Comments on: Learning from Jeffrey Veen

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:20:59 +0000

Now if I could interview the tech guy and ask for his recollection of this event, we’d have every angle on the story! Thanks John!

By: John Allsopp

John Allsopp — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:24:24 +0000

Ahh,

I was there for the disaster story – both as the organizer of the conference (I’m a real stickler for an event as a show, and so even little glitches with projection and so on annoys me – like when speakers come on stage in front of people and then plug in their laptops, …)

The timing of this could not have been better/worse right at the first slide transition. I’d actually just introduced Jeff, and when all went pearshaped, I was in the front row, still mic’d up. Jeff looked at me and said something like “John, you are good at improvising”, so we kind of ad-libbed while all around us technicians madly scrambled around doing all kinds of technician stuff. The secret to things like this is to turn it to your advantage – handle it with equanimity, get the crowd on your side, and it can even be a net positive. But never fun ;-/

By: Jeffrey Veen

Jeffrey Veen — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:54:50 +0000

Yeah, it’s weird. For me, I can’t really get my thoughts into a coherent form without sitting at the keyboard typing it out. And what Scott noted is really true: I almost never look at those paragraphs again. If I try to memorize the words, it just completely tangles me up on stage. But somehow, the act of typing a script cements certain words in my mind and they are the ones I end up using on stage.

Looking forward to the book!

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:30:46 +0000

Hi Tammy: I found this fascinating, because as a writer myself my process is quite different. For a standard lecture, as long as i have slides I don’t write anything down. I kick around the slides for a little while, and then I do a dry run. When the dry run falls apart, I kick around the slides some more, and then repeat. I don’t write it at it all.

However if i have to give a speech or do a short talk and choose to go slideless, I’ll do almost exactly what Jeff described to me.

Anyway, thx for the comment.

By: Tammy Takahashi

Tammy Takahashi — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:24:33 +0000

I like how Jeffrey Veen relates public speaking to the writing process. I was a writer before a public speaker, and writing still dominates my process. Both my preparation and my presentation are based on what I learned about strong writing.

I’m still learning in both regards. It’s great to learn from successful writers/public speakers who have a similar experience.