In watching the Ted.com video on our student website the first thing that caught my attention was the fact that the speaker approach the audience with a sense of humor and charm couple with what appears to be a British accent. The visual material used for this presentation was fun and self-explanatory.
The visual material was just enough to make a point but was not distracting the audience to a point where the speaker would lose their attention. Another factor that made the presentation a success was that the speaker knew the topic and it did not seem like a scripted speech like the famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Don’t give me that look now. Have any of you see the footage of the actual speech. Mr. King hardly ever looked up as if he was reading from a book. Having said that, yes it was very powerful and made history.
Now going back to the visual portion on a speech, I believe that in order for the audience to understand the message an image is conveying it must be as simple as possible, almost as though one is teaching children. Now I will give you the best example I can give. Remember the movie “An Inconvenient Truth”?
If memory serves me, when Al Gore was explaining the reason for global warming he had a sort of animated show where the little sunshine guy came to visit the Earth but the pollution bullies kept him from leaving by knocking him unconscious. Yes this would seem like a video for kids you may say but I understood what he was trying to say.
On a different note, in some of my past classes back when I was pursuing my Bachelors I did get some insight on public speaking. It is amazing to me the amount of information you need to know before the actual event. I am not even talking about the material that you will cover. You see, when you are preparing a speech you need to ask yourself many questions. For instance, ask yourself who is the audience? What is the language that will get through to this audience? What can and can’t talk about when addressing this audience? The list goes on and on.
I had to present many times in school using a PowerPoint presentation and overtime I learn that when speaking to a crowd you should pretend you are talking to an old friend. Be yourself, don’t apologize even if you make a mistake. Use it instead to your advantage and amuse the audience. They will definitely appreciate it.
Along with this posting, and as per the assignment instructions I attached another link that shows what I believe to be a good example. Notice how the speaker begins with remarks about his childhood and delivers the material once the audience is engaged.
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