PODCAST SCRIPT - TIMING YOUR PRESENTATION

Timing is all-important to a speaker. “Always be shorter than anyone dared hope,” said Lord Reading, the 20th century statesman. You have four main areas to get right.

First. Give yourself time to plan. There’s no point accepting a speech opportunity tomorrow if you won’t be ready. Accept an opportunity when you know that you have time to plan. Will you have time for an hour’s preparation for every minute of speech. If you don’t then you might not be ready. Time to plan.

Second. Plan to the time available. If your conference organiser wants half an hour including questions then that’s what you plan for. That’s what you rehearse for. That’s what you edit for. Plan to the time available. Plan to time.

Third. Run to time. You’ve practised. You’ve rehearsed and you’ve edited your material. Now you run to time. Keep an eye on the clock, be confident and be wary of interruptions or questions that meander from the point. Run to time.

 Fourth. Plan for quick time. You never know what’s going to happen at the Board meeting or the seminar. But you should be ready. So, when the Chairman of the Board or the seminar organiser asks you to speak for 15 minutes instead of half an hour – know what to do. Keep your introduction. Keep your conclusion. Pare down your middle. Keep all your main points but skip some of your sub-points. Keep some of your supporting stories and illustrations. But skip the secondary ones. Whatever you do though, don’t try to speak twice as fast. Planning quick time.

So, the four areas. Time to plan, plan to time, run to time, and planning quick time. There’s also a bonus.

Plan for tangent time. It’s common for a meeting organise to ask you to speak for a bit longer. A bit longer than planned. Perhaps the second speaker after lunch has been delayed by ten minutes. When you are asked to extend, you should know what to do. Think about re-introducing some of your edited material. Plant a good question with your host. Then answer it in an extended question & answer session.

That’s being ready for tangent time. Back to presentation podcast.