The drumming of the lion dance and twirling orange figures barred the way up the steps to the centre where I was attending a meeting, threatening to make me late. But never mind, I had an excuse for being late. If I missed my meeting and happy memories of the meeting, I had photographs of a lion dance instead. My mobile phone camera was handy in my pocket and I pulled it out and stopped, delighted.
Moral: Always arrive early at a busy venue or multi-performance day. Even if you are on time, crowds, performances in the central area or lobby or steps, or other events on a day of celebration may delay your arrival.
HUGE TABLE - HARD OF HEARING
A few minutes later I was to an open house for eight Toastmasters International Speakers' Clubs, celebrating the grand opening of Cairnhill Community Centre in the Centre of Singapore. I rushed through the door to the meeting room and took the nearest empty seat, at the end of the long table, far away from the whiteboard and lectern. I saw a free seat right next to the speaker, but suspected, rightly, that the seat was for the VIP of the event, and anybody who took that seat would have the indignity of being moved.
Moral; Arrive early to get a good seat. Check where the speaker will be standing.If you are organising, mark chairs which will be saved, both out of respect for the VIP and to save visitors from the embarrassment of being moved.
I watched as the seat was taken by another visitor. She had to move when the VIP arrived.
I was right in thinking that I was too far from the speaker to hear well. I was right. The first speaker spoke quietly. Parts of her speech were even quieter, because she looked down or dropped her voice at the ends of sentences.
Moral: If you are organising at a grand event, bring or request microphones. You may have a nervous speaker, a huge room, a speaker not able to project their voice to fill a large room, a speaker reading from notes, or background noise.
SWTICHING SEATS
I managed to get the general gist of the speech. I lost the flow of the speech as I started eyeing second row seats around the walls and wondering if I could sneak up to a nearer seat between speakers.
INTERRUPTIONS
Toastmasters International arranges everything to help nervous speakers. During contests, the doors are kept closed during a speech, only opened between speeches. Why?
A) To prevent the frequent possibility of interruptions from latecomers, plus strangers in the building stepping in, asking what the event is, demanding directions to another event, causing general disturbance to the speaker, the speech evaluators or contest judges and the audience.
b) To prevent the rare possibility of a rival speaker creating a deliberate interruption to try to distract and unnerve the speaker.
Unfortunately, the result is that speakers are not trained to deal with interruptions. Noises and sights outside and people entering occur constantly in real life.
WINDOWLESS VENUES
I noticed that the conference room where we were meeting had not shades to block out the distractions from the delightful picture window views of the entrance outside. At most Toastmasters speaking events I am disappointed when we are placed in claustrophobic windowless rooms behind partitions. Windowless venues look as if they would be deadly in a fire. I am often distracted from the opening speech by checking the quickest way out.
However, on this occasion, at this venue (Cairnhill Community Centre) I found sights and sounds outside were a distraction and window shades would have been welcome on the side overlooking public areas, since the room had plenty of windows on the other side over the road and trees which let in light without admitting noise. The exit door is obvious.
FIRE ESCAPE
Regarding exits and toilets, fortunately, most Toastmasters meetings start with the announcement of the direction of the fire escape and toilets.
NOISE
The lion dance began again outside, along with the noise of crowds watching. Latecomers entered and as the door of the room opened the distraction and volume of the noise increased. The door was self closing slowly so even after the newcomer found a seat, the noise continued several seconds.
SOUNDPROOFING
We were distracted by the noise of the lion dance. Then shouts of families and children outside. Then a disco band from below.
Moral: Architects should design conference rooms with soundproofing, not picture window double doors with gaps between the coors and under them letting in distracting sound.
If speaking events take place when noisy events are alongside or elsewhere int he building, microphones should be provided for speakers. The organisers should be advised by the building management that microphones will be provided. If not, the speaking group should be advised to bring their own microphones, amplifiers and adapters, with a technician to help on hand to prevent feedback, the booming noise when the microphone is placed too near the amplifier.
The noise grew to a crescendo. The speaker bravely, or foolishly, ignored the noise. I could see her lips moving.
Finally, somebody stepped forward and asked the speaker to stop. Simultaneously, several dozen community centre helpers in red tee-shirts crowded into the back of the room, accompanying a VIP, to be shows what we were doing.
The speaker started again. I now knew the gist of the speech, so I was able to follow the detail more easily by watching the face of the speaker and lip-reading.
Lip-reading
I am not trained in lip reading. By lip-reading, I just mean watching to help me follow and guess, the way one does when you are driving and let another car go first and people in a pausing then passing car mouth words such as 'thank you'. It's a bit like predictive text. You hear a bit and see a bit and fill in the missing parts with a guess.
Moving Chairs
Lip-reading is only possible if you can see the speaker. If you are short, you have to ensure that you sit where you can see the speaker. If necessary, change chairs. If you can't change chairs, move your chair. If I arrive early, I sometimes move several chairs in a row to make the people in my row look between the heads of these in the row ahead.
Moving the Speaker
I was evaluating a speech by a speaker who turned out to be from Slovakia. I was delighted that he not a loud voice, amplified by deep breathing to project.He not only had a vigorous, projecting voice. He also started by walking up and down the room, enabling those at the far and to hear, as well as holding our attention.
I demonstrated what he had done, walking forward, around both sides of the table, to get attention and be heard, as I praised his action, to the amusement of the audience.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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