A Meditation on Public Speaking

January 29th, 2008 | Author: Espen

I just got back from CPRS’s 15th Annual CEO Award of Excellence Luncheon, which honored Francis Larkin this year. Larkin is the President and CEO of the United Way of Greater Toronto. The award goes the recipient who best understands, fosters and implements public relations practices.

I’ve been particularly noticing how people speak orally lately because I’m taking an advanced presentation skills class. What better skill could a true communicator have other than a strong command of public speaking? When Larkin opened her mouth, the words fell out so effortlessly that everyone in the room was engaged. I dug her casual and conversational style, like she was just talking to a couple buddies instead of a room full of bigwigs. I noticed the same thing when I was watching Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple deliver his keynote speech a couple weeks ago. I’m trying to adopt a less formal speaking style for myself.

If you want to hear some hilarious speeches, drop by Union Station at 12:30 PM tomorrow where my class will be practicing in the center of the hullabaloo. I’ll be speaking on Self-Actualization.

- Jess

Posted in Social Media |

Tags: CEO, CPRS, public speaking

2 Responses to “A Meditation on Public Speaking”

Terry Gault:

February 18, 2008 at 10:34 am

I’ve always found that speaking informally is always more authentic and engaging to audiences than the stiff formality and rigid “professionalism” that many people tend to slip into when presenting.

If presenters could just be more informal, then they will come across as more natural.

Another thing that I always notice is that if presenters defer too much to executives, they you projecting that they are not on an equal business stature. Respect the position professionally but relate to the human informally. By speaking to them more informally, big wigs project that you are equal. They will read that as confidence.
Jess Bennett:

February 19, 2008 at 3:39 pm

Thanks for the comment, Terry!

As I’m writing this, I’m watching Steve Kee of the Toronto Stock Exchange give a lecture. He looks totally at ease- a terrific speaker and, not surprisingly, one of the least formal I’ve ever seen.

I’m glad we’re on the same page.

- Jess

Additional comments powered by BackType

What’s the deal with this website?

You're reading BlogCampaigning. We write about public relations, social media, video games, marketing and pretty much whatever we feel is important. We've been around since August, 2006

Jens "Schredd" Schroeder has been around since the beginning, and he mostly writes about video games.

Heather Morrison is our newest recruit, and she also blogs about life in the big city at Toronto Uncovered.

All of the content on this site is cleaned up by Adam Gorley, our resident copy-editor. He does a hell of a job, and he also writes a few posts for us now and then. Not a lot of people know this, but he is also a soul music DJ who goes by the name "Night Danger."

Parker Mason is the self-described Editor-in-Chief of BlogCampaigning and runs the site with an iron fist. He's also a pretty great guy - you should meet him sometime.

Espen Skoland started this website a few years ago so that he could get extra marks for his thesis, but he's pretty much given up on contributing. Still, we often refer to him as The Legendary Founder. He might be lazy, but he left us with a legacy.

A Meditation on Public Speaking

2 Responses to “A Meditation on Public Speaking”

Leave a Reply