Audience Connection
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Superior Skills or Superior Judgment?
What matters more in public speaking: superior skills or superior judgment? Superior skills matter, but superior judgment matters more. A skilled speaker can command a room, tell stories, maintain eye contact, and speak without notes. But a speaker with good judgment understands the audience, the occasion, and what people have actually come to hear. I…
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What Makes a Speech Feel Human
What makes a speech feel human? It begins with presence: turning toward the people in the room. In Speaking as Hospitality, Gregory A Ormson explores the deeper work of public speaking: welcoming an audience before a word is spoken.
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Speaking as Hospitality
Can a speech feel like Grandma Grace’s table? When I think about hospitality, I think about my grandmother’s table. When I was a teen, my family visited Grandma Grace and Grandpa Harry in Barron, Wisconsin. They were always home, and always welcomed us inside where we sat at a simple table in the kitchen. Grandma…