How to engage an audience | Padraig Hyland | TEDxTallaght

hi everybody I don't know if I can follow that but I'll have run and I'm gonna talk to you this evening about how you engage an audience and which after what we've seen so far is a pretty tough act to follow and I got to start by telling his story this story is about the time the first time I ever left Ireland I was about 18 at the time and I went to New York the first time I'd ever flown I'd seen the movies I was very excited I'd seen the skyline the hotdog stands the yellow taxis I was all pumped up as far as I was concerned De Niro and Pacino were gonna pick me up at the airport we were going to go into New York City and we were probably gonna do something really illegal life is about to start okay so I arrived in New York my cousin Michael pick me up now he's not as dangerous as some of the characters Pacino's played but he's a nice guy so he picked me up and as we were putting my luggage into the car he said something really interesting he said porec I hope you don't mind but we're going straight to a party okay things are picking up and I ended up at this party within 20 minutes I was in the kitchen drinking beer which at 18 was illegal in New York so box ticked life had just started happening and I found myself surrounded by beautiful women haha yeah oh because I just discovered something about myself do you know what that was an amazing thing something I had to leave Ireland to find out I discovered I had an accent I didn't need looks or a personality it's just my accent life was starting to get even better and they just loved the way I spoke to go like Oh Mary Lou you gotta listen to this guy say something with bowels in it they love my father say something with vowels in it and I go bold and then I'd see words like marmalade they love that word they absolutely love us because they call it jelly so it's a whole new word but I had a lot of vowels so I don't use that one like if I really fancied her so things are going really well right and then all of a sudden the door to the kitchen opened and then walked the guy that owned the house and he said hey Irish coz they couldn't pronounce porec that was far too much to ask he said hey Irish you want a cold beer I said I'd love with I'll get you one from the refrigerator and then he turned but then he stopped and he turned back and he said Irish you guys got refrigerators in Ireland right and I thought you know there'd be a little twinkle in his eye possibly a little smile nothing and maybe it was the beer but something in the back of my mind went let's see where this goes so in refrigerator this is yeah dude you know keeps your beers cold preserves your food what do you mean you don't have to bury it in the garden to which he went dude he's gonna mess your head up and then he walked me across the kitchen to show me a fridge no it was America this was probably the biggest fridge I'd ever seen it was like floor-to-ceiling top of doors I mean it was almost like the guy bought a fridge built a house around this hump boy was he proud of his fridge he whipped open the doors and started dude is where I put the eggs man look where I put the beers and then at one point he opened the freezer reached in pulled out a chicken he said look man I said it's a frozen chicken yeah but what you don't know is that was fresh when I put it in no oh my god at this point I noticed a bottle of vodka in the fridge I said hey it doesn't freeze the vodka no it doesn't freeze vodka hold on a minute you've been minted a machine that would freeze the chicken but won't freeze vodka mm-hmm she's I heard you put a man on the moon but this is amazing and this kept going on I asked the dumbest questions like could it freeze a polar bear it's like what do you want to freeze a polar bear for well they're difficult to freeze and about this time the doorbell wins ding-dong and I went Jesus what was that dude that's the doorbell that's like how you get into the house oh my god I wish we had them in Ireland I'm always locking myself out of the house and he was about to start explaining how a doorbell worked when he kind of stopped himself and he said are you playing me and I said yeah like a violin we've got fridges and bells jingle bells doorbells whatever bells you go we got them so I like to tell that story because it's a funny story no other reason oh yeah there is another reason also because that story has a couple of things that every engaging speaker uses when they're trying to engage an audience yeah things that you're looking for right now every time a speaker walks out here three key things actually I tell you what they are but you know already so I'm gonna get you to tell me yup for that good I brought some technology hope you don't mind so three things the first one starts with an i what do you think it is and you really want us what is it I contact all very good eye contact yeah okay well done yes eye contact that's exactly what I know somebody missed a spelling bee even there it's good so now I contact any other ideas Oh such instigation inspiration yes sir we do want inspiration and you you will get but it's not right sorry sir information is wrong as well yes here at the dumbest audience I've ever talked to incise absolutely I don't know who said it but insights yeah it's often mistaken for information but information is not all within theis Matta fact usually it's not so yes insights in other words you want to learn something you want to hear something you've never heard before a fresh perspective yes and if you get that you're happy inside yourself you go oh yeah I think I can survive on the planet a bit longer because I've got this insight yes and there's another thing you want and it begins with E how's that she's doing it again that's a cheese is a cheese no but II damn always see what you mean eat em oh yeah Oh put me in my place with her cheese related crack um so so yeah it's naughty damn but somebody said it what was it entertainment yes we all want to be entertained yes absolutely and then there's a final one it's got two words in it yeah oh this could take a while it could take a while will we start at the lower end of the yeah have a go then then again I did say the lower end no it's not a political party believe it or not you're not hungry for politics see you go oh look - you feel good little feel-good Actos dude she should be up here yeah feel good so what happens when people create a talk is they do this thing they say oh what's the amazing insight I'm going to impart to this audience how am I going to look super clever and at the same time I changed the world make it a better place and we focus a lot on this stuff and that's good unfortunately quite often it's information but this is the stuff we tend to look for as an audience we want this I encourage people to do a lot more of this and a lot more of this because guess what you people have become very difficult yeah you're not as compliant as you used to be he used to sit down and listen but now you don't do that anymore too many distractions always my phone somebody could be looking for me could be life or death Facebook message that's what you're like so that's why your speakers we have to add this stuff in what time the good old days when you could just do this no you know thank you very much no but that's not enough a great speaker great engager will do something with these three things he or she will ask themselves the question there go how engaged do I want to make my audience efore engage mint tea for time yes so they'll say how engaged I want to make my audience and then let's say hmm I've got 20 minutes or whatever it is let's say right and then they'll plan it out and they'll know they know this they'll know that ooh when I walk out on stage would there'll be a little bit of interest because they'll be going oh what's he about who does he think he is where did you get those shoes all of that stuff is going on ok so there's a level of interest I got that and then I'll do something like I'll start telling a story and then BOOM oh that's even more know if I came out and start a tail 10 years ago I used to be a comedian and then things went really wrong because people stopped talking back to me that's how I could go but no I told the story I took it up I said yeah let's tell story and then what happened I got into my story but even within seconds of me getting into my store some I feel highly distracted addicted to other things people some of you were already gone well little story I know but I'm losing interest hmm so then what did I have to do I'll tell you what I did I said something about Oh women surrounded by women did somebody Oh it's run by women cheese I find it hard to believe this is fascinating ah they're Nazis accent ah that's boring I know like access uh please no no no refrigerator to check of them and then and then uh yeah what's in the refrigerator and then this just went on and on right okay so as an audience member you had that little just an ebb and flow continually now what I as a Greece speaker that I aspire to be what I love to do is I'll do like any good speaker I'll try and identify what that is do you know what that is time good sir thank you for sharing that what kind of time it's a certain type of time sir attention span Thank You C very good at the front row so yeah that's attention span in stand-up comedy that's 20 seconds in a business meeting it maybe maybe you got two minutes depends on the context if you're in doing a lecture and a theatre where students can't get out the door maybe you've got a bit longer but they've drifted off I don't know so you have to ask yourself what's a good speaker that wants to engage people will say what's actually their attention span and that'll be dictated by the context how interested they are in his subject what they know about how they feel about all those things and then there go well it's two minutes so that's beaker will then do this they'll say I'm gonna open with something that's gonna grab them and then every two minutes I'm gonna get him a little bit feel good or I'm gonna give them an insight what's the other thing I'm gonna give them entertainment oh my god you are such fast learners seriously I want all your names before you leave yeah so my peoples I am done here I feel my work is done I feel like we all got a moment it was amazing for me and hopefully for you so the next time you're going to do a little talk or speech think of these things design engagement into it thank you very much have a lovely night [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 24,246

Rating: 4.9143968 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Entertainment, Creativity, Passion

Id: 5h0dHhJYx5s

Length: 13min 15sec (795 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 14 2017