Something to Think About

If I had a You Tube account, I’d embed this video that Ralph Sierra found. Somebody can probably find material for a speech in here. Six minutes, and well worth the time.

Club Contest Results

Congratulations to the winners of our fall contests—Viki Kinsman in Humorous Speech and David Dowell in Table Topics. Their next speaking appearance will be in the area contest October 15. Plan to be there if you can.

Worth a Look: City Club Speeches

Every Friday, the City Club of Cleveland broadcasts a 1-hour presentation by a public figure of note. Since the usual format is a half-hour speech followed by thirty minutes of questions, you can hear how people communicate their messages and how they handle questions. I’ve heard some awful good speakers—Kathleen Kennedy on politics, the Treasurer of Cuyahoga County, and a physician from Cleveland Clinic on health issues—and I’ve heard some plain awful speakers, but the point is that you have a free source of information and a public speaking classroom.

The broadcasts take place at 12:30 on Friday afternnons. I usually listen to the internet stream made available by WCLV in Ogg Vorbis and Windows Media format. A video webcast is also available through the University of Akron. For all you guys who don’t have the luxury of being home on Friday afternoons, you will find feeds at the City Club website and a schedule. Podcasts are available through iTunes.

Worth a Look: Public Speaking on Lifehacker

Just discovered that the Lifehacker blog has a tag for public speaking. On one of those fabled afternoons when you don’t have anything else to do, you might want to look around to see what you find. Here’s a sample, a recent post titled Lose the ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’.

The Mother Tongue Annoyances weblog offers advice for getting rid of those ugly ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ that somehow find their way into your otherwise very intelligent conversation.

Personally, much to my chagrin, I’ll sometimes notice that I’ve used ‘like’ four times in the same, not terribly thought out sentence, but it’s working the same angle as ‘ums’ and ‘ahs.’ Among other tips, the author suggests that it can be hugely helpful to tape yourself speaking and study what you hear. The first step to cutting out a problem is to become aware of it, so that makes sense to me.

Oh, and even if your speech is now smooth as silk, you’re still going to have to be prepared to handle tough questions from an audience. How do you lose the stammering from your speech, smarty pants? Let us know in the comments or at tips at lifehacker.com. — Adam Pash

How to Lose the ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ from Your Speech [Mother Tongue Annoyances]

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