Speech Content & Public Speaking Tips!

 Hi Delegates!

As BMUN is just around the corner, I wanted to provide you all with some tips on how to deliver great speeches during conference weekend and beyond! 

When it comes to the content of your speeches, here's a few suggestions we hope will be helpful:

  •  Find a balance between too vague versus too specific in your speeches. Many times delegates run into the problem of the former where they will present ideas that are not really contributing much substance to the discussion at hand because of how general they are. So include details in your speeches so they are a bit more grounded and reflect the effort you've put into coming up with the ideas within your speech. However, at the same time you want to make sure you're not too specific to the point where no one is able to follow the content of your speech. 
  • It is always a great idea if you can, to refer to other delegates/their ideas to show you're an active listener and able to reflect (whether in agreement or not) with others ideas
  • Have a speech structure that reflects the time allocated for your speech. For example, if you are given a 1 minute speaking time, then it might be helpful to have a quick intro sentence + main bulk of speech + conclusion sentence that ties everything in. If you are only given 30 seconds to speak, make sure you instead just focus on the main bulk of the speech and do not spend time crafting an elaborate intro and conclusion if it compromises your ability to get through all your content. 
  • Make sure that your speeches are actually relevant to the topic at hand. Sometimes delegates will have this urge to speak just for the sake of speaking. However, it's more important that you provide a speech if you feel that you have something meaningful to say on the topic, instead of just providing a random speech that has none or limited connection to the discussion at hand. 

In regards to general public speaking tips:
  • Try to pace yourself by incorporating meaningful pauses where necessary and maintaining a natural cadence when speaking. 
  • If you get nervous, one tip that is really popular is to just scan the area right above people's heads so you don't need to make eye contact with people if you don't feel comfortable, and it still looks natural from an audience POV.
  • If you mess up during your speech, don't worry! Just take a second to recollect yourself. This is definitely easier said than done, but truly if you focus too much on not making a mistake, it's more likely that you might stumble compared to if you go in with the mindset that if one does happen it's totally okay because you can recover. 
  • If you are bringing up a notepad with you, it's much more beneficial if it just has bullet points on it rather than an entire speech written word-for-word. You are more likely to look down and just read off your pad if you write everything out, so just try to have guiding points instead. 

Hope this is helpful and feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns!

-Tanirika 

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