Straight talk about the art, science, and everyday dangers of public speaking — from a battle-scarred veteran of the conference circuit.
Scott Berkun By Barbara Palmer
during his more than 15 years as a conference speaker. “In hundreds of lectures around the world,” he writes, “I’ve done most of the scary, tragic, embarrassing things that terrify people.” But perfection isn’t really the point, says Berkun, a former
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project manager at Microsoft who has written bestsellers on topics including management, creativity, and innovation, and whose work as a writer and speaker has appeared in Wired, Fast Company, The Economist, and other media outlets. The average person can make 1,500 verbal blunders a day, he writes, and even the best speakers make tons of mistakes: “As long as the messages comes through, people naturally over- look many things.… [H]istory bears out that people with clear
y page 3 ofConfessions of a Public Speaker, it’s clear that author Scott Berkun doesn’t plan to pull any punches, least of all about the mistakes that he’s made
ideas and strong points are the ones we remember.” Berkun’s own goals as a speaker, he confides, are to be
useful, to be good, and to sound like himself. Confessions of a Public Speaker is packed with anecdotes and advice, summing up what he’s learned about topics including nerves, speaker fees, technical preparation, delivery, and dealing with all the things that inevitably will go wrong. The author doesn’t mince words when it comes to inter-
acting with event organizers. His advice, written under the heading “Your hosts are control freaks,” includes this blunt assessment: “Slide templates are stupid 95 percent of the time.” Recently Convene spoke with Berkun about the impor-
tance of listening to great speakers, why he likes to get to a meeting room at least an hour ahead of time, and what he wants to know about his audience in advance.