Sally Owen, bookseller

Many people do not know how to give a proper speech after dinner. An after dinner speaker has to consider a lot of things before he starts his/her speech. It is not like you are speaking at your relative's social event. The primary thing that should be in the mind of an after dinner speaker is the superiority of the audience. Many similar events might have many among the audience who are much more well-informed and literate than the speaker. Thus, assessment of the audience is a must before the speech. The audience's sophistication can be understood through their dress, the type of event, ratio of male and female, age group of the audience and many other things. The country of origin is another important factor for after dinner speech, as the speaker might say something that might be considered as offending for a particular country. An after dinner speaker must do his research well before he speaks at the event.

After dinner speaker must be prepared to entertain his/her audience with his speech. Speakers must be able to look directly into the eye of anyone among the audience and address the in entertaining way.You must remember that you are not there to harass your audience. A simple friendly gesture or playful engagement of the audience is the best way to go.

Being nervous is not an option for an after dinner speaker. When a speaker becomes nervous his tone change and audience become dissatisfied with the given speech. Speaker must be confident and poised before speaking. After a speaker is at the view point of the listeners they must clear their head and after few seconds of pause start speaking positively. Starting off with a joke or for serious even starting off with a specific point in mind is always a good practice.

Reading off an bundle of text for the audience is not recommended for an after dinner speaker.Most of the time people do not like the speakers who get up in the podium with written text. Using cue cards instead is a good idea. When people hear speech they are not considering a book reading, a speaker must know that. So, after dinner speakers can have some cue cards in their hand and look them up when needed. One must control their speech flow and confidence when speaking.

An after dinner speaker should never drink before a speech. Being sober is a must for the speaker. A drunken man/woman is not what people expect when they hear a speech. Another golden rule for after dinner speakers is to keep the speech to a minimum length. Entertaining audience is fine but one should not take the speech to the point where audience become bore of him/her. A sly speaker knows when to take his leave and can predict when the audience would be beyond satisfaction from his/her speech. A proper after dinner speech should not be more than 20 minutes and maximum 30 minutes long.