Public speaking beat practice
Are you loud?
That's the only question I am going to ask in this post.
If you are, how loud are you? Loud enough to be heard by ~10 people in a small-ish room? Loud enough to be heard by ~100-ish people in a small conference room? Loud enough to be heard by ~1000s of people in a large conference hall? (I think no one is that loud!).
I am watching a talk from PyCon US 2019 which is what prompted this question.
In a lot of speaking events, the first barrier between you and the talk attendees is sound. If they cannot hear you, it will not matter how good your topic is, it will not matter how good you are at communicating.
I, thankfully, am loud. Loud enough to be heard by 100s of people in a small conference room. I know it because I have conducted a few workshops at local Python events and conferences and I got good feedback from the attendees.
Even though I'm loud enough, I will resort to using a sound system. If one exists, and if it works reasonably well enough, I will use it.
And I will use it very very consciously.
Because just using a sound system isn't enough. You need to use it properly.
What do I mean by properly? Well, for one, ensure that you always hold the mike at a constant distance from your mouth. For some people, with a good amount of experience, this can happen naturally. For me, it still requires conscious effort.
Why? Because using a mike badly is worse than not using a mike. You might feel false confident that you are being heard and are communicating effectively. In reality, you are moving the mike around too much, sometimes too close and sometimes too far, reducing your effectiveness in communication.
In most talks, there is an information gap between the speaker and the audience. The speakers is a subject matter expert and the audience could be completely unaware of the topic. It already requires a lot of attention to focus on the topic at hand and absorb as much as possible. Having problems with sound only reduce the amount of information you can convey.
Note that this might not even be a problem where you are speaking. Maybe the mike isn't hand held. Maybe it's fixed to the dias. Maybe it's one of the fancier mikes that are like headsets.
At the end of the day, no matter what equipment you are using, ensure that you are being heard and ensure that you are being heard consistently.
That's the only question I am going to ask in this post.
If you are, how loud are you? Loud enough to be heard by ~10 people in a small-ish room? Loud enough to be heard by ~100-ish people in a small conference room? Loud enough to be heard by ~1000s of people in a large conference hall? (I think no one is that loud!).
I am watching a talk from PyCon US 2019 which is what prompted this question.
In a lot of speaking events, the first barrier between you and the talk attendees is sound. If they cannot hear you, it will not matter how good your topic is, it will not matter how good you are at communicating.
I, thankfully, am loud. Loud enough to be heard by 100s of people in a small conference room. I know it because I have conducted a few workshops at local Python events and conferences and I got good feedback from the attendees.
Even though I'm loud enough, I will resort to using a sound system. If one exists, and if it works reasonably well enough, I will use it.
And I will use it very very consciously.
Because just using a sound system isn't enough. You need to use it properly.
What do I mean by properly? Well, for one, ensure that you always hold the mike at a constant distance from your mouth. For some people, with a good amount of experience, this can happen naturally. For me, it still requires conscious effort.
Why? Because using a mike badly is worse than not using a mike. You might feel false confident that you are being heard and are communicating effectively. In reality, you are moving the mike around too much, sometimes too close and sometimes too far, reducing your effectiveness in communication.
In most talks, there is an information gap between the speaker and the audience. The speakers is a subject matter expert and the audience could be completely unaware of the topic. It already requires a lot of attention to focus on the topic at hand and absorb as much as possible. Having problems with sound only reduce the amount of information you can convey.
Note that this might not even be a problem where you are speaking. Maybe the mike isn't hand held. Maybe it's fixed to the dias. Maybe it's one of the fancier mikes that are like headsets.
At the end of the day, no matter what equipment you are using, ensure that you are being heard and ensure that you are being heard consistently.