Public speaking events

1104: 

   

Having a one-on-one conversation about animal issues requires a subtle touch.  But we can use a different approach when public speaking, where we have a whole block of time to speak.  The idea here is to inform and have a few visuals to help get our information across.  But our talk needs to be edgy, so we set ourselves up to be knocked down, in order to encourage questions that put us on the spot.

If we’re addressing a group, speaking on invitation, airing a whole raft of ideas on the subject we’ve been asked to speak about, we’ll be attempting to reach two types.  There will be those who want to hear and those who don’t.  Some will want to agree, others to disagree.  We owe the first group the best we can offer, but our main challenge is the second group.  They want to catch us out, so we have to know what we’re talking about.

These listeners will keep us on our toes.  They’re the ones we have to work hardest for, to do our research so that we say nothing we’re not sure about.  If our detractors can show us up, they’ll make us seem unreliable.  They’ll undermine our credibility.

If we have done our homework, once we’re confident, then we can concentrate on making our talk interesting.  Our job is to spark imagination and bring people a little closer.

If we want to paint a picture of ‘the bright future ahead’, where animals aren’t being exploited, we must first be able to show how to enjoy a plant-based diet.  Otherwise it will all sound like idle speculation.  Certainly, we should spend some time talking food, but we should always come back to the main arguments concerning ethics.

We should be trying to up-lift not confront, and promote our arguments optimistically by having useful facts at hand.  We should aim at talking with some authority about health issues, ethics, farming, environment, world hunger and vivisection.  Vegan argument covers each of these areas.

Where there’s a need for more detail, we should be able to give directions to useful web sites, u-tube footage, leaflets and books.

The point of this exercise is to avoid letting anyone accuse us of being too emotional or uninformed or unprofessional … or indeed uninteresting.  A talk on this subject should be worth the amount of time being given up to attend it.

This is a heavy subject, so a talk shouldn’t last more than 30 minutes, leaving time for questions and comments from the floor.  It’s useful to keep a timer at hand, to stop running over time.