Is style more important than content when speaking?
Do you think that a professional actor could deliver poor content and get rave reviews? Could a topic expert get poor reviews because of poor style?
Sure this is only one example but this actually happened to a professional actor. See the speech for yourself. Google The Fox Lecture. A professional actor was asked to deliver a meaningless speech at a psychiatrist / physician conference. He had one day to prepare and the speech was devoid of meaning. He got rave reviews and the audience went as far as saying what they had from the speech. Nothing was given but they took meaning from a speech designed to say nothing.
Once the audience were told that they had been duped they were wary. The next speaker was a legitimate speaker and a physician. The audience reacted negatively thinking they were being tricked again even though the content was relevant and potentially valuable.
The moral of this story is to learn to present like a polished actor. Use emphasis, gesture, pausation, passion and humour. If your content is relevant and well prepared, your chance of success is excellent. If your content relevant and well researched, poor delivery can render it useless. Finally, never, never follower a hoaxer.
Paddy Spruce
