Speaker 1: There I was, sitting in the audience, I was so excited for my friend, he had been preparing for nine months for this speech, and I looked at my watch and I realised, the time. It was past the time he should have finished and he hadn't even taken the stage yet. You know why? Because the speakers before him had taken longer than their allocated time. That is not cool. As a professional speaker and keynoter, and an attention expert, it makes me crazy when people steal time. Stop it. If you are a speaker, professional or not, an industry speaker, maybe you're the president of a company, maybe you're doing an update or a state of the nation, stop going over your allocated time. The reason it's so important is we are in these events together. The partnership is made up of the speaker, the AV crew, the meeting planner and the audience, and it's a partnership for all of us. Every time you stand to speak in front of a room of people, it's not about you, it's about standing in service of that audience. It's about making it run on time. There are several ways we can avoid going over time. So if you are planning an event or maybe you're a speaker at an event, let me give you a couple of insights. The first thing is to consider a professional emcee. Emcees are brilliant at keeping the flow of the event going, and maybe that's not best to use an internal company person. Maybe you need to hire a professional who knows how to do it. The second thing I would recommend is as the emcee, tell your speakers what will happen if they go over time, and create an arrangement that the two of you understand. Another strategy to help people stay on time is brief the AV crew. Tell them to turn the microphone down if someone goes over time. Yes, I know that sounds crazy, and you might think it's rude, but it's rude to take time from other speakers. The other thing you could get the AV crew to do, another strategy, is play music when their time has expired. It works at the Oscars, maybe it will work for your meeting. I would also recommend that you think about how to use a timer. Now I always use a watch, so as a speaker I watch the clock myself, but often events that I speak at and keynote, there are timers where I as the speaker can see it, but maybe another strategy is have a timer the audience can see. More and more events are doing it this way, so people know that they have a certain amount of time, and you want to honor that time. The other thing if none of these strategies are working, is as the organizer, as the chair of the conference, or maybe the professional emcee, if the person is speaking and they're going over time, walk on stage. Walk right up beside them and invite the audience to give them a round of applause and exit the stage. Now this might seem harsh, but here's the thing. We get 1,440 minutes in a day, and as a speaker you are entrusted with a certain number of minutes for that meeting. Don't steal other speakers' minutes. Don't steal time from the audience. Please honor what it is that you are agreeing to do. I've also suggested to some of my meeting planners and bureaus, consider putting in a contract clause about what will happen if the speaker goes over time. That'll fix it. So what's one of my pet peeves? Speakers going over time. Stop it. Let's please stop this crazy thing of going over time. I know some brilliant emcees who could be fantastic for your event. If you would like recommendations, please reach out to me. But please stop it. If you're a professional speaker, an industry speaker, or you're just being asked to speak at your company event, please allocate, understand, and honor the time that you're speaking. My name's Neen James, and if I can help you, please connect on social media. My Twitter handle is here below, at Neen James. Or you can come across and like us on Facebook with Neen James. I would love to hear how you stop people going over time. I wonder if you've got some secret strategies you can share with me. I'd love to hear them. Because remember, attention pays. Take care. Bye.