Help! The guest speaker I’m hosting is going way over time

It was a pleasure to write this post with four wonderful students from Brown University’s Program in Liberal Medical Education: Maguire Anuszewski, Jay Gopal, Olakunsi Peters, and Ellia Sweeney

You’re hosting the guest speaker. It's time for the talk to end, but they are going on and on. What to do? 

What an honor to be responsible for hosting a guest speaker in a class, at an event, or in a conference session. You worked hard to secure this speaker: carefully crafting an email invitation, organizing travel and logistics, reserving the space, uploading the presentation, even remembering to bring them a bottle of water for the talk. It's finally go-time and you let the speaker know they have 45 minutes to talk and 15 for Q&A. The talk is underway and is great, but at the 50 minute mark the speaker has 10 slides to go and there is still a Q&A to squeeze in. You’re sweating bullets and realize that you prepared for everything but this. What to do?

We’ve all been in a lecture or at an event where the speaker drones on and on, ignoring the clock. People grow restless, begin to check phones, and a few bold souls get up and leave. The host is in a tough spot as the audience looks to them to regain control of the situation and set everyone free. 

As the host of a guest speaker, what can you do to avoid going over time?  

Give the speaker a formal time plan and the reason for it

·  Talk candidly with the speaker about timing. This should happen once they have accepted the invitation and before they start preparing the talk – so they can plan length effectively.

·  Break it down for your speaker by asking them to allot specific amounts of time to the talk, Q&A, and final remark: i.e. 45 min talk, 12 min Q&A, 3 min closing remark.

·  It will help to explain why you have a hard stop – class coming in right after, event staff hoping to get home on time, etc.

Dear Speaker, this is how I will keep you from going over

Here is a conversation you can have just prior to the event that works very well -

·  At the X minute mark I will stand up in the back of the room in your line of sight. This is your cue to gauge where you are in the talk, adjust, and plan to start wrapping up.

·  When it is time to transition to Q&A I will start walking towards you along the side of the space. When you see me approaching, this will be a good time to wrap up. If you don’t wrap up I will keep getting closer and closer until I am right next to you. Typically this garners a laugh, though the message is quite clear.

·  I will moderate Q&A for you so you don’t have to worry about time. I will keep track of that for you.

Use humor to your advantage

·  Most audiences are aware that a standing host means it’s time for the speaker to start wrapping up. They appreciate you keeping things on time. You will get a good laugh if you have a stubborn speaker you end up standing shoulder to shoulder with before they manage to finish. If you know you have a speaker with a tendancy to go over, you can bring the audience in on the action from the beginning by letting the entire room now you will be keeping time due to constraints. You can work this in when you’re introducing the speaker. When you do this everyone knows the plan, and most importantly the speaker knows everyone knows.

Worst case scenario

·  What if the plan fails and the speaker leaves no time for Q&A? It’s your job as host to get everyone out on time. In this situation you would need to end the event, but can offer that the speaker will be outside the room for a bit to take any questions. 

·  One time I (KS) had a speaker that was so excited by a question that the answer took us right up to the end point, and they were nowhere near done. The method above was employed and I eventually ended up next to the speaker mid stage. I reached out and gently took the mic from their hand while they continued to talk. The audience was roaring, and thankfully the speaker laughed in the end too. That was an extreme example, but even there it ended on a positive note.

Sounds reasonable, but does this really work? Four students in Brown University’s Program for Liberal Medical Education recently tried this at an event they organized and hosted. Here are their thoughts….

Maguire: We recently used this at an event where we invite a practicing physician and their patient to discuss their relationship: the Program in Liberal Medical Education’s “Whole Patient Program.” Having been the student to stand, I was honestly slightly nervous that it would be awkward or possibly fail--particularly with the dynamic of me being a student and our speaker being a respected physician. To my happy surprise, it was the easiest way to end the talk our committee has used in my 15 past programs. I stood at the end of the speaker’s thought, and the speaker immediately acknowledged me recognizing their time was up. This also worked as a way for me to smoothly transition to the Q&A section. Our program has never been timelier.

Ellia: Yes, this absolutely works, and it is even rather comical for the audience! By informing the audience ahead of time about what you are doing, you are creating space for them to be in on the joke, so to say. The audience will see you stand up, and both they and your speaker will get the hint that time is almost up. Then, as you inch closer, your audience will both be inspired to chuckle at what you’re doing and ponder any last minute questions they may have for your speaker. Overall, we observed all of this first-hand at our last Whole Patient Dinner. It was an incredibly effective tactic, and as a committee, we are now planning to use it at all of our events going forward!

Olakunsi: I will definitely be utilizing this technique in meetings I host in the future. It shows that you really care about the time the people in the audience have to spare, as they may want to hear the entire talk, but can’t if it goes over time. Also, be confident when you use this technique, because, as Ellia said, the audience is most likely going to laugh when you begin to inch closer to the speaker. 

Jay: This worked wonders at our Whole Patient Dinner. One additional tip - when the speaker is presenting slides we learned it is helpful to create a template for them. If the entire event is just one hour long, there shouldn’t be more than about 6 to 8 slides. We communicated the amount of time we had for the event beforehand, and our guest was very mindful of this throughout her presentation. Thankfully, at our last Whole Patient event, we were perfectly on time, and so some students had the chance to ask some really insightful questions. They might not have otherwise. One other strategy we’re thinking about for the future is including a clock that counts down on stage for just the speaker to see. It might be really helpful for events like these. All in all, this strategy proved to be a lighthearted approach to ensure the event ran smoothly.