Even if you’ve done it before a hundred times you’re likely to feel nervous if you have agreed to be an after dinner speaker at an event whether corporate, educational or charitable.
But performing as an after dinner speaker doesn’t have to be so hard.The chances are that if you have agreed to speak at an event and you aren’t already a professional after dinner speaker then you are at least familiar with the organisation which has asked you to speak. It might be that you have a senior position within the organisation.
However you came to be associated with the organisation you will be speaking to, you are at an advantage over professional after dinner speakers who are drafted in from speakers’ agencies.The advantage is that you already know the type of people you’ll be addressing, their interests, hobbies and any taboo subjects that just shouldn’t be mentioned. Put another way, you have already done the research part. That sort of information is the subject of much research by after dinner speakers.
After completing one fo the hard parts, it’s on to the challenge of making sure the speech is interesting.A good after dinner speaker knows how to combine the perfect amounts of humour, anecdotes, examples and factual information to make their speech informative yet still captivating.
Another vital thing is to practise the presentation. it is absolutely no good having a captivating speech if it is read in a monotonous voice by a bored-sounding person. Presentation goes hand in hand with content, so think about voice and don’t ever read from a script. If remembering the speech is proving too much for you then use a short list of bullet points. You’ll be surprised how much you can remember using this method and it has the added advantage of making speech sound more natural and friendly.
Body language is important too. Looking as though you’re having fun will make the audience more inclined to have fun. So even if you don’t feel it, keep calm and confident. Use eye contact and natural hand gestures to look confident and calm.
