Question of the Day: Sunday, Feb. 16

I'm in the process of writing a speech for tonight. I have to speak publicly with fair regularity and really enjoy it, though I used to get very nervous. After taking a public speaking course in college, all those nerves pretty much faded. So now, the more people I'm speaking for, the more excited I am and the more fun I have. Though I do prefer Q&As over speeches.

How about you?

Do you ever speak publicly (or have you), and how do (or did) you like it?

Good luck on your speech. 

I'm not a big fan of public speaking (I was a shy kid). I prefer one-on-one interviews, or even better, casual conversations. My husband loves public speaking, though. He's trying to teach my kids, and I don't think it's working...

Fortunately that's not something I've had to do. I'm quite used to teaching young adults, but a classroom situation isn't the same as holding a speech because of the give-and-take.

I hope it goes well! :cross:

I have before; but it's just not my nature.  I prefer one on one.  It was only for a few years that I felt more comfortable doing it. 

I have done it and am not too bad, although sometimes I would get hit with a case of 'nerves' when I didn't expect it.  Deep breaths!

Good luck!

I did take Public Speaking and, yes, once you're up there and get over the initial butterflies, it's OK.

I don't do speeches, but I do do presentations every month. I work in our planning department and part of my job is to attend the commission meetings and discuss what's going on. In front of the commission and the public. It's OK, because I know what I'm talking about and I can answer pretty much any question thrown at me relating to my job. But I still get very nervous, even though I've been doing this for years.

When we're working on large public meetings for grants or (recently) our comprehensive plan for the county, we had to break the public participants down into manageable groups to discuss main points. I'm always in charge of one of the groups and we have our large board with the markers and such. We'll be going to work on an Open Space grant here soon, so will be doing those types of meetings for a while. (I did the same thing during my internship, so I knew what to expect and it's interesting to get a grasp on what people think.)

My very first planning project was a big grant for one of the local municipalities in the county. I was in "big charge" of that and it involved those public meetings. And I had to talk to everyone. It was scary, trying to make sure everything operated OK and that nothing went wrong. I was scared to death, but once I got up on the podium and started talking, everything was fine. Even with the newspapers and such there.

I've done speaking more in a classroom situation like jcat. I did some presentations at work, trained groups, etc. I've also gotten up at weddings, showers, work events, etc. to say a few words.

The company I work for is in the Transportation business with 123 offices around the world. I work at the World Headquarters in Philadelphia and I'm responsible for all courier programs around the world. After 9/11 when all air traffic was grounded for a week, I was responsible to give a daily update on UPS, FedEx and DHL. I was one of 40 people seated in our Board of Directors Board Room with every VIP giving their specific updates or just asking questions. Of course every member of the Board was present, from the Chairman on down. In addition every Office Manager from around the world was on this daily update via a conference call. So when you were called upon by the Chairman of the Board to give your 3 to 4 minute daily update, you had to speak a little fast, clearly, and speak in a slightly raised voice so the people on the other end of the phone could hear you just fine, while not blasting your voice into the VIP's ear next to you or in front of you. You were required to give your update from your seat, which in my case was in the second tier around the Conference Room table. Having to go to a podium would have been much easier but it wasn't an option. Everyone spoke from their seats. And if anyone had questions, which they always did, you had to listen closely as the question could be from over the phone and usually where. You were there to inform, update and answer questions on your specific subject. The Chairman didn't want a 2 hour conference call, but expected answers to every questions, quickly, precisely, clearly, etc.

On 9/12 when all executive management was called to the Board room we were all completely unaware of the why, but we shortly found that out. I was pretty proud of myself during that awful time in American history, to be able to just "wing it". So getting up in front of 5 to 10,000 people, with a subject matter that you have all the time in the world to talk about verses a crash course, with minimal time, speaking above your normal tone, with every heavy hitter in your company present and looking right in your face from 3 feet away was a challenge. After that period in my life, I found public speaking at a podium a piece of cake.

I'm a ham, so I can do public speaking. At first I'm a little nervous, but once I start talking I'm fine.

Good luck on your speech!

There is an old statistic that says most people's number one fear is public speaking, even over death. Jerry Seinfeld made a joke about people at a funeral preferring to be the person in the casket over the person giving the eulogy....

That said I do enjoy it however.

Yes I had to do this when I was the president for our housing co-operative. I had to do a presentation in front of some local dignitaries, politicians, the media. It was an absolutely nervous wreck and it was my very 1st public speaking! Once I started I was fine. I couldn't believe that the butterflies just vanished away. After a while I would say I even enjoyed it. I've had to do smaller ones as well when I was a Union steward when I worked at a major bank. It was a good experience. It really makes you step outside of your comfort zone. I was proud of myself for doing it afterwards. It's like conquering a fear that you didn't think you could ever do.      

I don't even like it when they go around the room at our quarterly meeting and everyone has to say what they're working on.  I definitely prefer Q & A when I know the topic well.  I discovered this when I had to do a speech / presentation in school and I was a wreck.  However, after I was through I was very relaxed and enjoyed the q&a part.

Every once in a great while I am forced to speak in front of a not too large group and I HATE it. Sometimes I'll quietly rant and shake my fist in the air before and after

I am very much an introvert and rather shy, so the prospect of public speaking scares me to death. However, I had to do it pretty frequently in a previous job, and I spent a lot of time preparing for presentations. I tried to anticipate questions I might be asked, and be ready to talk intelligently about those I couldn't answer on-the-spot. I found that after the first few moments, once I steadied my voice and saw that my audience was interested, I enjoyed speaking in public. But always, always, always dreaded the time leading up to it and was always scared and had a sick feeling in my stomach.

My speech went well. I usually try to find smiling faces to kill my initial nerves. Unfortunately, I was speaking to a crowd that had been on campus all day, so it was a lot of straight faces to begin with. So then I looked to one of the staffers who organized the event, and he looked grumpy! XD

So I felt a bit shaky for the first couple of minutes, but I don't think it was noticeable to anyone but me. Then the crowd started to loosen up as I made a couple funny comments. And I finished strong. 

I do very much prefer Q&As, though. 

LaraLove said:

 
My speech went well.

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Good for you!