You definitely bring up some good points with your advice. The key is to simply have complete control of yourself without the fear of audience retaliation. And of course, as you stated, it’s best to ask to speak with that one smart alec after the speech. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

One more thought. When I first learnt public speaking, too long ago to say out loud, one of the most helpful things I was taught was that ‘to 99.999% of the audience what you say is correct because your the person making the speech’. Understanding this fact alone can take away a common fear of forgetting part of the speech or having to retrace your steps a little. As you say making the occasional slip up or non adherence to your prepared speech, if it is noticed by the audience at all, is usually forgiven, additionally it demonstrates that the speaker is human and therefore a slight slip-up can actually build audience empathy.

Oh yes and there is one smart xxxx in the audience politely ask them to see you after the speech (in order not to slow down proceedings) and tell them you will devote some personal time to their question.

Ric http://www.orglearn.org