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!
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