Have you ever spoken in front of a group of people?

It's kinda fun, and a bit of a challenge, to hold a seminar with boring subject matter.
Humor is key
It gets attention
And they retain the info, unlike hearing someone drone on about something titillating like Inventory Control...
Much easier to get folks involved in the discussion segment

Better than watching the audience flop their heads back and forth, drooling on their ties.....
 

I created my own Homeschool group when y kids were little. Back then, homeschooling was not mainstream the way it is today so it was an oddity and there was no support…so I created my own lol! Spoke every semester and every graduation to a continuously growing group which, by the time I left the State, was well over 100

Spoke countless times in front of my Naranon group which I also helped found and which quickly grew large because it was the only one in the greater Nashville area.

sometimes help teach dance at my studio. Much smaller group, but teaching a group is a lot different than lecturing or speaking.
 
Yes. Church pageants when under 10, because my memory was so good and i didn't: get nervous i often got thebparts with most dialog. Did play throughout grades 1-12.

As a counselor at an educational camp for teens i led discussion groups and gave presentations.

Staff meetings at jobs.

Took two fun electives (consecutive semesters) when at University (i was in my late 40s) cause psych classes could be heavy load: Oral Literature and Oral Children's Literature. Students had to do readings from the literature and sometimes could take a few seconds to say why we chose the reading. The professor stated to class it was his attempt to make public speaking interesting and fun enough to help those not used it find some level of comfort in speaking before groups. Privately he admitted to some of us he also hoped to show some of them that literature could be meaningful and fun regardless if your career plans, by not disecting and critiqueing it as most Lit classes do.
 
I participated in four retreats each year for ten years giving one or two talks in each. I remember the first 20-minute talk I had to give I read every word and covered myself by telling the audience that I had been instructed to stick to the words I had written because some people think I wander off into tall tales. They laughed and I followed along with my finger on the page. I wandered off on one example and stopped mid-sentence and said, OOpps my finger stopped, and I didn't. Laughter made me much more at ease and the talk went on well.
 
One of my responsibilities in my former career was to present in public. At first, I was terrified. During my first course in public speaking, my company taped us and ran the tapes back with their commentary. :oops:

I eventually became comfortable with it. learned that adding a bit of humor and "ad lib" would engage the audience. I typically presented to 300-3000 people at various conferences. The lights were bright because I was projected onto two screens, I couldn't see the audience and that could be intimidating. I did learn that the positive response (clapping, laughs) from the audience was absolutely necessary to keep me going.

I am a quiet, reserved person off stage but I project a different persona on stage.
 
Spoke at book signings, made so many , at this one below the govenor wanted me to keep my speech short, because the lady speaking after me was long winded ,and we had a lot of other things to do
 
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