Should you use a teleprompter?  If so, what are the traps for the unwary?  I had a question from an old friend and reader of the blog about the uses and abuses of teleprompters.  So here’s the deal on them. 

1.  Teleprompters make weak presenters better – bringing them up to average.  A teleprompter provides you with two little transparent screens, one left, one right, and an operator scrolling the text on the screens at your speaking pace.  Thus the machine forces you to keep your head out of your notes, and encourages you to move your head left and right as you follow the scrolling text. 

2.  You’re still reading text, though, and that’s not the best way to give a speech.  Very few people can read a text with the same passion and conversational tone they can muster while talking – say, from notes.  Politicians like President Obama have put in hundreds of hours on teleprompters, and they still practice importance speeches in order to sound alive.  Most people fall into a dreadful sing-song when they’re reading.  So, unless you’re a terrible speaker, or one who can’t speak from notes, you’re better off not using the teleprompter. 

3.  If you need to be very precise, say, for legal reasons, in what you say, the teleprompter is a good option.  If reading a text is important to you for some reason beyond the performance issues, a teleprompter can keep you specific and focused.   

4.  To look good using a teleprompter, mix it up a little.  The other danger with a teleprompter is that you’ll create inadvertent comedy by moving your head too robotically left and right to follow the scrolling text.  Again, check out a practiced politician.  President Reagan was particularly good at let his head movements vary, lagging the movement of his eyes, so that he appeared to be making natural eye contact with his audience. 

5.  The best option may be having notes on the teleprompter, not a full text.  I’ve worked often with executives who want the security of a teleprompter or a security monitor but didn’t want to read a text.  What we’ve done is put notes up on the teleprompter (or a security monitor).  That can work quite well – the best of both worlds – with this important caveat:  you must rehearse with the teleprompter operator.  The reason for this is that you need to get comfortable with each other about how literally you’re going to follow the notes, and where you’re going to wax eloquently for whole minutes, say, before returning to the notes.  Teleprompter operators are very good at following speakers in my experience, but I have had a few hilarious exceptions.  Let’s just say that rehearsal is key. 

6.  The bottom line?  Let the technology support you.  In today’s conferences and meetings, you should be able to get just about any kind of technological support you need.  Use the technology that supports you best and makes you look good.  Experiment with teleprompters, security monitors, video, Power Point – the works – but never forget that the reason people give speeches is to make a human connection with an audience in person.  The technology should support that, never detract from it.