Keeping to a schedule during public speaking gigs

All this adapting may have you running short, or long. Running short is usually not a problem provided you cover all your material: it doesn’t impinge on your audience’s schedule of activities following your talk, and it gives you more time for interactions during and after the talk.

But never…

Never run long, and never start late. Do not assume that you are the only item your audience members’ agenda for the day.

If you are set for a one-hour talk, and you find yourself running long because a few members of the audience want to grill you about every slide, then you owe it to the rest of your audience to regain control of your presentation. Politely defer those questions that you can’t answer quickly until the question and answer session after the body of your talk.

Obviously you’ll need to be judicious when you’re applying this rule.

If the questioner outranks everyone in the room and you’re on unfamiliar ground, its probably safest to defer to her wishes on how this time is spent. Likewise, if you are presenting to a group in your organization and your boss is slowing things down by wanting to explore avenues other than those you have laid out, you may want to remind him gently that the topic is off the formal agenda, but do emphasize that you’d be happy to talk about it if that’s what he wants.

If, however, you are at a technical conference away from everyone’s “home turf,” or in a meeting of peers, then you must assume that everyone’s time is equally valuable and not allow a few audience members to hold everyone else hostage. Be polite, but firm. Handling this kind of situation gracefully comes only with practice.