| By :
Dirik Hameed
The duration of a keynote speaker speech is a matter of intense speculation at a certain private school. At the annual prize giving ceremony teachers in academic garb gather behind a stage before trooping in ceremoniously in strict order of superiority. Before proceeding they all pay into a sweep stake, speculating on the duration of the main address by the guest of honor. Eminent keynote speakers usually have much experience at public speaking and may even receive advice on how long they should speak for. Successful staff bets range from fifteen to twenty-five minutes. That is the time required to entertain an audience and say something significant. Some are entranced because they or their offspring have won a prize, but the majority are rueful because they have not. The orator must find a way between saying something worthy of a report in the local newspaper and the brevity longed for by those waiting to go on holiday. In other contexts the demands of the circumstances may be different. He needs about twenty minutes to satisfy both demands. Academics often travel around the globe to confer with fellows of like interests. Speakers at such conferences may expect their audiences to be able to listen for up to an hour, often in the wake of a banquet enjoyed by delegates. Usually the speaker will expound on a theme which is also the theme of the conference so there should be a natural well of interest. A speaker may safely plan to speak for an hour in order to make a substantial contribution on the theme. At a political rally in Africa or Blackpool, England, the majority of the audience will have little intellectual input but very large emotional tenure. They may wait for hours for a political figure to arrive. No intellectual endurance is required but emotions are fired up and ready to run. Even sober statesmen seem to bow to the inevitability of rhetoric. They modulate the pitch and pace of their delivery pausing opportunely for their audience to clap. TV shots of an audience often reveal delegates with their hands held together, ready to clap on cue. Since the mid twentieth century the appropriate duration of a keynote speech has increasingly been determined by television cameras. It is said that the approximate concentration span of the average TV viewer is ten minutes, before he has to take a break. With this in mind veteran politicians try to speak in 'sound bytes'. They may go on for a long time to please delegates in the hall but produce an increase in volume, pace and pitch every ten minutes or so for the benefit of the media. Snide comments about a key note speech should not disguise its importance as a social and intellectual event. The task of the speaker is summary. That is an intellectual task of the highest order. It means that critically important points should be concisely delineated. A few witty comments may spice up the fare, bit distractions and windy forays should be avoided. Once the speaker has opened the door to further discussion he should sit down in advance of his allotted time running out.
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