DailyPost 116
DO TOPICS MATTER!
I have a taken a ringside view of conferences / workshops / seminars for quite sometime now. Missing the topic seems to be endemic amongst speakers at all levels. More often than not, the inaugural and the concluding sessions keynote speakers miss out on the theme of the conference itself. With the connecting nodes not in place most of these conferences tend to lose the tracks.
There is a complete lack of Conference Strategy, so visible all through even to those without a keen eye. The overall theme, its relevance, the topics; the exact role of each speaker and the moderator is not spelt out as such. The cumulative impact of a group of panelists doing justice to the topic and moderator providing the value add is very rarely evident, is any of the conferences.
A missed opening keynote fails to put the conference in the right gear. Somewhere, the selection of the Keynote Speaker seems to be more positional, rather than competence on the topic and his ability to communicate with the nature of the audience. Same might be the fate of the concluding session, where the Keynote Speaker is generally not properly briefed of the proceedings.
Lack of proper preparation on the part of the vast majority of speakers is writ large on their faces, their body language, their inability to connect with the audience and what to say about the content, the same old one, being churned out conference after conference. Updation and customisation of the content to the audience requirements is the barest minimum for a speaker to stay afloat in the professional public speaking arena. If you have nothing to offer, why be there at all.
Professional Public Speakers and Conferences are the real vehicles to usher transformational change in an Exponential Age in a country yearning for it. A duty so sacred, an impact so meaningful.
STAY TUNED TO YOUR TOPIC, THAT’S THE HEART OF PROFESSIONAL PUBLIC SPEAKING.
Sanjay Sahay