6 Steps to Picking the Ideal Speech Topic

You are on the verge of panic — there is a blank sheet in front of you and a whole presentation to prepare. With little time left, you need to pick the right topic. According to many public speaking experts, it is this task exactly that eats most of the available time.
If you wish to be a successful public speaker, you need to improve the topic selection process. It doesn’t have to cause you to panic, as there are a few proven steps you can follow to nail it down:

• What is the event all about – before you do anything else, you need to find out more about the speaking event and the primary purpose behind it. This goes a long way in letting you narrow down a relevant topic. Not knowing this essential information will be like shooting in the dark and that is not a situation you want to find yourself in.
• Know the audience — while you don’t necessarily need to know everyone in the attendance, you will need to be familiar with some commonalities. For example, you can understand their reasons for coming to the event. Additionally, you can find out more about their age, gender, education, seniority, employment, ethnicity, etc.
• Consider your knowledge, interests and experience — at this point, you need to think of you as a speaker. If you are interested in your topic, you will have an easier time preparing for it. Consider if there are any topics you already have experience with that you can share with the audience. Also, consider relevant news. You can bet safely on any topic that the media has recently exploded about. Relevance is an important factor when picking your topic.
• Brainstorm the ideas — by now you should have a wide range of ideas. You should document them, even if they sound ridiculous to you. In doing so, you will preserve all ideas and easily pick the best one. If possible, you should bounce ideas off somebody, as other people will often provide constructive feedback and help you select the best topic.
• Time to shortlist — crunch time is upon you. Now you should narrow down your topic choices and select only a few of them you deem the best ones. You need to think about the factors in play here. Which topics are most relevant and most appealing to the audience of the event? Which topic do you think you can nail down perfectly? Are there any topics you would consider to be crowd pleasers? There is no time to contemplate — trust your gut feeling on answering these questions.
• Commit to a single decision — once you have chosen the topic, you need to stick to your choice. If you feel like no single topic is suitable, see if you can do a rough draft of the few competing ones. The one that is easy to craft and deliver should be the one you choose.

Now that you know how to choose a topic for your public speech, you will feel more confident in delivering interesting and relevant content to your audience.

If you still have trouble finding the right topic, be sure to contact Presence Training on 020 7112 9194.

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