OPN Speakers Bureau Orientation & Training

Week 1 Lesson

Analyze Your Audience, Occasion and Facility

Welcome to the first week of the OPN Speakers Bureau training. This week’s lesson will help you start building a speech for a typical OPN Speakers Bureau event.

When you read the material below, you will learn:

· The four speech styles

· The steps to building a good speech

· How to analyze the event, including the occasion, audience and facility

· How to coordinate with other speakers

Speech Styles

Before we go through the steps of building a speech, let’s take a look at the type of speech we’ll be creating. Generally, speeches are prepared and delivered using one of four styles – memorization, manuscript, impromptu and extemporaneous.

During this training, we’ll be building an extemporaneous speech, which is a fancy way of saying we’ll create and use an outline for our speaking notes. Although extemporaneous is the best style for planned speeches, let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of each style.

Speech Style	Explanation	Advantages	Disadvantages
Memorization	Compose a speech word for word and then memorize and recite it (this method was popular before the invention of paper)	+ Eye contact is high + Content is carefully planned in advance	- Need lots of preparation time - Little flexibility during delivery - Might forget the words and freeze
Manuscript	Compose a speech word for word and then read it to the audience (e.g. President’s State of the Union Address)	+ Content is carefully planned in advance	- Eye contact is minimal (unless you have a teleprompter) - Easy to loose your place - Little flexibility during delivery
Impromptu	Speak spontaneously without much preparation (e.g. an unexpected TV news interview)	+ Eye contact is high + Preparation time is low + Flexibility is high	- Might miss key information - Might not know about the topic at hand - Might say the wrong thing
Extemporaneous	Prepare an outline of key points and evidence that will be discussed during the speech (e.g. OPN Speakers Bureau presentation)	+ Key points are planned in advance + Important evidence is available at a glance + Good flexibility during delivery + Eye contact is good	- Preparation time is moderate

While many beginning speakers want to write out their entire speech and read it to the audience, the manuscript style results in poor eye contact with the audience, which is a major disadvantage when trying to persuade. Speaking from an outline has the most advantages because it offers security at the same time it allows the speaker to be somewhat flexible.

Speech Preparation Overview

The whole idea of this course is to help you plan and deliver an effective extemporaneous speech. In order to make our speeches as effective and audience-centered as possible, we will go through the following steps over the next several weeks.

Speech Building Process
Week 1	Analyze the event Coordinate with a team
Week 2	Create an effective speech strategy Use persuasive tools to fit the audience
Week 3	Research for credible information Choose the best evidence for your audience
Week 4	Organize ideas into an outline Choose effective visual aides
Week 5	Practice speech and nonverbal delivery Reduce speech anxiety
In-person Meeting	Deliver speeches Give and receive feedback

As noted above, our goals for this week include analyzing our speaking event and coordinating with other members of the OPN Speakers Bureau. So let’s get started with the speech building process.

Analyze Your Speaking Event

This section overviews how to analyze your occasion, audience and facility. You might be wondering why we start the speech building process with analysis. Well, analyzing what you will be facing has several advantages because it will help you to:

· Focus your topic choice

· Adapt your speech content and language choices

· Plan the best strategies to accomplish your goals

· Attract listeners and keep their interest

If you’re wondering how to find information about the occasion, audience and facility, consider these options:

· Obtain a flyer or other literature about the event, if available

· Ask the person who invited you to speak

· Research the sponsoring organization on the Internet

· Visit the place where you’ll be speaking, if possible

· Talk to someone who’s been to a similar event

· Check with your fellow Speakers Bureau members for help

For more extensive speaking events, you could create a simple questionnaire to be passed out to the audience and returned to you before your speech. However, this option is rare.

Now that we’ve looked at how to find information, let’s examine what we need to know. Since the first thing you’ll probably know about your speaking assignment is the occasion, let’s start there.

ANALYZE THE SPEAKING OCCASION

When you are preparing for any speaking event, try to find important information about the occasion, such as:

· Who is sponsoring this program and what are their biases?

· What is the purpose of the event?

· What is the overall program like (length, time of day, # of speakers, etc.)?

· What’s expected of me, the speaker (content, handouts, etc.)?

· How long am I expected to speak?

Use your good judgment to determine what else you might need to find out. Depending on the event, you might have other questions like:

· Will the lunch staff be serving while I’m talking?

· Will people be coming and going?

Knowing as much as possible about the occasion will also help you to analyze your audience.

ANALYZE THE AUDIENCE

“Of the three elements in speechmaking – the speaker, subject, and person addressed – it is the last one, the listener, that determines the speech’s end and object.” (Aristotle, Rhetoric)

Your audience is your whole purpose for speaking, so the more you know about them, the more you can accomplish your speech’s goals. To help you make your speech as audience-centered as possible, find the answers for these questions:

· Who is likely to be in the audience (demographics, group affiliations, etc.)?

· What (and how strong) are their attitudes about my subject?

· What resistance do I need to overcome?

· What does my audience probably already know about my topic?

· What do they need to know?

· How can my audience benefit from my content?

· What benefits will they value most?

· What are their attitudes about me as a speaker?

· How large will my audience be?

Although demographic information, such as gender, age and ethnicity, can’t tell you how people think, you can use this information to make some educated guesses. For example, an audience of senior citizens will typically be more conservative than an audience of college students.

ANALYZE THE FACILITY

OK, so you’ve analyzed the occasion and audience, now it’s time to learn more about the facility. Uncertainty about speaking facilities can cause unneeded anxiety. Save yourself the stress and go check out the place where you’ll be speaking, if at all possible. Whether you are able to visit the facility in advance or not, try to answer:

· What is size of the facility (will I need a microphone to reach everyone)?

· What is the setup of room (will everyone be able to see me easily)?

· Are there any conditions that might distract people’s attention (traffic, cafeteria, etc.)?

· What audio/visual equipment is available?

· Are there any other challenges and opportunities presented by the facility?

As far as audio/visual equipment goes: keep Murphy’s Law in mind. Any equipment problems that can go wrong, will go wrong at the worst possible moment. Don’t let Murphy scare you; just be prepared and always have a backup plan.

Patients may have more questions to consider, such as:

· Is the speaking facility wheelchair accessible?

· Can you accommodate a special diet for lunch?

Your analysis of the speaking event will drive the rest of your speech building process, so make it good. Verify your assumptions as much as possible.

Coordinate with Your Speech Team

Typically, when you are asked to speak for the OPN Speakers Bureau, you won’t be alone. Sharing the stage with other OPN speakers has several, somewhat obvious, advantages:

· You don’t have to cover everything yourself

· You can get information and moral support while you are preparing the speech

· It’s less scary speaking when you have friends nearby

· When answering audience questions, several heads are better than one

Whenever you are asked to speak with others, you’ll want to keep in close contact with the group to coordinate your speeches so that:

· All important information is covered

· You are not repeating each other

· Speakers don’t contradict each other’s facts and evidence

· You have a clear plan for who’s speaking in what order

To help you coordinate your efforts, the OPN Speakers Bureau has its own email discussion list and bulletin board. You can use these tools to coordinate your topics, evidence and speaking order.

Now that you have learned about the four speech styles, the steps to building a good speech, how to analyze the event and how to coordinate with other speakers, you are ready to complete Week 1’s activities.

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