Which mistakes ruin the impact of your event and how to avoid them Part 3: The effect of the speaker
Maria Xanthopoulou
Conference Interpreter & Certified Translator- I help businesses and professionals efficiently connect and communicate with clients overseas through translation and interpreting services in EN/DE/FR/TR from/into Greek
If you are a professional event manager you have surely caught yourself wondering how to increase human interaction among the attendees several times. This is fair enough, since audience engagement is a decisive factor that can tell you whether your event will be impactful or not.
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Now, have you ever examined how the speaker can influence the audience?
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It is true that some speakers don’t have energy and people are tired sitting listening them for 30 minutes. The way a speaker delivers their presentation is one of those critical factors that can boost or ruin the engagement of your audience.
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Through my work as a conference interpreter I have been observing many different kinds of speakers and I can tell you which are the most common mistakes that negatively affect your audience.
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Interested to find out? Then keep reading.
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Long presentations
“A good speech should be like a woman's skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest.”?
―?Winston S. Churchill
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Long presentations are nowadays outdated. When you prepare a speech, bear in mind that people can’t usually follow a 45-min long monologue. Remember, the point of the event is to create interaction. It’s better to reduce your presentation to 20-25 minutes and then have a Q&A session. If your event is held online, you can also create breakout rooms and let people discuss to solve a problem instead of talking on the stage the whole time.
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Never write down your speech in whole
Written speech uses always longer and more complicated syntax. The attendees of an event though are not going to read your presentation from some document. They are going to listen to you.
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When we read a text our brain has more time to decode and understand the meaning. However, in oral speech we only have a few seconds to understand the message. How are we supposed to catch the central ideas that quickly if your syntax is rather made for reading? You may also want to keep in mind that when you read a text from a paper, your rhythm tends to be a lot quicker that when you normally discuss with someone. This is one more factor that makes it difficult for the audience to mentally process your message.
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Instead of writing down your speech and then reading it from a paper, try to only use some notes with key phrases that will help your memory and speak freely, just like teachers do in their class. Furthermore, it’s important to keep eye contact with the audience, so that you can guess from their reactions if they feel bored or interested and if they seem to understand.
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Always remember
You are not likely to achieve your goals with passively listening attendees. What you need is interaction, so that attendees are turned into participants and your event can make an impact on them.
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Would you like to receive more advice and support when designing your event?
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Then visit the following link to arrange a free consultation with us and we’ll check everything together.
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Book your appointment here now: https://calendly.com/xanthopoulou/strategy-session
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?My team consists of top-notch experts, ready to help you not only with the implementation, but also with the preparation of an event, taking care of all those small but critical technical details which can make or break your event, if not managed properly.
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What we offer:
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Does this sound interesting? Reach out and take the first step towards success!
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Click the following link to book a virtual appointment with us now: https://calendly.com/xanthopoulou/strategy-session
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