Sunday, December 04, 2011

Is The Audience On Their Phones During A Speech? I Hope So!!!

I was interviewed this week by Diane Mulligan from Mulligan Speakers International about the trend for conference audience members to tweet and check Facebook during presentations.



"Just because someone is smart or they've done something cool doesn't mean they belong on your stage," is a key concept for professional speaker Thom Singer. In this MSI showcase, he talks with Diane Mulligan that professional speakers need to care about their craft, and that meeting planners have to work to vet their speakers to make sure, "that the speaker has experience on the stage."


He cautions that, "if there's no personal connection from the speaker to the audience people are going to get bored," but that good speakers can make that connection. He points out that this speaking skill goes back to ancient times where stories were passed by work of mouth and that this was successful because they told, "stories that mattered to the audience (and) engaged people."

He says he's noticed that with speakers who don't try to make connections with their audience, "Lots of times the speaker is just doing an information dump."

To those who worry that content should be the concern, not the presentation, Singer answers, "It's not too much to ask for both."

Singer also says that when he speaks these days he encourages the audience to bring out their cell phones.
Since technology allows phones to do so much more, and with the rise of social networks like Twitter and Facebook he's found that, "Very often people were actually tweeting what the speaker was saying from the stage."

You can find out more by visiting http://www.mulliganspeakers.com.



Have A Great Day.

thom singer

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