Photo by me, of one of the rare occasions I was invited out into the light at an awards event.
Why you need me on your event, part umpty-seven: Expanding the options for the on-stage host.
So: you’re looking for an exciting, attractive, funny person to be the ‘face’ of your event, and you’ve found several possibles who tick all those boxes and well within budget. Excellent – but there’s only one difficulty. They’re, shall we say, new to being in the central role.
To put it another way, they’ve never done it before.
We all have to start somewhere, don’t we?
So let’s give them backup, the solid confidence-inspiring feeling that someone knows exactly what they’re doing and your host can relax into doing what they’re good at – being themselves. Because that’s how they give the audience a good experience and the client their money’s worth.
A good VOG keeps everything under control, does all the tricky bits and acts as the bridge between the people on stage and the tech-talk on the headsets. This gives the option to react to the unexpected and leads to a much happier event for everybody.
This is more of a ‘presenter’ thing than a ‘voice’ skill – which is why you need more than just someone with a great voice.
You need someone with decades of experience in live events, live radio and live TV.
You need someone adaptable.
You need me.
All of this takes the pressure off the people on stage and off you, the organiser.
It means you get more flexibility in who you book to be in the spotlight. And that means that in future you might be able to look at some superstar and remember giving them an early break – and wouldn’t that be satisfying?