A podium or a lectern formalizes the difference between the speaker and the audience. It marks off a separate territory and in doing so, podiums tend to add to the formality of a talk. And if they're properly utilized, they can add to your gravitas as a speaker. And you can do this, you can think of all those speech events where podiums are central. So like high political oratory, churches so on, so forth. Podiums and pulpits are the scenery that add to the drama of the performance. And this sort of gets to the stage craft of speaking. How you're choreographing a show for that audience. Now, obviously you need to decide how much you want to actually play up or down that formality. So you might want that formality and so you opt to stand behind a podium. Now you may not want that podium and so you avoid standing behind it. You don't want that formality. Or perhaps and this is most often, you may not want the formality of a podium but you're actually forced into using one. Why might this be? Well, maybe the podium is expected. So if you're at an event and every other speaker went up to the podium, it might be weird if you didn't. Maybe you have to use it because that's where the sound system is. So if you're at a conference and the cameras and the sound are all out of this central podium, they're all trained on that podium, well, that's where you need to be. But anyway, so in this video what we're going to do is talk about some things to keep in mind when you're using podiums. And the way we're going to do, so we're going to talk about podium setup, interacting with the podium and then moving beyond the podium. So first, let's talk about setting up the podium. Well, you may actually not have the luxury of setting up the podium, but you might be able to make a few tweaks. And one of the most important issues is height. Make sure the podium's at the right height. Podium height's a big deal. So here in the US, presidential candidates know how important podium height is. In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, who's 5'4" had a special podium built for her debates with Donald Trump. He's towering over her at 6'2" and she didn't want to look too small next to him, so had this podium built. And she wasn't the first one to do this. Back in 1988, Michael Dukakis who was running for president. Stood on a little platform, a little slanted platform behind his podium, to debate George H W Bush. And so that's the great thing about podiums. Is that they can hide stuff. So if you need a booster, go ahead and use it, odds are people aren't going to see it. So that's hype. What else in terms of setup? Well, clean your space. I've deliberately made this messy and it's been driving me bonkers. So when I get up to a podium, there's sometimes will be previous notes up here, so on and so forth. I don't want to throw them away, but I want to clean everything off, all right. The space is meant to help me and I want the audience side-facing to be clean and clear of distractions. That's so much better. Okay, I can't stand clutter, clutter that I could otherwise avoid. Okay, so clean your space. So those are couple of set up concerns. All right, so now let's say the speech has started and you're interacting with the podium. And I would say perhaps the most important thing is lightly use the podium. I like thinking that I look like the podium is only playing a minor role. That I'm just speaking and I want the podium to be seen more as an afterthought. Something that the audience hardly notices me using. Now, compare this with more obvious uses of podiums, like where I lean on it and where I rest on it. So this is very obvious use of the podium. The podium here isn't a background scenery. It's a central part of a performance, so avoid leaning on a podium like this. In a similar way, this is a larger podium but in a similar way, avoid death gripping the podium. And that's probably the most common problem that people run into, right? They get nervous and so they hold on to the podium as if an earthquake is just about to hit, okay? Just obviously alters your posture when you usually see the muscles tensing up in your white knuckles, so no, don't do that. Lightly use the podium. So you can rest your hands there, but there's a difference between resting your hands on a podium and gripping onto it, right? So when speaking, remember that the goal is to connect with this audience. So if you have notes, only occasionally look down to those notes. Obviously, we want to be looking up and making eye contact with the audience. And finally, think about where [SOUND], this is a bell ringing moment. Finally think about where and if you can get out from behind the podium. So generally, I avoid podiums if I can. If the circumstances dictate staying in that spot, I got to stay in that spot. But I often prefer just to stand out just to the side of the podium, right? So if I've got my notes, I can still always reference my notes to the side. But getting out from behind the podium allows me to alter the formality of that presentation. It gives me more tools to communicate with, right? If you're behind a podium, your physical actions can't work as much to communicate meaning. That's sort of both the benefit and the weakness of podiums. Now, awards ceremonies, right, I gotta stay behind the podium. Conference talks, maybe I can move out more to the side and engage that audience in a slightly less formal mode. So podiums or lecterns, whatever you want to call them, are a common feature for speakers. And you need to find out what's comfortable for you. As always, the focus should remain on you as a speaker. The podium might stand between you and your audience but it should never be a barrier. [MUSIC]
