Public Speaking Course: 

Be Careful

Something I learned from a personal experience is that you must be careful of all aspects of your presentation.

I once held a speaking engagement for 3200 people in California that was a really big deal. I definitely had to make sure I used the skills I teach in my public speaking course. I had two stage managers with headsets counting down 30 seconds till show time, a personal assistant and complete video crew for tape and image projection. Everyone was rushing around trying to get everything to go smoothly.

I had some more assistants who, on cue, were going to distribute plastic glow stars so the whole room would be lit with the stars for the grand finale where I had blacked out the room. 

The entire presentation went off without a problem. The audience had a great time. 

Afterwards I was busy shining my halo ... until the production company head came up to me and said, 'We have a problem.' ... 

I had no idea what he was referring too. He told me the assistants were throwing the stars into the crowd and one of them hit a member of the audience in the eye and scratched his cornea ... 

Talk about your stomach sinking. No one knew if he was going to be OK or not. He was on his way to the hospital. 

... It was six weeks before he found out if the damage was permanent or not. Thankfully he  only had  had a badly scratched cornea and his eye was to recover cmpletely. 

Like the song, "I can see clearly now", I had let all the hoopla get in the way of my normal briefing of my assistants and it almost cost someone their eyesight.

Make sure you do your normal briefings, and proper preparations. I never even considered the possibility of injury for that stunt so I encourage you when using your skills you learned in a public speaking course that being careful must be a priority. You must think ahead of possible adverse consequences of unusual interactions with the audience so to prepare the event for everything to go smoothly.

... BE CAREFUL!