Don- Have you experience in public speaking and/ or giving presentations? I dont want to ramble on if you have, but....
I think the best piece of advice I can give is have your 'act' down cold before you approach the lecturn. Even if it means slowly driving those closest to you insane with endless run throughs, spend at least a week working on things like pace, delivery and, of course, content. The fewer index cards full of lecture notes you carry with you, the more relaxed and spontaneous you will seem. Ask your captive audience~ friends, family, coworkers~ to be brutally honest because, if something doesn't work, it's better to discover that during the planning stages rather than before the audience.
Try to have more material on hand than you plan on using. Sometimes the most carefully paced speech can run fast, leaving you with a lot of time to fill just at the point where an audience might be becoming edgy. So, have one or two interesting but not crucial anecdotes rehearsed that can be added if needed. I was once allotted a half hour in which to speak and found myself running short of rehearsed material after less than 15 minutes~ it's a cold and lonely feeling
If, as Ms. Hall suggested, you incorporate slides and the like into your presentation, make sure that your assistant is well rehearsed. NOTHING throws one's timing off like visual aids gone awry, so a run through on the morning of your presentation to make sure that your images are all present and in the proper order, and that the person running the projector is at least passingly familiar with your cues is a must.
Having spoken, extensively, to people in assisted living, I can tell you that "round table" style presentations go over better than do college lecture style ones. The assisted living audience ALWAYS appreciates the more personal feel of the Round Table, it makes it easier for people to choose seats to accomodate impairments in sight and hearing, and if you've not spoken in public before it all but eliminates the OH GOD I'M SPEAKING IN FRONT OF A ROOMFUL OF PEOPLE panic attack that such a setting sometimes induces.
>is that there will be one or two who have a great deal to reminisce about and, if you're not careful, can squeeze the others out / bore them to tears.
So true! That is where knowing your material inside and out can be your best tool. When someone "gets the bit in their mouth and runs with it" the best advice I can give is to maintain a look of interest, listen to what the person is saying, wait for a break in the flow of verbiage, and then VERY quickly find some way of relating the tangent to your subject~ say something to the effect of "that is an excellent point" while smiling, and then use what that person has said to get your speech back on track. He or she will feel complimented that you were able to use what was said. It takes a bit of finesse to be able to do this without seeming as if you are cutting the person off....make sure that the pause in the person's monologue has lasted at least three seconds before you commence speaking....
This may sound a bit....direct....but offer an intermission of sorts at the half hour point, if not sooner. There are a number of factors that can make sitting down for an hour difficult for those "of a certain age" and rather than have people walk out because they have to, or not attend at all because of the uncertainty of having to remains seated for a long time, break your set down into smaller segments and give the audience a chance to stretch their legs if they need to. Let it be known, in advance, that there will be an intermission.
Carry a pen and note pad with you~ one never knows to whom your audience members may have been related or may have known! Some amazing, and verifiable, things have surfaced during post-speech Q&A sessions.
