Deceptive Public Speakers

Clive Simpkins

Deceptive Public Speakers and presenters - or just the blind leading the blind?A disappointing deception is being perpetrated in the so-called public speaking and presenting arena. For years it’s been a (now fading, thank God) ‘norm’ for companies to have a ‘motivational’ speaker at annual marketing, sales and other conferences. Being a veteran public speaker and founding member of the National Speakers’ Association of SA (NSASA), I need to declare an interest. The purpose of this article is to 1) Alert relevant parties to the ‘canned’ nature of what they may be getting for their speaker money and 2) Hopefully save some young wanna-be speakers from going down a highly inappropriate and ‘ersatz’ road.My opinion of the role of an authentic public speaker is that one takes a brief to get enough information to really understand the audience and the intended outcome of the assignment or conference. You then custom-craft something or ‘tweak’ an existing suitable presentation for the event and then deliver that material in an engaging, and hopefully also ‘professionally entertaining’ way.What triggered this article can only be described as a Damascene experience.

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