What’s the advantage to you, as an event organiser, of having The Voiceologist in the shadows with a microphone at your conference/SKO/AGM/Awards?
Let me count the ways…*
Timing.
If I’m reading a list of nominees for an award and one gets an especially loud cheer and applause, I can ride the reaction and then say something like “Hmm – popular choice!”
The Unexpected.
(This really happened) I’m due to tell the audience what the judges said about the winner, while they’re on stage doing the ‘Grab-And-Grin’.
Except the name that’s just been read out is Caroline, and the person climbing the steps with a big smile obviously uses he/him/his pronouns.
A pre-recording, or someone without my years and years of being ‘live’, would have been sunk – I said “I’m thinking that’s probably not Caroline, but you will promise to pass the award on, won’t you sir? Here’s why she won…”.
Back-chat.
Knowing I’m really in the room gives the presenters backup if they lose their place or get muddled – they can just ask me where we’re off to next. Ask me about pronunciations. Or just use me as the butt of the jokes…
Ad-liberty.
An example: the last session of a four day SKO of which I’d been the main linking voice, started with a very funny musical act which had everybody bouncing. The next item was – closing speech from the CEO. This could have been the proverbial bucket of cold water. So I say “How on earth do we follow that? Only one man is up to the task – please welcome the International Man Of Mystery known only as…” He entered the stage smiling, to cheers from his staff.
The connecting factor is having, live in the room, someone to connect the on-stage action with the instructions on the headsets, and to be appropriate and entertaining at the same time.
If you’re planning a live event – do yourself a favour, add The Voiceologist to the team.
“has the most amazing ‘voice presence’ – all awards ceremonies should book him!” – awards client, December 2022.
*additional dialogue by W. Shakespeare