Emcee Singapore: Have you always wanted to emcee and event? Or perhaps you’ve been asked to emcee a work event and you’re freaking out? Do not worry! Learning to emcee is a valuable skill to have, and can help in your overall communication and public speaking abilities.

Here you’ll discover 6 effective tips and strategies for being a great emcee for events such as conferences, awards ceremonies, networking events and webinars.

An emcee is the official host of an event, whether it’s a ceremony, conference, convention, party, performance or webinar. Their role is to set the tone for the event, make announcements, make sure it runs to time, provide a segue between each act or speaker, and make sure the audience is engaged and having a good time.

An emcee may also moderate panels of speakers, and facilitate Q&A between the audience and the speakers.

1)  Create the mindset: “It’s not about me”

2) Research Research Research

Arrange a call with the event organiser and ask them the following questions:

Audience related:

• How many people are coming?
• What are the seating arrangements?
• Who is in the audience?
• Why are they there?
• What do they want to get out of the event?
• Is there anything else I need to know about the audience?

Technical related:

• Run through name pronunciations
• What mic will you be using?
• Do you need to bring an iPad? Will they provide one?
• How will changes to the run sheet be communicated?

Finding out these answers will help you to prepare and will reduce your nerves. The more you find out about the audience, the easier it is to connect with them and build rapport on the day. Making your job much easier!

3) Practice your strong opening

The piece you should spend the most amount of time on is the opening 3-5 minutes. Try to not use notes for the opening, and practice your script over and over until you are confident with it and it’s embedded in your brain. This might take an hour the day before, and 30 minutes on the day.

Start high energy, get the crowd participating and invested. Get them to respond to some simple questions or better yet, crack a joke or two.

4) Set the tone

You need to understand that you are the one running the show, not the speakers. As an emcee Singapore emcee, you’re the one on stage holding the mic. That’s power. And with great power comes great responsibility. It’s your responsibility to set the tone for the event from the beginning.

Think about what you want the tone of the event to be. Is it serious? Fun? Inspirational? Whatever it is, you set the tone. If you’re anxious and nervous, other people will be too. I think of it like you’re a high energy fitness instructor. If you’re at 80%, don’t expect your audience to get to 100%.

5) Make the speakers feel like rock stars

Even if you’re sent a lengthy bio certainly does not mean that you have to read it verbatim. If you can, talk to the speakers before they go on, and ask them which bits they would like to highlight. Adding a sentence about what the audience will take away from the presentation is a good question to ask the speaker “What’s one thing you’d like the audience to walk away with?”

Also, make their name the finalthing you say. It creates a fantastic build up and makes the speaker feel really special.

6) Have empathy for your audience

Sitting all day at an emcee Singapore event is not easy. TED talks are less than 18 minutes long because that is how long the average person’s attention span is, about 20 minutes. At a lot of events, the sessions often go for 45 minutes to an hour, or multiple days. It’s exhausting!

If you want the best for your audience AND the best for the speakers, keep the audience engaged. You DON’T need to be a standup comedian. I like to get them up and moving. Here are some ideas:

• Get people to stand up and have a stretch
• Get them to change seats
• Talk to the person next to them – what’s one thing you learned from the speaker?

H/T: Thecmethod