🐯 How to Have a GRRREAT "Freestyle" Speech? Get Organized!

Did you know that: 

🐅 There are 13 tiger range countries in the world

🐅 When the global tiger population hit an all-time low to 3,200 in 2010, these 13 countries pledged to 2x their tiger population by 2022. 

🐅 Nepal is the ONLY one to achieve their goal by 3x their tiger population

🐅 The rise of tiger population also stoked tiger-on-human attacks

🐅 In the last 4 years, Nepal reported at least 104 tiger attacks 

🐅 The victims were often attacked while collecting firewoods, grazing livestock or search for food in the jungle

🐅 NGOs are working with the residents to develop other means of livelihood 

I learned all these cool facts at a talk last weekend. When I saw the poster, I immediately registered for a spot. I cleared my Saturday, loaded up my golden retriever and drove to the venue in the mountains of Taipei. 

At first, the talk was AWESOME! The speaker prefaced that he will be "freestyling" and the audience can ask questions anytime. He shared why he devoted to wildlife conservation in Nepal. Then he showed a short touching video. Then he talked about the Nepal's tiger conservation effort. Then he showed a 23-min long documentary. Then he just kept talking and talking and talking. After almost 2 hours of his monologue, people started to leave one by one. 🚪 🚶‍♂️ 🚶‍♀️ 🚶‍♂️ 🚶‍♀️ 🚶‍♂️ 🚶‍♀️ 

Sitting there, I thought, what a pity! He has so many interesting facts to share. People sacrificed their Saturday to come (the venue is not easy to get to) and yet many didn't want to stay. It was a lose-lose situation. 

What could've been done differently to sustain the audience's attention:

✅ Before the talk, determine the time needed for different elements of the talk and ask the organizer to assign a time keeper who can give a signal when you need to wrap up. 

✅ Break up the documentary to avoid a long period of zero engagement with the audience. Stop the video after each section to interact with the audience. 

✅ At the start of the talk, preview what you are going to share. Audience came for an informed guided journey, not a mystery tour.

 ✅ Make it relevant to the audience. Tell the audience why your talk is important to THEM. Taiwan doesn't have tigers, so why should Taiwanese care about tiger conservation? 

 ✅ Clearly state a call-to-action. Tell the audience what you want them to do with the info. How can the audience help support your cause? 

 ✅ QR code/contact info on screen. Give the audience a way to continue their interactions with you after they leave. 

✅ Answer the question by talking to everyone. If you fix your attention on the person who asked the question, you will alienate others. A Q+A session is not a private chat. 

Remember, you have only ONE shot at making an impression. Sure, you can tell the audience you will be "freestyling", but you better be organized or prepare to see the backside of the people in the middle of your talk.