Episode #155: How Many People Should Present

Often, we are presenting as a team and more than one speaker may be involved. Is that ideal or are we better off to have only one speaker? Usually we are talking for around 40 minutes, so the time isn’t all that long to split over multiple speakers. Are we better to limit it to one or two, or does it actually matter? Personally, I prefer one speaker if possible and if necessary then two as a maximum. There is the rhythm requirement for both speaker and listener. Chopping and changing all the time makes it hard for the audience to identify with the speaker and absorb the message. For the speaker too the chance to get one’s cadence rolling gets truncated when you have to hand off to the next speaker.

Having multiple speakers is common at events, but usually they have the full time allotted to them and they don’t share it around. There are some reasons for this and one is that the speaker is the star of the show. We want to be careful about having two suns in the sky. If one of the speakers is very polished, professional and very competent as a presenter and their comrade is a shambles, then the audience attributes your firm’s level of professionalism to the shambles, rather than the excellent presenter. The reputational damage from this is huge because the audience finds the lowest level of skill and plots you there. You have also just clearly demonstrated that your firm is incapable of professional consistency.

Even if both speakers are competent, there is the issue of maintaining the same level of energy in the room. Remember, the audience is stone cold when they get into the venue and we have to warm them up. We are in the Age of Distraction and today audiences are shameless about pulling out their mobile phones and scrolling through their email or social media as they multitask. We speakers want them single focused on us and not escaping to the tantalising delights of the internet. The first speaker has to break through that wall of disinterest and mild to throbbing cynicism and grab everyone’s attention. They have to win the audience over and they use all the weapons at their disposal, ranging from the quality of the material involved to the delivery techniques employed.

They do their job and now there is handover to the other speaker. The audience cynicism meter springs back into action as they now have to sum up the new speaker to see if they will keep listening or get out their mobile and escape the room. What are some best practices for the handover. I don’t think I ever see this done well. Usually it is some poor bromide like , “Taro will now talk about X” and up steps Taro to the microphone or the podium.

Instead, why not say, “we have found some fascinating applications of this material for your business. This will be of interest to every business in the room today, because we are all facing the same issues of staying relevant in business. We have an expert here to guide us through the traps and obstacles, someone who has been working on these issues for decades, please welcome my good friend and colleague Taro to the podium take us through how we can prosper and differentiate ourselves over the next decade”. When our colleague begins moving to the stage, we are already clapping vigorously to inspire the audience to also clap. On stage, we ceremoniously welcome him or her with a warm handshake and a big smile and then depart to our chair, leaving the limelight to them.

They have to be presenting at the same level of energy we were so that the transition seems as seamless as possible. There should be no time lost switching laptops or dickering around with the technology. If that needs to be done, they should launch straight into their remarks, while someone else does that for them. Their immediate job is to focus 100% on the audience and connect with them straight away. We talk about having a strong opening to grab the audience when we start. The second speaker also needs to have that too. We can’t just leave it with the first speaker, because the audience will have forgotten that by now and here they are face to face with an unknown quantity. The second speaker has to design their opening to grab their listeners attention too.

When we get to the Q&A this needs to be worked out ahead of time. What you don’t want is vaudeville, where a question is raised from the audience and both speakers look at each other quizzically, wondering who will answer that one. One of the speakers will act as the navigator, either taking the question themselves or passing it over to their colleague. In this way there are no doubts about who will answer it and also a few seconds available for the colleague to gather their thoughts and think how they will answer the actual question.

It will be predetermined who will offer the final close after the Q&A. A good practice is to make it the first speaker, so that they can reconnect themselves and the speech from the second half back to the first half. It ties a nice, neat bow on the whole proceedings. The point is all this must be planned out in advance, so that all contingencies are catered for.