Nick Morgan, Public Words

How did the speech go?

I gave the speech this morning in a conference room holding about 60 people in that banquet-round-table style beloved of conference organizers.  The round tables make it hard to work the audience properly, but everyone loves a challenge, right?  So I stood in the middle of the long side and that way was able to see and be seen reasonably well by most people.  The arrangement made for a lot of weaving in and out of tables, but there you are. 

Lesson:  always ask up front about the room layout and negotiate a good one if you can. 

The event ran late, and my own start time was delayed 25 minutes.  I had to give a little time back on the fly, which is always annoying and challenging.  In the end, we compromised and they let me run a little long.  The overall event ended on time, something I believe to be essential.  No one ever wanted a meeting to run longer than scheduled, and no one ever complained when one ended early. 

Lesson:  be clear about your time requirements and their time constraints. 

How did it go?  I had fun, especially because I went to the audience from the very start, interacting with them, giving out prizes for participation, running a contest, and generally carrying on.  I like to make audiences 'work' and they like it too.  It beats passivity and boredom. 

Lesson:  the more audience interaction the better. 

In the end, I had the audience divided up, telling stories (the speech was about authentic storytelling) and competing for the best story.  It was a nice group, and they wanted to declare everyone a winner, so we did, with one participant a little more of a winner than everyone else. 

Lesson:  everyone's a winner if everyone participates. 

Overall, it went fine.  I could have done with more rehearsal.  I've been spoiled by giving the same speech, or similar speeches, many times.  I've forgotten how hard it is to give a speech for the first time. 

Lesson:  rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. 

I'm Giving a Speech Tomorrow

I'm in the unusual position of having to take my own advice -- I'm giving a new speech tomorrow.  I usually talk on individual communications, but this time the topic is communicating brands.  That's a subject I've worked on with companies over the years, but I don't usually lecture on the subject.

I rehearsed on Friday, and it did not go very well.  I realized that I need to take my own advice, and quickly.  So here are my three most essential rules for fixing a speech and getting it ready to go, when you're facing a deadline.

First, focus on one message and one message only.  I realized during rehearsal that I was trying to do too many things.  I need to whittle the speech down to one clear message:  Why each employee must become a passionate storyteller on behalf of the company brand in today's marketplace.  I'm going back to the draft to eliminate everything that doesn't support that one point.  Focus is essential for successful public speaking. 

Second, find a good hook that frames the message of the speech so that your audience is intrigued and brought into the discussion.  I've been trying out several openings, one a story, one a question, and a few others.  I've got to pick the one that best answers the question, why are we here?, for the audience. 

Third, deliver the speech in the problem-solution format.  The rehearsal made clear that I was trying to be too clever with my structure.  The only one that makes sense, when you're trying to persuade the audience of something, is problem-solution.  That's because our minds are structured to solve problems, and when we hear one presented to us, we automatically begin to think about how to solve it.  The structure follows our natural thinking processes, so we're happy. 

So I've got some work to do, to repair the speech, simplify it, and focus it on the audience.  Then, I'll be ready for another rehearsal.  The deadline approaches!

How do you plan an event or a conference?

Let's begin by admitting that running an event or a conference is tough sledding.  Few notice when it goes well; everyone complains when something goes wrong.  Lots of downside risk and not much upside potential, as a wise conference planner once told me. 

That said, there are ways to get the most out of the planning -- and the conference itself. 

First, a theme is not an excuse for a cartoon or a superhero.  Too many conference-planning teams begin by setting a theme -- and then forgetting it.  So they'll pick 'the superhero', say, and use that to inspire the designers, and perhaps hire a few actors to wear painfully hot costumes at one of the dinners, and that's about it.  The theme is forgotten when the actual programming is under consideration.  That's just a matter of hiring a few big names, booking your CEO, and getting a few stalwarts from Marketing to help with the rest, right?

Wrong.  You should pick the one big idea you want to get across to your audience, and then everything at the conference should support that idea.  A conference should tell a coherent story, from the opening gun to the last speaker's "in conclusion...."  Anything less is not doing your job.  Stories have beginnings, middles, and ends, and your conference should too.  That helps the audience retain more than a smattering of the incredibly expensive event you're going to put on. 

Second, the audience is more than just a sea of faces.  How can you get the audience involved?  Can they help structure the event, drive the programming, lead a discussion session, even speak at a breakout session?  Audience participation should be more than just occasional raising of hands.  The best events are audience-driven, not merely entertainment pushed at the masses.  Mix it up!   

Third, give your MC a real job to do.  Hire an MC (either one of your own or a professional) who can do more than indicate the exits and the bathrooms.  An MC is the audience's representative.  It's her job to take up the issues that have been raised, test them, integrate them when possible, and help the audience with takeaways.  A lot of information comes at an audience during the course of a conference.  The MC can help to make sure that the audience gets as much as possible out of the time invested. 

When we're hired to help design and plan conferences, we often annoy traditional planners who think in tidy concepts of venue, speakers, dinners, and so on.  We see an evnt as an (expensive) opportunity to bring a group of people together in an unusual setting in order to jolt them with some new ideas and new experiences.  Anything less is just filling in the blanks.