio and video in advance.  Either:
  • download the video onto your hard drive (preferable), or
  • put the direct link to the video on your desktop so we don't have to see all of your emails and wait for you to find the right link
• When preparing your audio and video clips in advance, you also need to
  • Make sure the facility has adequate streaming capability, or go wired, and still make sure there is adequate streaming capability.  
  • If there isn't, you have to download to your hard drive or find another source.  
  • Make sure you remember to kill all programs on your computer and turn off all alerts, so we don't sit there watching your email, Skype and IM alerts.
• Meet your audience's needs - not your own.  I've said this a million times before. If you make this mistake, you can't recover.  
• Prepare an actual presentation, with an outline and all, or at least a few talking points.'
  • Don't rant. We don't care about your rants.  Rants turn an audience off and make them uncomfortable.
  • Don't rant. Speak to us, be thoughtful, organized, easy to follow.  Have a point.  Have three main points if you want people to follow you.
  • Don't rant. What is the point of your presentation? Decide in advance and create one - don't wing it or you may end up ranting.

Moral of the Story:  Passion is good.  Ranting is bad.  

For a quickie analysis I did of President Obama's debt speech yesterday (given September 19, 2011), see Victoria Pynchon's blog post: "Yes You Can! Speak Better than Obama."

Victoria is one of the authors of the Forbes blog She Negotiates.  Check out Victoria and Lisa Gate's website, She Negotiates, for great negotiation skills seminars and training.  

Hats off to the genius behind this graphic and hilarious illustration of the backlash surrounding Power Point - Doug Zongkers.  

If you have any doubt that there is a backlash, the audience's reaction to this presentation should dispel that doubt.  And this was presented at the AAAS humor session on February 16, 2007!

Another way to look at this presentation is that is a great example of how audiences view and receive - i.e. hear - the most common type of speech/Power Point presentations.

Hats off to Jennifer Ellis (via Ashton Treadway and Barb Cahill) for posting it on Facebook as well!

Last night was the 83^rd Academy Awards.  Thank god for DVRs.  I get to see who wins, check out the fabulous gowns, listen to the funny hosts (not so funny last night) and… I can fast forward through the obligatory awful thank you litany in 99% of the acceptance “speeches.”  Woo Hoo!

So a few comments about the speeches.  First, a disclaimer – I didn’t listen to every speech. If the speaker started with a long list of thank you’s (very bad way to start) I promptly fast forwarded past it.  That said, here goes.

No stand out speeches last night.  Not one.  Totally disappointing.  Usually there are at least one or two folks who manage to say something poignant (more than “oh my god”) or meaningful.

Not last night. 

The hosts were even boring, though Annie Hatthaway was adorable and effervescent.  She couldn’t help it if the writing sucked.  James franco was boring and stiff.  Who knows, maybe they asked him to play it that way as a counter to Annie’s animated personality.  I want Billy Crystal and Steve Martin back. 

But back to the “speeches. “

The highlight of the evening as far as speeches goes, came from David Seidler, who won Best Original Screen Play for The King’s Speech.  And that's not saying much about the quality of speeches.

This was his first nomination and award.  In his 70’s, Mr. Seidler started off with a great quip:

"my dad always said I would be a late bloomer"

drawing a round of laughs. 

He went on to say, “I believe I am the oldest person to win this particular award. I hope that record is broken quickly and often” a not so subtle and important reminder about the tendency of Hollywood to hire and reward the younger crowd more often than not, despite the phenomenal talent and experience of people over the age of 35. 

Mr. Seidler then devolved into the usual thank you litany after that, unfortunately, but it was mercifully short.  He then ended with “I accept on behalf of all the stutterers of the world.. . we have a voice, we have been heard, thank you the academy.”

So, he started off pretty good.  But the problem with his ending is twofold: 1) who knew Mr. Seidler was a childhood stutterer? and, 2) was The King’s Speech really about giving “a voice” to stutterers world-wide?  

If it was, I think I missed that message in the movie.  I thought it was more about the relationship between the King and his instructor, and about the internal suffering the main character endured and about his overcoming the huge obstacle of stuttering, given his need to speak publicly so much.  To me it was a fantastic movie about overcoming the overwhelming barrier of stuttering, but it didn’t feel like it was about “giving voice” to stutterers.

What this means from an acceptance speech point of view is that you need to think ahead about what type of message you want to convey when you accept your award – it matters.  And thinking about whether your audience will hear that message matters as well. 

A better ending would have been to say “I accept on behalf of all the stutterers of the world.. . who now know they can overcome it, just like I did, and just like King George did.”

Next post will include some tips on how to handle acceptance speeches, even at the Academy Awards.