How much can a speaker go over their time?
I was at an event where a series of six speakers were given four minutes each to speak about mental health from a male’s perspective to an all-male audience.
It was a tight timeframe, three speakers back to back followed by a break then launching into the final three.
The first two speakers of the evening nailed their talks, lots of applause and not bad talks.
I noticed, the third speaker had a fully scripted out talk, the wording was well thought out and cohesive, it made sense and flowed nicely.
At the four minute mark, you could clearly see the stack of notes the speaker had remaining, he was only half way through.
Another minute later, I looked at the event host, he started to appear uncomfortable as the audience all began to look in his direction, waiting for him to intervene, call time, and stop the speaker.
But he either couldn’t or wouldn’t and I imagine it was because of the subject of mental health that he felt he could not interrupt and hold the speaker accountable to their time.
In the end his talk took 8 minutes.
It was unfortunate because he lost the audience’s interest, all that well-crafted messaging began falling on deaf ears.
So what can we do about it?
All of this could have been avoided if he’d only read his script at home with his phone timer, capturing his actual time, he could have made some editing decisions, and cut it back to four minutes.
A very simple step that often gets overlooked.
I would say you have a maximum 30-second grace period for your talk to go over your allocated time.
Going over time not only affects the audience, it also affects the other speakers and the host.
Unless you have a host who is more than willing to hold their speakers accountable, you can expect the whole event to run overtime.
The entire structure of the event has to change, it’s stressful for the organisers and it cuts into the break times.
Only some of the highest level speaking platforms will give you a countdown clock on stage to hold you accountable.
Which brings me back to my point, time your talk with your phone and you will be confident and comfortable knowing that you’re within your allotted time frame.
How much do you think a speaker can go over their time before it becomes uncomfortable for everyone?