Achieving one-to-one communication

I once wrote a speech for a major public figure. He received it well in advance of the event, but the first time he read it was when he placed it on the podium.

This became painfully clear to me when, midway through the presentation, he paused for what seemed like an eternity. Then he proceeded haltingly, having lost the meaning of the speech and the attention of the audience.

This only reinforces what I said in an earlier post: the more thoroughly one can prepare, the better. Then you can do more than read. You can ‘present,’ focusing less attention on the script and maintaining greater eye contact with the audience.

Video provides another opportunity to deliver a message directly to an audience – especially online, where the audience consists of one person sitting close to the screen.

In video, maintaining eye contact is even more important. Most people use a teleprompter in order to read the script while looking directly at the camera. But it is the rare amateur who can do this and still look natural.

One video production company in particular, Access Video, has developed a technique to coax a natural, highly personal presentation from virtually anyone – even the CEO. The technique, "Enhanced First Person," helps individuals deliver their message in their own words directly to their audience.

Whether the audience consists of a few members from an organization, a hundred attendees at a public venue or thousands of visitors to a website, the more we can make our communication a one-to-one experience, the more successful we’ll be in making our message really stand out.

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Of course, there are times when a person does not want to stand out. Take a certain bank robbery. Police quickly solved the crime by staking out a styling salon. They figured the thief would try to get his hair color changed – from orange!

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For more basics, see Writing for the Ear: a Primer in the left-hand column.