Advice from a professional keynote speaker?

What does it feel like 24 hours before delivering a closing keynote speech at a conference with more than 1,000 people in attendance?

When I launched the Keys from Keynotes interview series and podcast two years ago, I dreamt of interviewing speakers in-person, hours before they were about to take the stage for a keynote speech.

Until recently, every Keys from Keynotes interview was done over Zoom, but I finally had the chance to interview a professional speaker just 24 hours before he delivered the closing keynote speech at a recent conference in Banff, Alberta.

Shawn Kanungo is one of my favourite speakers. Each of his presentations includes fresh information customized for those he is presenting to. Last year he booked about 80 speaking gigs and he was on the road for 150 days. If you visit Speakers Spotlight’s website, his image appears at the top of the page, yet he says he still feels as though he’s a rookie who is just getting started.

Today's column contains the three biggest takeaways from my interview with Shawn. (Scroll to the bottom to watch the full video interview.)

Content creates luck

Even though Shawn brings a video crew to almost every conference he speaks at, if he could go back to day one, he would’ve shot even more video content.

“I think that content creates luck,” said Shawn. “But I believe a lot of speakers put up a lot of vanity posts, like, ‘look at me, I spoke here.’ That’s not helpful to anybody.”

Shawn said the key is to capture content that adds value to the audience. He said speakers should record their presentations and then figure out which clips will add value to their audience so others will voluntarily share that content.

Not all rooms have the same energy

When Shawn walks into the room he will present in, he can tell pretty quickly how the speech will likely go before he says a word.

“The reason why comedy clubs have low ceilings is because that energy is trapped. When people are sitting side-by-side, it’s a tight room and there’s lots of people, you can feel the energy,” said Shawn. “If it’s spread out with high ceilings, that energy is going to dissipate.”

Shawn changes his approach depending on the room layout and demographic of the audience. When the energy is going to be good, he dials up the humour from the stage. When it’s a more difficult setup, his focuses less on being entertaining, and more on delivering attendees with valuable takeaways.

Events will likely thrive as A.I. evolves

There’s no question many industries will be impacted by artificial intelligence, but Shawn believes events will thrive.

“Events are going to have a boom. Events are where you create new knowledge. You’re colliding with other people. You’re learning what’s happening inside people’s businesses. That is data A.I. can mostly not get.”

While an increase of events is good news for speakers, Shawn believes audiences will demand speakers go beyond giving simple information that could be found online, and show a preference toward those who have the ability to provoke them.

“I think, as a speaker, your job is to build something A.I. can never do—it’s to be so different, so provocative, so game-changing… and not just through the energy but through the content.”

If you’re thinking about joining Toastmasters to improve your public speaking skills, the Kelowna AM Toastmasters Club is always looking for new members.

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This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.