Environment | Access
For anyone speaking in public, even for a short talk, it is really important to warm up your voice and your body.
Of course, you should experiment to find what works best for you - there’s no one right way to do this, but it IS essential you do some kind of warm up.
If you are doing a few talks in one day, perhaps at a rally, a vocal cool down and warm up in between talks will also help.
Voice Warm Up Exercises [5-10 mins]
Follow the steps below or watch and follow
this video.
Breathe deeply, relaxing your belly, so belly, ribs, and back expand with your breath.Stretch out your neck, jaw, face and sides.Activate your breath support muscles with a hiss exercise.Begin vocalizing on something easy to start stretching out the vocal cords e.g.: lip roll, “HM” (hum), or “NN”.Sing on an easy, relaxed OO vowel to work on good, consistent resonance throughout your range.Open up to an “AH”, “YAH”, “UH”, or “YUH” to relax the jaw down and lift the soft palate up.Get into mix voice with an “NG, “NYAH”, “NAY”, “MUM”, or “BUH”.Warm down: If you spent quite a bit of time working out, warm down with a gentle hum or lip trill.
Body Warm Up Exercises [5 mins]
Stretch your arms up above your head; drop them down. Repeat x 3.Bring your shoulders up to your ears; drop them back down; drop them further. Repeat x 4Roll your shoulders forward several times. Roll them backwards a few times.Wriggle out the tension. Take a deep breath and give a long exhale.
And always remember to keep hydrated - this will also help protect your voice.
Have some water within reach. If your mouth gets dry, or you just need a minute to compose yourself, it’s a great help to say ‘excuse me for one second’ and take a drink.
A tip from the theatre world is to put some lip salve on your teeth to stop your lips sticking on them!
Dealing with Nerves
Even the most experienced speakers can get nervous - its natural - but developing your confidence will help you to be clear and to minimise those verbal fillers such as “er” "um" or “like”. These can become habits we don’t even notice, but listeners can find them very distracting and this dampens the impact of your talk. Try recording one of your sessions and watching it to spot fillers.
Here are some tips and tricks to help with nerves and improve the quality of your presentation:
Speak clearly, in short phrases. Listeners need time to absorb your words.take deliberate breathing pauses. Don’t worry - they will feel a lot shorter to participants than they will to you, but they will help with your pacing and energy levels. Use them totake a drink of water!🔹make eye contact with participants🔹create impact after something you've said🔹find your place in the script, if you have temporarily lost it - but there is no harm in saying you’ve lost the place so 'excuse for a moment' until you find it. We’re only human!
Presenter’s Environment Close unnecessary internet tabs, make sure nothing is downloading, etc - generally ensure you have nothing competing with your video bandwidth so you don’t appear distorted to your participants. Try and ensure your camera is level with your eyeline, and not pointing up or severely down at your face - this helps you to appear natural. Put your phone on silent and make sure it’s not resting on the same surface as your computer [vibrations/buzzing will still be picked up]. DURING THE SESSION - HOUSEKEEPING AND FEEDBACK XR meetings are run rather differently due to our culture and, ideally, all sessions ought to begin with Housekeeping - an explanation of meetings culture. If this is not possible, e.g. for reasons of timing, they should be clearly displayed on a slide, or posted in chat, for everyone to read. Having said that, the access/inclusivity points ought to be dealt with by the presenter.
Access Check if the closed captioning is required and turn it off or explain how participants can hide them, as required. Do participants have any access requirements e.g. additional comfort breaks; a slower presentation speed with longer pauses so information can be processed; a longer time to formulate any questions. Essential - participants keep mics switched off until they need to speak. Explain that if mics are left open, any background noise will interfere with whomever is speaking and will cut out their voice. They can use chat to communicate if they don’t have a mic. Make sure the room you are in is well-lit! It’s important that your face is clearly visible for lip readers. On that note, ensure you’re looking straight into the camera for the appearance of making eye contact. Be sure that participants are clear about the duration of the session, approximate break time[s] and if there is an additional Q&A. Always give the option for participants to indicate their requirements in a direct message in chat and make sure they know how to use it. Safe space Explain that we do not consume any alcohol or drugs during a session and eating should please be done off camera. Also ask if anyone prefers not to see people smoking or vaping to please advise, again via personal message if preferred, and they will be asked to go off camera. Hand Signals [once on RT add link to good diagram] Explain or show on a slide the basic hand signals to use during your session. You may not need them all, depending e.g. on the subject of your session or if its to experienced rebels · Raise one finger (query or comment) · Wavy hands (I agree - also see Temperature check below for unsure/disagree) · C for clarification · T for Technical - (e.g. ‘this is for anyone who has a technical issue so we can address you immediately’) · Two hands forming a circle (please round-up what you are saying) · Temperature check - to gauge feeling of participants (wavy hands up [BSL for cheering], in the middle and pointing downwards) Check if participants don’t have a camera. Explain using the Reactions button for hand signals - one hand for general help/Q and thumb up for Yay!/OK!