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Training Tip 5: Making the Impromptu Presentation

By Edwin Pauzer posted 06-07-2017 09:30

  

There is a simple formula for making impromptu presentations for the social or business occasion: Before you arrive get mentally prepared that you WILL be invited to speak. That helps remove the shock that puts many people into a panic.

Take notes during the main speech or presentation.

Focus on two things only:

  1. What the speaker’s or presenter’s message means to you.
  2. Praise for the speaker’s accomplishment or the presenter’s idea.
  3. What the occasion or meeting means to you
  4. You can combine a., b., or c.

Keep it short. No one expects an impromptu speech or be long, and you don’t have to make it long to be effective.

Remember that William Henry Harrison was our 9th president and served only 30 days in office before dying. He was hatless and coatless when he delivered his Inaugural Address which was 2 hours and 40 minutes long, and he gave it during a bitter nor’easter. He got a cold which turned into pneumonia and killed him.

On the other hand Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is the most memorable American speech and comes in at approximately 270 words. In fact Mr. Lincoln was not the main speaker at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery. He was only invited to make a “few appropriate remarks.”

So here are your quiz questions:

  1. What was William Henry Harrison’s Inaugural Address about?
  2. Who was the main speaker at the dedication of the Gettysburg Memorial Cemetery? (I’ll give you a hint—he was a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, and his speech was two hours long).

So keep your impromptu presentation short. Remember, it can become eminently forgettable if it is too long and it could possibly kill you.

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