You might believe that most of the leg work is done once you’ve found your after dinner speaker. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case. After you’ve made the arrangements for who’ll be speaking you have to start your preparation work by ensuring that your after dinner speaker is fully briefed so he or she can be ready.

Too many people seem to believe that their professional after dinner speaker will automatically ensure they get the perfect speech. However, if you want to save yourself and the audience the boredom of listening to the same speech the speaker’s said a hundred times before, make sure the speaker knows some basic information allowing him or her to tailor a speech.

The simplest rule which is nevertheless often overlooked is to ensure that the speaker is given adequate information on the audience. At the very least he or she must know their gender, age range and motivation for even being in a room together. Do they all work for you?Do they belong to a club or organisation?All of this is important and affects the speech. You should also make sure the after dinner speaker is aware of the audience’s expectations. Perhaps they are awaiting a funny, motivational or advisory speech, and the speaker will alter their presentation accordingly.

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Even if you’ve done it before a hundred times you’re likely to feel nervous if you have agreed to be an after dinner speaker at an event whether corporate, educational or charitable.
There is no reason why being an after dinner speaker should be hard. You are almost certainly already familiar with the organisation that has asked you to speak.Perhaps you hold a position of authority within the organisation.

However you came to be associated with the organisation you will be speaking to, you are at an advantage over professional after dinner speakers who are drafted in from speakers’ agencies.The advantage is that you already know the type of people you’ll be addressing, their interests, hobbies and any taboo subjects that just shouldn’t be mentioned. In other words, your research is already done.Professional after dinner speakers have to research this sort of thing.

After completing one fo the hard parts, it’s on to the challenge of making sure the speech is interesting. It takes a good after dinner speaker to combine the right amount of factual information, humour and anecdotes to produce an informative but engaging speech.

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The might of celebrity is undeniable. They sell magazines, papers and they lead us all to switch on and tune in each day. They determine the clothes people wear, the products consumers use plus the food people eat, or don’t. Exactly what, then, is the point of the celebrity speaker in our undoubtedly fame obsessed world? Surely the countless more understated endorsements, or rather the more conventional ones, for example TV adverts and the like, are a reasonable intrusion into and influence on our lives without the famous becoming celebrity speaker at anything from political rallies, to shop openings to charitable dinners?

The celebrity speaker is more prevalent and potent. Whether it be of their own accord or because of a big hire fee, it’s more common than ever to see some kind of celebrity or other at events. Prominent examples of famous people becoming speaker are that of Bob Geldoff and the band of celebrity crusaders with a conscience, utilizing their celebrity and influence to increase recognition of the circumstances of the hungry.

More recently than that, celebrity speakers seem to have been spotted trying to play more of a political function. There is Jamie Oliver and his one-man battle on junk food and even more recently there was the situation of Arlene Phillips coming into governmental politics as the dance tsar.

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