Speaker Preparation

When creating the attendee experience for an event, I have worked with many speakers; preparing them for success by providing history on the attendees, standardizing slide presentations, selecting relevant topics, and ensuring they were knowledgeable in their subject matter. Recently I found myself on the opposite side of the equation. I was asked to present a breakout session at an industry event. I, myself, am newer to the speaking circuit. I have hosted round table discussions, mentored others, offered advice, handed out plenty of training materials, wrote a book, penned this blog for over three years, and performed in-person training for hundreds of people in my day, but a straight-up breakout session, not so much.

I am fortunate to have many gifted speakers in my circle of influence who I interact with on a regular basis. After being asked to speak, I made a concerted effort to review their different styles of preparation, presentation notes, slide creation, stage appearance, and the intentionality with which they move and speak and look around the room.

I had to try a few things of my own. I am primarily a writer so I initially wrote out my entire presentation, but when rehearsing it for speech, discovered that I was constantly looking to my notes to talk about something on which I am generally able to ramble on about for hours. Full script not for me. So, I tried bullet points. Less of a narrative, more of a road map and more freedom to use my brain and just converse about what I know I know about the subject. Eh, better, but I still felt I was too tied to looking at my notes and got hung up trying to find my place.

I had created slides with an accompanying handout for people to fill in the blanks. I have seen this done so well over the last 20+ years that I knew I needed this. Plus, there is scientific evidence that a person is more likely to remember what they heard if they not only hear it and see it, but write it down. During the last hours of my preparation, I decided that just following the slides and allowing my brain to kick in and fill in the explanations and stories was the best way to go.

The morning of my breakout session I got a call from my daughter who happened to be at a conference of her own this same week. We chatted about both events and as we were ending our conversation, I expressed my trepidation about presenting a breakout session as it feels like a skill outside of my wheelhouse but one I am excited to try. She said one of the most amazing things to me that I will probably never forget. This daughter of mine is so smart and wise beyond her years she often blows me away. She said, “Mom, there’s nothing to worry about. You literally wrote the book on this subject!” Yes, yes I did. Thank you for the reminder that I can talk about building and caring for a healthy volunteer team for days on end with no script whatsoever.

I felt like things started out a little clunky for the first five minutes until I found my groove. It didn’t help that I was wired for a lavalier mic, which was subsequently turned off at the soundboard until I was ready to speak….however, the sound technician never returned to turn me back on. The volunteer in the room eventually found someone who did a drive-by mic hand-off and gave me a hand-held. Now, I’m wired AND holding a mic and I talk with my hands….and now one of my hands is “tied behind my back” in the figurative sense.

Whatever. Event planners are used to things going off-script, aren’t we? I kept right on talking about a subject I am passionate about; inviting people into an opportunity to use their gifts and talents in a unique way to serve others, teaching leaders how to equip volunteers so they’re set up for success, empowering volunteers with tasks and leadership of their own, and genuinely caring for a team of people to create a healthy, sustainable team for years to come.

I hope that I helped even just one person that day, although it seemed based on questions and subsequent emails I received, that I have at least opened the eyes of others to different and practical ways to partner with volunteers.

Do you partner with volunteers to accomplish your mission or events? Check out my book Cultivating a Healthy Volunteer Team for practical tidbits you can implement immediately to get you moving in a new direction!

Be sure to like this blog and share it with your friends who partner with volunteers!

Visit tracybaer.com for more resources!