As compliance officers many of us are called on from time-to-time to speak in public. Here is a link to some of the best advice I've seen on speaking in public.

Presentation Zen: Sir Ken Robinson on Public Speaking

only thing I would disagree with is rehearsal; you gotta rehearse to know timing

I understand where you're coming from, but that's more style than substance. If you really know your stuff and you want to be more conversational, then I think rehearsal can do more harm than good. Sure, it makes you feel better, but does it really help your audience understand better? If so, then OK. But the purpose of a presentation is to connect and communicate with the audience, not to perform. Anyway, that's how I see it.

ooh, not being argumentative Bugs, but I also must record and critique myself, as well as reheasing

I am from the old school I guess in that I can't prepare to much

Most people are not as good at public speaking as they seem to think they are. You should always work from notes, even if they are bullet poitns to make sure you hit your target areas. You also need to know your audience, and whether humor is allowed or not. I agree about not rehearsing, I've spoken over 100 times to large (+175 people) groups, and I never rehearse.

And I definitley agree about involving the audience.

Everyone, I'm not trying to argue either. I'm just sharing this link because I think Sir Ken is a very good speaker and we might actually learn something if we're willing to lay aside our own thoughts on the topic even for just a few minutes.

I think Pale's avatar is serendipity. I don't know a whole lot about the mechanics used by the Great Communicator, but it doesn't appear to me that Ronald Reagan used lots of notes and reshearsed all that much. Of course, if you're giving a long speech, for example, a State of the Union address, you probably do need notes.

But I'm talking about the presentations we make as compliance officers. People can tell when you're "performing" vs. "communicating" and, personally, when I think someone is performing, I pay more attention to the performance, than I do the message. It really should be about the message, not the performance, don't you think?

Ronnie was good, man I wish I could use those telepromters, then I wouldn't have to rehearse so much

Are you serious? His handlers wouldn't let him say anything that wasn't scripted.

your bitterness is affecting your judgement Yo

And probably rehearsed ad nauseum, in order for it to come across naturally.

perhaps the Gipper and I were taught the same techniques

Sure they did. Don't you remember when he talked when he thought the recorders were off and nearly caused an international incident because it was broadcast?

yeah BF, but then they had Hinckley shoot him the next week to make that blow over...

"bitterness"?????? It was no secret back then that he delivered written text in his speeches. Most presidents do, to some extent.

thats right! We were discussing public speaking and you have to interject your hatred for Reagan - hence my restrained comment. Now he wasn't called the great communicator for nothing. He wrote many of his finest lines and spent hours personalizing his speeches.

I recall when Clinton had the wrong speach loaded in the teleprompter for a state of the union address, and he winged it for the first either 8 or 11 minutes (can't remember but I'm sure the Bill-ophiles will) until they got the correct speach laoded (no, it wasn't the one where he denied playing pin the tail on the intern)

OK. Pale, I want you to delete this thread. It's been hijacked. (Just kidding.)