3 Best Practices to Hit the Stage with Confidence and Authenticity
Great events require more than just great presentations. It’s the speakers and the collaboration with your production team behind those presentations that are essential for creating seamless event experiences and taking them to the next level.
A few months back, we tapped into our subject matter experts and published a blog titled;"Coaching Your Keynote: 5 Tips for Helping Your Speakers Shine.” With so many details to handle in the run-up to your event, it’s tempting to leave speakers to their own devices. But don’t expect your speaker(s) to show up on event day ready to hit the ground running. Having those expectations is a huge mistake that can hurt ROI and ROO for your entire event. Investing time to help your speakers perform at their best is a triple win: your audience feels inspired, your speaker feels successful and gratified, and you’ve provided value to your attendees – boosting your brand and ensuring they want to return year after year.
TIME IS MONEY
Now that you know what it takes to coach our keynote speakers and put together a “good presentation,” let’s take a deeper dive and maximize your investment time by putting these 3 best practices into play:
#1. PREPARATION
Know Your Deadlines:
Adhering to deadlines prevents major delays on site.
Talking Points/Notes:
Keep your notes concise, use them as a quick reference, and do not read them verbatim. No more than 3-4 bullet points per slide is a good guide. For anything more than that, we recommend a scrolling teleprompter script.
Rehearse Before You Arrive:
Review content with superiors and peers to ensure you have the correct messaging.
Practice makes perfect – by repeatedly rehearsing and refining your presentation, you internalize key messages, which results in an authentic show-ready presentation.
Stagedge can support rehearsals anywhere with a producer, graphic designer, and appropriate gear to set up each presenter for success.
#2. REHEARSAL:
Speaker Ready Room:
Before taking the stage, take advantage of rehearsing the Speaker Ready Room. A separate room that provides the same technical set-up as the main stage, along with a smaller production team dedicated to helping you prepare. This is the time to fully review, finesse, edit, and rehearse your content.
Expect to rehearse your opening moments several times to ensure you are well prepared to make a strong entrance and ensure all technical cues are set.
Main Stage Rehearsals:
This rehearsal is for you and the production crew. Your rehearsal familiarizes us with your timing, cadence, and technical needs, so we can ensure it runs smoothly.
Come to this rehearsal fully prepared with your final presentation, so your focus is on getting acclimated to the stage. This is not the time to workshop your content.
Your presentation starts from the moment the audience sees you until you exit the stage. Rehearsal includes stage blocking (how, when, and where to walk on and off the stage).
Once you complete your main stage rehearsal, your presentation is final, and no further changes should be made. Your next appearance on stage will be the actual event.
#3. ON STAGE:
The View From the Stage:
The photos below show a typical downstage monitor setup.
Slides with presenter view or slides with teleprompter.
We Provide Stage Direction and Coaching [tips to keep in mind]:
Avoid pacing – constant movement will distract from your message.
Take advantage of the stage’s expanse to address different sections of the audience.
Plant in one place when making a key point, then talk and move with purpose before landing to deliver the next key message.
Protect Your Voice:
Speak loud and strong; the microphone is meant to amplify your confident voice.
Mind your Shoes:
Wear the same shoes to the rehearsal you plan to present in.
At Stagedge, putting “best practice” methods in place to ensure success for our clients is only one of the many innovations that set us apart from the competition. We like to call it the “Stagedge Difference.” For more tips on how Stagedge can take your event to the next level, download our free eBook,
Working Backward To “Wow”: 4 Innovations To Help You Create a Great Event Experience.