Paper instructions:
Diversity and Public Speaking:
Technology has afforded us the opportunity to travel fairly easily, communicate online with anyone in the world, and even talk “face-to-face” with anyone in the world via webinars or Internet phone services such as Skype. The world is becoming smaller and smaller and we can do business with anyone anywhere in the world – a phenomenon called “the global village.”
As a result, a public speaker’s audience is likely to be highly diverse, perhaps even more so here in the US. The audience may vary in culture, religion, political views, age, language… the variations are virtually endless.
What does a diverse audience mean for a public speaker? Do cultural differences, for example, make a difference in the way a speech should be delivered? Can a speaker prepare to address a diverse audience without knowing what combination of people will be listening?