76. How to MC on and offline

MCing or hosting an event is an art. I chat to experienced international MC Peter Hopwood about what makes a good MC, the big lessons he's learned on the job and the transition from stage to screen.

Transcript

Sally:

Hello! Welcome to Episode 76 of That Voice Podcast. Our topic today is MCing. Have you ever been asked to MC? It's not easy! It's a bit of an art. And today my guest is someone who's done a lot of MCing. Peter Hopwood is a speaker coach, kind of like me, but no one's quite like me. Let's be honest. Pete has MCed more than 300 events in 20 countries. And of course, now he's traveling the world virtually. Peter and I chat about the role of the MC, the do's and the don'ts, the microphones. And of course the shift from stage to screen. And how do you keep the attention and not fall victim to the old 'Zoomtigue'?

But first. Are you sick of getting nervous before speaking tired of saying "uhms" and "ahs" and tripping over your words, frustrated your voice sounds weak or boring?

Imagine being able to confidently speak when called on. Hitting record and not doing 100 takes. Captivating an audience with your voice... Sounds great, right? Then join My Six Week Voice Makeover! Over six weeks we dive into the fundamental steps you need to make an impact every time you speak. How to hack your mindset, how to tap into your body, control your breathing. Literally speak from your heart, form your words and phrases clearly, and top it all off with beautiful expression! To make it happen, join My Six Week Voice Makeover by heading to my website, sallyprosser.com.au or just click the link in the show notes. Look forward to seeing you there!

Alright, let's get into my chat with international MC extraordinaire, Peter Hopwood.

Sally:

Peter Hopwood. Welcome to That Voice Podcast.

Peter:

Thank you so much. I'm delighted. We managed to connect in different parts of the world and I'm looking forward to, to how this conversation is going to unfold.

Sally:

Love it! And tell us whereabouts are you and what time is it?

Peter:

Yeah, so I'm in a city called Split on the Croatian coast, Southern Croatian coast in Dalmatia. It's sunny, it's morning. It's just gone past 11 o'clock in the morning. I believe it's around 7, in the evening where you are so pretty much we are jumping across the world through the power of podcast technology.

Sally:

That is absolutely gorgeous. I think there's a few nightclubs in Split that I'm still not allowed back into. So probably best that I am over this side of the world. So it's always great to connect with somebody else who does voice and public speaking training because, you know, we're really talking the same language. And today I would love to focus on what I like to call the unsung hero of a lot of events. And the unsung hero is often the MC. Wouldn't you agree that it's deceptively one of the most difficult jobs to do?

Peter:

I would agree. I think, you've certainly had a lot of experience doing that role and, and I do this role for many conference, producers, event organizers, all globally now, not physically now, but virtually now and physically before. But yeah, that role is a very specific type of public speaking. It's a very specific type of engagement. So a keynote speaker, his role is very different from the MC of the event. So yeah, it's a difficult and specific niche kind of role. And the more you do it, in fact, the more you do it as, as with many other things, in terms of public speaking, you get better at it. And you learn often through the hard way, how to really step up and improve.

Sally:

Absolutely. I find them a lot of clients who I work with, they've just been asked to MC event. MC an event. It's a bit of a tongue twister! Because so often the organizer has got a specific professional speaker in, but they've thought, "Oh yeah, we can just get anybody to MC it." And people say, "Sally, I've been asked to MC, how do I do this?" So what is some of the advice that you would give to somebody who has this role just thrust upon them?

Peter:

Rewind a little bit at the end of the day, it's really looking at that role on what is the purpose of an MC. In your conversations or discussions with the event organizer, understanding what he or she, or they want from an MC or from the event will really help you understand how you can be part of that puzzle. Often, an MC is there simply to keep things running smoothly, keep things together, to get people excited, Or to introduce what's coming next. To kind of piece together. The ideas that speakers have shared, and overall you are almost the face of that event. You are the person probably they will remember, probably remember the most, even more than some of the keynote speakers. Because you are actually there many times, you're on stage. You have short, sharp stints on stage. But your role is really, as I say, to keep everything together and to create that feeling, that something good is about to happen. So you're not there. Like you said, the unsung hero, you're not the person, who's the number one attraction, although many MCs feel they are.

Peter:

But it's about really, I'd say introducing the speakers that are coming next, getting something in their mind so that they're ready to be receptive to the messages that are coming. Creating the right mood. So finding that out, talking to your, to your event, producer event organizer, and just saying simple, asking simple questions, like at the end of this event, what do you want people to walk away with? What's the feeling of this event? What do you want people, what do you want people to, to kind of walk away with and feel after the, this two day conference or one day conference, or just an hour conference or event once it's finished? How do you want them to feel what do you want them to do? And so understanding that will help you understand your role as I say, in this puzzle.

Sally:

Yeah. As an MC, you're really holding everything together. You can say to a lot of events, I would love to know what has gone wrong? Because so often things go wrong and the MC has to come and save the day. I'd love to hear a story.

Peter:

What has gone wrong? Many things that have gone wrong. Many things have gotten right, through things going wrong, in fact. for me, if I was to sort of share some advice for MCs that are maybe starting out or maybe have been doing it quite a while, but just to help them maybe shift their perspective. I had this impression that I was a very important part of the event. People were there not to see me and not they weren't coming for me naturally. You know, that that's not the case at all. But I did feel, I felt at the beginning of my, my ego was kind of like a lot, a lot higher than it than it certainly is now. So, having this kind of humble focus, focused on the value that the audience needs, you know, what do they really want from this?

Peter:

What do they really want from the next speaker? What's the next speaker? What to hear about to share rather than who he is. I used to come on, for example, and then, um, really feel as if people were, would then listening to me. I don't deserve their time, right. That I have to earn their time. Everybody's time is so, so precious. And me as an MC, I have to earn that time. So I have to give them something that's going to make them think, "Okay, I'm going to stick around. I want to stick around for the next speaker. I want to stick around". Not just physically, so physically, most people don't just walk up. If they're not happy with something in a conference, they don't walk, get up and walk away. They'll stay there, but emotionally in their minds, but they'll turn off. They'll just switch off like, like online.

When you're not happy with something you don't see any value. You don't see anything for you. You'll switch off. So many times before, I used to present the speaker, his bio, how great he is, or she is really kind of begging them up, giving them this kind of great status, thinking that was the way people will stick around mentally. But then I realized quickly realized that, you know, it's not about certainly not about who they are. It's about the value they're going to share. So you can have a, a great speaker, a speaker that has a great title, works for a great company, but at the end of the day, it's his message and what the value he shares, which is so important. So, I then would switch and focus on the message he's going to give. So then I would start. So I would start by introducing what's happening next as the topic, then at the end, just you know, a line or two about who he is. And then the very last thing I would say, is his name.

It's first name, and then surname. People are there for value. And it's not about who you are. It's never about who you are, unless you are you know, a great celebrity, Madonna, Presidents of the United States, big top people that people pay to see then yes, me and you right now, we're not in that category. And most of us aren't, unless we're a celebrity.

Sally:

Yeah. It's such great advice. Research, not who they are, but what they're going to share. And so often organizers will just give you this hashed together, LinkedIn bio to read out, and it's just so awful. It doesn't engage anybody., does it? The one story that comes to mind when I was emceeing was I'd asked to use a lapel microphone just because it's, you know, easier, if you can walk around and they had one available. And then the speaker who was coming up, hadn't thought to ask if she could have a lapel. So she had a handheld. So as I introduced her, she walked up to me and said, "Can I please use your microphone?" On the stage? I was then, you know what it's like, "What do you say?" And so I had to take this microphone off, thread it, like through my top, you know?

Peter:

I can imagine.

Sally:

I'm being held up to the microphone. It was just so awkward! After I'd done this amazing introduction and said her name, this big handover. And then we were looking like we were undressing each other on the stage trying to change a microphone.

Peter:

An embarrasing moment. I can imagine, yeah.

Peter:

So with microphones. So I again, learned very quickly early on that, having a hand mic, there are lots of benefits for having a hand mic. I don't know what you tend to go for, but for me hand mic gives me so many benefits. For example, you can manipulate voice better with a hand mic. So you can put it slightly closer to you, to your mouth. Slightly closer to your chin and that the voice you can change better as well. Also, panelists or other speakers, if something goes wrong and often something does, especially with, head mics or even the lapel mics. Often, I find there's more difficulty and more tech issues with those than hand mic. So when there's an issue on stage, for example, if it can't be solved, it's really, really easy for me to just jump on and give them my mic and then jump off. So it's a really kind of, way of keeping everything running smoothly as well, rather than one of the tech guys comes on fiddles with it, waits a few seconds. It's a way of just keeping everything running and moving smoothly as well. And many times I've done that where I've literally jumped on, given that my mic, they just have to take a piece out of their ear and in a way they go. Then I work out how I'm going to get the mic back or just get another mic from somewhere else.

Sally:

Yeah. That's a really, really great, great tip that I should have taken on board. I prefer to speak with a lapel just because I gesture like a Northern Italian. It's all over the place normally, but you're right. When I'm also running a panel, handheld is better because you can just handle across if you need to.

Peter:

Yeah. With using my hands again, as you know, really important that people can see your, what your hands are doing and your body and that full image of you from top to toe really creates that trust and really gets people closer to you. So with, with a hand mic, you could, you could argue, well, hang on a minute, how do you do that with just one hand? So, I tend to put my gestures towards the center. So it's symmetrical.

Sally:

Yeah, love it. So all of this topic, talk of microphones, this is something we haven't had to worry about in the world of COVID, right. With everything being online. It's not like we're handing microphones across the stage anymore. So take us through, how has the last year been for you and how has it been MCing, virtual events?

Peter:

Straight away, literally, I was set for, I think it was Mobile World Congress, and then that fell apart quickly. And then from then on all my events, all the events I was scheduled to do stopped. And for them as, as event organizers for them, they needed to figure out and navigate what their next step was. Some of those went straight onto kind of zoom others stopped and thought about, you know, in the long run, what are we going to do and decided to do other things on different platforms. Others, um, their budgets were cut. Some of them completely stopped. So it's a whole kind of mixed bag. For me, it's really, it was a case of connecting with organizers that were looking at doing hybrid events or events where I could actually MC from, from my home or a studio, a local studio nearby, and then being that out with their platform to their audience.

Sally:

And tell us, what have you learned? What have you learned about MCing online? I'm sure everyone's been learning together.

Peter:

Yeah. It's a completely different skillset. And a lot of the skills, a lot of the ways to engage, the ways to build trust as an MC online is exactly the same way we are all trying to do when we're on meetings, webinars, sales calls, intro calls on Zoom every single day. So a lot of this is about that trust and engagement. How do you build that up in a short period of time and really make people who are listening to you and looking at you listen more, grab their attention, and also keep them moving along with your message?

Sally:

And how do you do it?

Peter:

The first thing is in your mind. Remember: being concise, being sharp, being shorter, sharing your messages, which are clearer. At the end of your sentences, stopping pausing, and then going onto another sentence.

People's time is more valuable now in a virtual world than it is physical. Now, if you think about Netflix, you think about series on TV. Pretty much everything we watch through a screen is designed to grab our attention, to create an experience that was really going to make us feel good and keep watching. Yeah. So Netflix fatigue, you don't really hear about Netflix fatigue, although we've naturally hear about Zoom fatigue and this feeling, this fatigue feeling that we have when we're online. That's simply because we're not sharing. We're not creating an experience that is a smooth, is it engaging is as, you know, that connection isn't as high as it is on TV. But there's many things we can do, for example. So your lighting, where your ring light is, if you've got a ring light or your lamps are the lighting behind you, the lighting in front of you, all of the frame, what people can see, all of this really plays a part.

Sally:

Yeah, absolutely. And in terms of MCing, how have you gone? And this could also relate to people who are managing meetings online. I'm sure it's in the physical environment it's a lot easier, because you can stand at the front or you can be on stage. You can look to different people. You can just decide to side. How do you do that virtually?

Peter:

I think that the first thing is that the preparation you put into this will always be beneficial. And when we're doing things online, there are more things to think about. To be a successful event, you really need to have things that keep people engaged, that keep people's attention moving. So just having one person. So just having me as the event MC and pretty much a platform, which is pretty dull, let's just say it was Zoom. That would literally say I have to take responsibility to really get as much engagement as I can. Which is really tough and quite a burden on me and quite a pressure on me. So the platform has to be something that gives change. It has to keep moving. Things have to keep switching. A lot of event organizers now are looking at having more than one MC just the fact of having two people can create even more engagement. So it's looking at all different ways you can keep things moving. In terms of what I've got here in the screen. I'm just make sure that what people see, they can see my face, because this is almost like it's almost a more intimate exchange than in-person. You know, you're looking at me right now. I'm looking at you and you can see my face. You can really see my expressions. You can really feel those micro expressions that come out instantly-- connected to how I'm feeling.

Sally:

Yeah, absolutely. So what I'm interested in is in the last year, what are some of the cool things you've seen event organizers do to keep things moving?

Peter:

See a lot of platforms today, which I've really incorporated. Color, they've really incorporated sound and things are moving constantly. So as an MC, my, my parts would be a actually a lot shorter than it would be on stage. Things will be in the screen actually moving perhaps behind me as well. So all these ideas of creating engagement and constant movement really helps. So think about this. So, years ago, I think it was FRIENDS. I think FRIENDS, ,when FRIENDS was on in the late eighties, or was it the early nineties, the TV channels over in America, they decided to create this idea, which would keep people's attention. So right at the end of FRIENDS, instead of having the last frame and then going on to credits, they would do the last frame, credits would disappear and then straight away, straight away go onto the next. So the first frame of the next show. This was a deliberate way to keep people's attention, not let them kind of get up when a commercial usually comes on the screen or there's credits. What usually happens is a signal for people to get up and walk away, maybe have a cup of tea and then come back, right? So this idea is being taken. Let's say like right now, Netflix does that. At the end of that episode, what happens? Bottom right-hand corner there's this sliding, small little tab, Next Episode, I think it is, it goes along and then bang, goes straight to the next one. This was a technique that was used years ago. Netflix are using it today and even event organizers are using the same thing. Really trying to keep everything moving as much as possible because people's time as the say, online, is really valuable.

We all kind of have got other things going on around us. So to keep people's attention on an event with an event for more than an hour is really difficult, even less in fact. So event organizers, let's say a conference was a day, a full day of valuable content today. They would usually kind of squeeze that in from what I'm seeing, squeeze it into, let's say a half day or three hours, or maybe over a period of a month. Lots of different webinars that create the same value, but gets people's attention and keeps their attention.

Sally:

Yeah. Interesting. And it also explains why TikTok is so popular. And even though you can make videos up to a minute, most people only watch for about seven seconds. So attention spans are definitely getting shorter.

Peter:

Yeah. TikTok, Snapchat. And when we watched, for example, when we watch, you know, a news program, CNN Sky News, whatever it is. At the bottom that scrolling, you know, the headlines at the bottom, that's not just there for you to see what the headlines are. It's put in there to really keep movement happening. So that's yeah, that's something that I see a lot of event organizers have realized. How do we keep people's attention in a world where everybody's attention is often somewhere else.

Sally:

That's the big question, isn't it? Peter Hopwood, is there anything else you'd like to add?

Peter:

Peter Hopwood, I don't think he will add anything else. If anybody wants to reach out to me, they can find me on LinkedIn, and you never know, maybe in the future that we'll be able to collaborate on something. Yeah.

Sally:

Sounds great! We can MC an event from Split and Brisbane.

Peter:

I think, that sounds beautiful. That sounds like a good, a good plan.

Sally:

I love it. Thank you so much for coming on That Voice Podcast.

Peter:

Thanks so much. Let's hopefully do this again sometime.