Speaking in front of 100 people for charity.

Part of my job is organising events, whether they are corporate, for charity, or just for fun.  Earlier this year I decided to organise a Charity Black Tie Dinner to raise money for Together for Short Lives.  They work with children hospices around the UK.  As a company we are sponsoring them for the next 2 years.

So I booked the venue, invited the people, chose the theme and booked the entertainment.  I thought it would be fun and easy but it was a lot more hard work than that.

The theme I went for was James Bond, lots of films to choose from and hours scrolling through pintrest gave me plenty of ideas to  make the centre pieces.

I invited all my friends from work and they got some of our clients involved to attend on the night.  I sent letter and emails to lots of companies to help with donations for my raffle and auction and received a very good response.

So after all the planning, hours of work, time and effort, the night finally arrived.  Everything was at the venue ready for me to set up.  All I had to do was set up the room, great people as they arrived, say  a big thank you to all for attending and have a good time...Right???  Well so I thought.  The night before came and I was like a kid a Christmas, excited but nervous and couldn't sleep. Then I woke at 5.30am worrying about the speech!

So, I went and got my hair done, went and set the venue up and got myself ready...

 

A couple of glasses of prosecco while greeting everyone, to help me relax!  Then came the time for my speech.  I had it all wrote down what I needed to remember to say etc, but that didn't go to plan.  I was very nervous, and didn't want to look like I was reading from a sheet of paper (even though I needed to!!)  I started off OK and then my voice started shaking, I had 100 people looking at me!  I told them all I was nervous and they all cheered me on, told me  was doing well, which embarrassed me a bit but it helped me overcome my ear, finish the rest of my speech and I was able to enjoy the night.  I had some more speaking to do for the auction later on but I had got the hard part out of the way.

My friends and colleagues helped me through it and it helped by me addressing that I was nervous and that my voice was shaking.  It helps to not ignore it and laugh it out and have people help you through it.  I have no doubt that  will be nervous the next time I have too speak in front of a large group of people but it will get easier and I will have ore confidence next time.  The event was a huge success, everyone had a great time and we raised over £1500 for charity!

 

 

 

 

 

Event was held at Ribby Hall Village.  If you would like a more detailed post on the organisation leave a comment :)

 

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