Any speaker needs an audience

Day two of recording material for Intel training and I am now into the swing of it.  The material is going to be put up on the Cognitive Edge web site as well so I now have a new recoding of the Children’s Party story which is 35kg less than the current one.    One of the great things that Dan and Rhea have done is to give me an audience on both days.  Last time round I sat on a stool and talked to the camera in an Adelaide studio.   Speaking to an audience is always preferable but I didn’t get the hand of doing it for the record until today.   An audience even if they say nothing gives you feedback and it alters what you say and how you say it.  So yesterday I got very anecdotal and specific.  Today I learnt the error of my ways and made the recording sessions desecrate chunks, with more discursive sections in between.  The other big difference on day two was more active questioning and that always keeps you on your toes.

I don’t know if anyone has studied this, but there is some form of communication that is more than simply visual clues between a speaker and an audience.   It also means you never get bored.  Even familiar stories and points take on new meaning every time you present them to a new group of people.  Any good presentation is of course a form of entertainment, however serious the content.  So it follows that you need people to entertain.

Illustration: ‘The Audience’ oils on canvas painted by George Underwood