30

WHEN PRESENTING

KEEP SPEECHES SHORT

At the time of the presentation. Some keynote presenters go on and on and ON! Those in the listening audience are too polite to say what they think about the length of the presentation. Having to endure prestressed for up to two hours on one occasion is far, far too long.

I believe that no initial presentation should go beyond 25 minutes. I used time beyond that for audience engagements through questions and other interactive responses and sharing opportunities. The outcomes will be positive, the messages will stick, and the audience will be satisfied.

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31

TODAY, IT WOULD BE COUNTED AS DISCRIMINATION

I come from an era when those trained as teachers had to model correct speech to students. This included pronunciation, diction, word choice usage and overall clarity. Part of our training was that speech imperfections (i.e. ‘rabbits sun wing around Wocks’) had to be overcome before graduation. For those with speech and speaking challenges, corrective and elocution sessions were offered. They were free and compulsory. It was deemed that teachers who were to teach students had to, for example, correct speech and speaking.