After Dinner Speech
If you have been attending various events like conferences and seminars, you may have encountered more than one after dinner speeches. You may not realize it but the speech that is being delivered, often by the organizer of the event, actually has a name and that speech may or may not be an impromptu speech example. In this article, we provide you ten after dinner speech examples to help or guide you as you create one as well as tips and a basic information about after dinner speeches.
What Is an After Dinner Speech?
An after-dinner speech, as the name suggests, is a speech delivered right after all the presentation speech and any kinds of events within a bigger event has been carried out and right after dinner has been served and eaten by the guests.
After dinner speeches do not use any other materials like visual presentations or any other kind of prop to assist the speaker in delivering his or her speech. It only needs the words of the one who delivers the speech and how he or she weaves those words to serve the purpose of an after-dinner speech.
What Is the Purpose of an After Dinner Speech?
The main purpose of an after-dinner speech is simply to entertain the audience or the attendees of the event and to inform or to persuade the audience or the attendees would only come second unlike any other speech templates. After dinner speeches is actually a mix of both serious matters laced and delivered in a lighthearted manner. Many may think that after dinner speeches are just mere “stretchers” or “fillers” to make the event longer or to make up for some extra time. But the truth is, it is should really be a part of any kind of social event and in fact, after dinner speeches are the most memorable ones since it would be the most recent moment that the audience or the attendees will remember from the event.
Sample After Dinner Speech
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After Dinner Speech Example
Famous After Dinner Speech
Dedicated After Dinner Speech
Conference After Dinner Speech
Banquet After Dinner Speech
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Special Conference Dinner Speech Sample
Tips for Your After Dinner Speech
For starters, making and delivering an after dinner speech may be a daunting task since you are given the burden to end an event that will make a mark on the audience or to the attendees. Worry not for here are some tips that can help you in creating and even in delivering your own after dinner speech.
1. Choose a topic similar to the main event and to the audience.
In choosing a topic, make sure you have already decided what kind of speech you are going to deliver. Are you going to inform? Are you going to persuade? After so, choose a topic that is similar and relevant to the main event’s topic or to the kind of event you are in. For instance, you are at a business event with a lot of businessmen in the audience, then make sure your speech is about business and you deliver it in a formal manner. Another example is that you are going to deliver an after dinner speech at a family dinner. You can still talk about serious topics, matters, and issues in your family but you can also deliver it in a lighthearted manner.
2. Be cautious in your use of humor.
After dinner speeches are known for its lighthearted tone due to humor but you have to use it with discretion. The use of humor may influence you to embarrass people in the audience by citing one of their embarrassing moments– do not do that. Jokes can tend to be offensive but make sure you stray away from that path. Do not use race, religion, politics, sexist, ethnic and any other sensitive matters as your way to make yours after dinner speech funny to listen to. Do not force a joke that will end up getting unrelated to your main topic. Make sure your use of humor is related to the entire topic of your after dinner speech. Make sure that even if you are delivering an after dinner speech in a lighthearted manner, you would still be able to deliver a relevant message to your audience or to the attendees of the event.
3. Do not spoil the mood of the occasion.
There are many ways to spoil the mood of an occasion like talking about incidents of serious and sensitive matters. However, mentioning tricky incidents can help other people to learn from it; make sure that if ever an incident is a serious or sensitive matter is relevant to the topic of you after dinner speech and to the entire main event, make it a point that your audience or the attendees of the vent will learn something from it and do not just state the incident if it’s not related to your speech topic. Do not spoil the mood of the occasion by naming names.Steer clear of topics or statements that spoil the mood of the occasion. You can also spoil the mood by your nonverbal communication. If you do not keep a proper posture and that your facial expressions are not inviting, you are already ruining the mood of the occasion and you will likely end the event in a bad light. Be upbeat and engaging and always watch your language. The last thing you would want is to end a big event with a big fight.
4. Set a time limit.
You do not want to bore your audience with your lengthy speech right? Make sure you allow time for your speech that is not too long to bore your audience and not too short to make them want more of your words. If you respect other people’s time by not clinging on them for more, people will also respect your time when you will be delivering your after dinner speech by intently listening to what you are to deliver.
5. Prepare but do not overdo it.
It is good to practice and prepare for your after dinner speech but too much preparation can actually spoil the way you would be delivering your after dinner speech. When you memorize your speech and overdo your memorization, you would sound like you are reading something and as a result, you would not look like you are engaging and interacting with your audience or attendees. Remember that an after dinner speech should be lighthearted and if you overdo your memorization, you would sound like a robot and that definitely sounds bad. Instead of memorizing, just familiarized the flow of your speech and you are good to go.
6. End with something your audience can ponder or reminisce about.
If you want your speech to linger in the minds and hearts of your audience, always make sure that you end your after dinner speech in a way that your audience will keep on thinking about it even days after the night you deliver your speech. You can use your after dinner speech to call an action from your audience.
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