I posted earlier about a terrible speaker experience at a conference I attended recently.  It was an American who gave his country of origin a bad name by giving an awful speech at a conference in London.

What happened next was just as tragic.  He was followed by a pair of Americans, young start up guys who were doing very cool things with their biz.  They were from the West Coast, and were possessed of all the usual West Coast mannerisms and speech affect.  Pretty soon, the irony was flying, the “dudes” were dropping, and the Silicon Valley in-jokes were sailing past the audience, most of whom were by and large oblivious to the irony and the jokes.

The first of the pair was a bit over-caffeinated, but his energy was undeniable.  And he was working hard to earn the audience’s respect.  The second speaker was more self-assured, and he enjoyed cracking nerd jokes that would have worked in Silicon Valley but didn’t in Grosvenor Square.

Both were competent speakers.  They were aware of the cultural differences and made jokes about how their jokes were falling flat, making the audience chuckle.  So had they followed anyone else, the audience would have found them perfectly acceptable.  Problem was, we just weren’t ready to hear from more Americans (in London) after that initial disaster.  It wasn’t their Americanness, per se; just that they were too much like the previous speaker in one particular way.

And they didn’t know it, because they hadn’t seen the speech.  They’d been in the green room getting ready.

I have always joked that I much prefer to follow a bad speaker, because it’s easy to shine in contrast.  But this case proves that if the audience perceives you to be like the previous speaker, and the previous speaker was bad, then you’ve got more work to do, not less.

Context matters, in speaking.  Where you speak in the lineup matters.  Try not to go right after lunch, or just before quitting time.  Just before lunch isn’t that great either.  But most of all, if you’re going to follow a bad speaker, do your best to distance yourself from him or her as you begin.

The right way to follow that awful speech would have been to walk to the middle of the stage, pause, and say to the audience, “I don’t love you.”  The audience would have howled, the break would have been made, and the difference established.

Otherwise you’ll find yourself having to work way too hard.