Over the years, I have been fortunate to attend a number of professional communications conferences. In between cups of Starbucks house blend and mini lemon currant scones at one particular event, I got to thinking. 
 
Some of the presenters totally blew me away, while others left me cold and feeling…dare I say it...annoyed.

Then I began to ponder what the top-notch speakers did to make such an impact on me, and where others fell short.
 
Thus, here are my pleas to public speakers everywhere:

 1.       Throw your own agenda out the door.
 It quickly became clear who came to the conference to shamelessly plug their business, and who was truly passionate about the subject matter. I don’t particularly relish being “soft recruited” at an event that costs over $1,000 to attend, and I doubt I’m alone in that sentiment. The speakers who stood out not only loved where
they work, but most importantly, they love what they do, and it showed. 
 
2.       Forget the corporate mumbo jumbo.
Yes, you have an impressive corporate mission statement. And, wow—your fiscal year priorities are riveting. Except that they’re not. Successful speakers find a way to connect with everyone in the room, and they don’t do it by reciting information that can be
found on a company web site.

3.       Use examples, for the love of God!
In college, my journalism professors taught me that details matter. For example, which sounds more appealing: an “old house”, or a “quaint Victorian charmer from another era”? Real estate aside, the exceptional speakers at this conference employed compelling examples in their rhetoric. The session on “Care and Feeding of the
Corporate CEO” shined with anecdotes about CEOs staging social experiments involving hideous yellow ties, while the session on “The Heart of Storytelling” almost brought me to tears with a story about the speaker’s children.  Bottom line: make it real, make it relevant, and use examples!

 4.       Seize the opportunity to tell an epic tale.
Given the state of the global economy, the last three to four years have not been kind to many businesses. One company spoke on this subject, and about how they had transformed themselves from within to ride out the storm. There were definitely elements of the extreme in the story, including the return of a heroic CEO, massive layoffs, and a media sensation. How were these events presented? Not as an epic battle circa ancient Greece, but as a timeline. Yes, a timeline. With just a little more drama, that could have been an epic tale.  Instead it fell flat.

5.       Offer tips that can be used immediately.
Professionals come to conferences because they want to learn new approaches, connect with colleagues from a variety of industries, and above all: to apply those learnings to their work. We can’t do that in the absence of any tangible suggestions. So think of
the top three takeaways you want your audience to remember, and then pony up some suggestions for how that might look in the workplace. Your audience will absolutely love it.

Maybe you’re comfortable in the limelight. You’re the first to volunteer for ‘show and tell’ in the next team meeting. You can be counted on to tell the funniest (and loudest) stories at the company happy hour. First out on the dance floor, no sweat.

But how do you feel about video? Once the camera starts rolling, do you fumble and mentally dart for the nearest exit?

Aside from seasoned professionals like television news anchors and actors, or even anything-but-gun-shy executives, most people feel a bit of apprehension in front of a video camera.

Video is one of the most engaging mediums out there, and incredibly prolific, with 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute and 1 billion unique visitors each month. So, it’s worth getting a handle on video.

Did you know that at my company, Avanade, we have a real-live recording studio, complete with sound proof walls, a variety of camera equipment, a green screen, teleprompter, and even an Avanade director’s chair? Well, we do. It’s located in our Seattle headquarters, and it’s pretty much the coolest.

Since joining Avanade in 2010, I have worked with the amazing Avanade Studios team to produce dozens of videos for a variety of purposes: training, announcing new corporate initiatives, marketing, and career content.

It’s a unique and fun experience to play director and production manager. A typical session includes prepping the “star” before film starts rolling, reviewing talking points, confirming camera angles/lighting/style and a sound check with our producer, and coaching throughout the session.

What’s more, it requires quickly reading people and their comfort level in front of the camera, triaging when they feel overwhelmed, and coming up with great one-liners and compelling content on the fly.

Communicators, business managers, and executive assistants—listen up! Here are my tried and true tips for studio success (these apply to any form of filming, even on your iPhone):

1.       Be prepared: Know who the video is intended to reach (your audience), why you are creating the film, what you want people to do after you watch it, and more. Then, be prepared to communicate this vision in one minute or less.

2.       Bring: Extra copies of the script or talking points as hard copies and on a thumb drive, a pen, and cell phone (keep it silent!)

3.       Know your talking points: you should know the key points that need to be made in the video, practically by heart. Listen for these while filming. Also, before you even get to the studio or filming site, be sure to actually talk through each bullet to make sure it sounds human and authentic, not like a bunch of rehearsed gobblety goo.

4.       Comfort is king: The individual in the spotlight needs to feel at ease. You can help make it happen by engaging in a little small talk, giving the person time to practice and absorb, letting them go at their own pace, and standing back and shutting up (as needed). Sometimes they know exactly what they are doing once that red light goes on—and you simply need to give the thumbs up.

5.       Improvise: If a line or approach is just not working, try something else. Brainstorm together and you may come up with something even better than the original plan.

6.       Play to your star’s strengths: Your guest of honor is a master of making a scripted teleprompter video looking natural as all get-out. Great, go with it! Or, they don’t want to see the script at all and prefer to speak ‘off the cuff’. Kudos to that approach, as well. The key is not to force an incongruous style on the speaker.

One final tip: there will always be another take, another day, and another video. Enjoy the moment while it lasts.