I Have to Give a Speech.. Help!

Start with ‘good morning/afternoon/evening, my name is …….’

Follow with a short outline of the talk. ‘And I would like to talk to you about…’

Give a brief overview in three bullet points:

Groups of three are always good – Churchill did this all the time (Never, in the field of human conflict, was so much (1) owed by so many (2) to so few (3). Or This may not be the end(1). This is not even the beginning of the end(2). But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning(3) ). It makes things easy to remember and it helps to give structure.

Above all, prepare well and rehearse better. This will give you the chance to make the content of the speech second nature and you can concentrate on delivery and your audience.

Use notes or cue-cards – not a written speech. Use each bullet as a brief subject area you can talk about spontaneously. You could try memorising your introduction, and selected sections that you want to be particularly powerful.

Good luck!

I do briefs and presentations now and again. If the timing is important, I draft enough material for about a minute longer than the permitted maximum. Then, as mentioned earlier, with nerves making me talk a bit quicker I should be right in the middle of my allotted time. Also, I have a script handy in case I get stuck, typed in a large font with spaces between the lines so you can find your place easily.

It’s whatever works for you, you just have to find it!

Spoilsports, IMO a little wit in the right places helps people remember the facts. The best instructor I had in the army had us rolling on the floor with laughter but what he taught stuck all the better for it. Good luck and hope all goes well.

Heckling from the audience is also frowned on…. two weeks ago I had the misfortune to sit thru the most boring speech concerning how 2 girls were acting the doofus in a car & ended up being followed from San Diego to LA by some guy in a Ford Focus. They droned on about how they were scared, too bloody stupid to call the cops, freaking out, didn’t klnow what to do.. etc etc etc…

The speech ended, the deafening silence that followed broken by a voice from the back of the room that said “I sold that car”.

I’ve been told not to do that again…no matter how dire the speech is…Apparently some people didn’t think it was very funny at all:D 😀 😀

Part of my day job is speech writing – and to some extent speech giving.

Top tip.

Write 150 words for each minute you want the speech to last.

Do a read-through, out loud, just as you plan to on the day.

If you finish early your nervousness led you to gabble through it, the audience will know.

If you finish late, then they won’t notice, they’ll all be asleep.

We all tend to speak faster, to try and get it out of the way.

Don’t.

Moggy

Barnes Wallis Collection

I don’t know where you live, but if you are anywhere near Elvington, you could have a look at the Barnes Wallis Collection housed there. Although fairly small, it contains all sorts of items relating to BW.

See http://www.yorkshireairmuseum.co.uk/collections/wallis/index.asp for further details.

I’ve been told “no comedy”.. so that puts paid to the witty banter:(

Spoilsports, IMO a little wit in the right places helps people remember the facts. The best instructor I had in the army had us rolling on the floor with laughter but what he taught stuck all the better for it. Good luck and hope all goes well.

I’ve got plenty of stuff now & have 2 weeks to come up with the speech, have to have an outline by next Tuesday so it looks like I’m set. Thanks chaps 🙂

Woew, thats pile of info/links. I’ve also been told to stay away from wiki for some reason, can’t use it as a source (or at least not a credited one.. ).

I’ve been told “no comedy”.. so that puts paid to the witty banter:(

Barnes will give you more material I would have thought.

Aim for six minutes.
1/2 minute in (Born/lived/places of work), 1/2 minute exit (Died ion/buried at/Statement of his mark in World history etc.)
This leaves 5 mins on the subject, that’s 5 x 1 minute chunks of topics about Mr Wallis.
He worked on R100 and R101 (Expain what)
Then built very strong airframes for the Welly (Explain why it was revolutionary)
Then moved onto a series of pioneering bombs, most famously the bouncer.
He worked on lots of other ideas which were rubbished/passed on to other Governments. (Swing Wings/Cargo Submarines etc).

And he did NOT have anything to do with the Wallis AutoGyro….I’ve heard some people claim so! That was Ken Horatio Wallis. (Wing Cdr)

Sorted. Pan it out with some anecdotes or witty banter.