68th Hong Kong Speech Festival: Prepping Public Speaking Team

We hear a lot of about public speaking and how an individual can deliver at his best. But often group projects and presentations come up where you’re required to speak as a team. The Hong Kong Speech Festival, in fact, features a “Public Speaking Team” event every year.

This week’s article has a few specific tips about public speaking in a team. Whether you’re going for a competition or delivering a group presentation, they prove effective in reaching out to your target audience and delivering a successful speech.

Evaluate Your Team’s Strengths and Weaknesses

I remember joining the Speech Festival’s “Public Speaking Team” event 4 years back. I was actually supposed to join public speaking solo because I had a lot of individual experience as a debater. But there was a mess-up during registration and I ended up in a team.

Instead of complaining, I decided to look at my team members’ strengths and weaknesses, and plan the speeches accordingly.

In the world of public speaking, different speakers have their own styles. Some are like salesmen, they know how to deliver a convincing speech that will get you buying their products. Many are debaters, who know how to change your political stance on different social issues. Some people are good at moving speeches (they probably won a Nobel Peace Prize in a past life). Others may have a more philosophical way of speaking.

Here’s the thing; there’s no correct answer. Which is why you’ve got to embrace all speaking styles and allocate content wisely.

For example, if you’re delivering a speech about the fast food industry and food scandals, have your salesman start off my promoting a McDonalds burger. Have your debater reject, and talk about why the industry can’t be trusted. To end, invite your moving magician to shake the hearts of the audience in highlighting the consequences of food scandals, and what they can do to help.

Be Creative

We all know the typical format of a speech is introduction, body and conclusion. If there’s one speaker, more than 90% of the time, you’re going to hear the speech delivered in that boring format.

But since you’ve got a team on your side, why not take things to the next level?

Imagine hearing a speech about global warming. Instead of “Hello Everyone. My team is here to talk about global warming.” from your first speaker, how about a journalistic angle to the impression?

“This Just In. We have received live coverage from aliens outerspace about the solution to global warming, and our scientists will weigh in on the evidence.”

And then the next speaker takes over, going into possible solutions to global warming.

Wouldn’t you be more interested in hearing about the importance of saving energy from the second group example, rather than the first?

Content as Compass in Time Management

We all learn time management is an important part of public speaking. Sometimes we have to set time limits on individual speakers, and while it may be fair to allocate equal amounts of time to every member in the team, it isn’t always the best thing to do.

Note that the audience follows a speaker as he/she speaks on a given topic. This flow has to remain smooth for a good speech. But when the speaker is in the middle of an important idea, and the next speaker comes in, people tend to lose flow and get confused.

This is why using your content as a compass to guide you in time management is ideal. Speaker time should be divided in accordance with which sections each team member is taking up. Moreover, these “sections” team members take up should be defined logically.

The explanation may sound complex, but let’s make it simpler with an example.

Say you’re doing a speech about the impacts of a 3rd runway at HK’s airport.

There’s the social side, where people will be discontent. The environmental side, where people see Chinese dolphins facing threats. But on the other side, there are economic benefits yet to be reaped.

In obvious sense, three speakers would mean giving each an argument. However, you’ve got to note that an introduction and conclusion are still necessary as part of a speech. Despite the fact that the second speaker may have more stage time, it probably makes more sense for the first speaker to introduce, second to bring out arguments and third to conclude.

Not to mention, people's’ thought processes flow better in the second case, as all arguments are brought forward from one speaker, as opposed to an abrupt transition in the first case.

Of course, despite being delivered in sections, the speech has to be cohesive in organization and presentation.

Practice Makes Perfect

It is undeniably important to practice alone, to get your speech memorized and going. But practising in a team is of unequivocal importance.

While it is crucial each member play his/her part well by reciting the speech and delivering it with the best of body language and emotions, a smooth flow between speakers often affects the way judges see the team.

Get together with your teammates and practise in front of a mirror, or record the sequence of speeches on camera to see how it goes. Does the transition between two speakers leave an awkward silence of 10 seconds? Why not do a dance slide in” if the topic is about the evolution of dance?

After Finishing your Part

We all get that amazing accomplishment feeling when we deliver a speech. We just want to go on our phones and tweet it out to the world. But in public speaking team, you have to stay alert throughout the presentation.

It serves as a form of respect to your team members, just as much as it shows your commitment and the judge why your team really deserves that prize or your boss why they should care about your proposal.

Post-speech Matters

Sometimes, for example, when you’re delivering a group proposal, people may ask you and your team members questions. When questions come up, we all panic about whether all the group members are on the same page.

To tackle this, I suggest establishing a common consensus of values before the presentation.

When talking about abortion, for example, decide whether your value is pro-life or pro-choice. This would help a lot, even if members on the team have different stances in reality, they’ll stick to the decided value when answering questions, to avoid any contradictions with the speech or with other team members.

Others

Prepare early, and establish a common goal for better co-operation and equal effort put in by team members.
Having a back-up speaker or two is a good idea. You never know if one of your team members could fall sick.
Use of body language, volume, tone
Engage with the audience
Use visual aids if possible
Plan what you and your speakers are going to wear. It doesn’t look good to have one speaker in a suit and the other in shorts!