6. Public speaking

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Public speaking can be vital in establishing and running successful Neighbourhood Watch and Home Watch schemes. It can help you address groups of both existing and potential members and make presentations to secure funding opportunities, especially from businesses.

PAM is a useful acronym here: Purpose, Audience, Message. In short, be clear about the purpose of your talk, ensure relevance by finding out about the audience and think about delivery of your message. Good messages tend to be clear, concise and have a single governing theme.

People learn in different ways (see Communication skills), but stories are a good way of reaching everyone. For inspiring Neighbourhood Watch and Home Watch stories, see our case studies.

Ten steps to a good talk

1. Write down your key points (ideally not an entire speech) and think about likely questions.
2. Rehearsing can help. You might want to do it with a friend, a mirror or on video.
3. Before the talk, double check date, time, venue etc.
4. Arrive early to give yourself time to check everything and relax.
5. To begin, introduce yourself and your subject, saying how you’ll handle questions and maybe how long you’ll speak.
6. Convey enthusiasm, vary speed of delivery and maintain eye contact.
7. Involve the audience with questions, shows of hands and calls for anecdotes.
8. Explain your overall message, deliver your key points with just a few facts and figures, then draw your conclusion.
9. Reinforce the importance of your message: ‘Why does this matter? Well…’
10. At the end, be clear about what should happen next. You might give contact details so people can get in touch.

Using PowerPoint

You’ll rarely need more than your notes to give an effective talk, but if you decide to use PowerPoint, remember, most people can’t read and listen simultaneously. Don’t stand in front of the screen, don’t read out your slides and don’t focus on the screen yourself. If you do need to use PowerPoint, you can download our useful template from the Publicity Materials section.

Find out more

To read in more detail about good public speaking, download the full version of this toolkit.

Read the next toolkit, Finance and fundraising.