Of course, it was something I never planned to do (my first one was written because the leader had only come back the day before following 3 month off recovery from surgery) so a lot of my learning comes from trial and error, and applying my other comms grounding.

When writing I'll consider various things

• Audience - Who is there? How familiar are they to our message? Are they supporters/advocates? Someone hearing it for the first time? Is there likely to be press in attendance?

• Room/Venue - how many does it fit? what's the acoustics/feel like (is it a small or intimate venue, a conference room, or a temporary stage setup in a big open convention centre that's got lots of background noise

• Length - how long?

• Positioning - where are they on the agenda? First thing of the day? After dinner? After someone else who has given a 20 minute speech

• Tone - what mannerism/quirks are unique to the speaker? Do they like to backup with lots of evidence/data? How do they talk? What pace does the speaker talk at?

• Quotability - think of big sound bites - combinations of familiarity, but also have a blend of uniqueness so it doesn't come off as boring/cliché for those who are familiar with the message.

• Current events - what's going on in the rest of the world that has relevance/connection to the speech

• Format - how does the speaker like their speech - bullets they can talk around? Written word for word?

• Preparedness - familiarity with the audience/subject matter, have they got a lot of other commitments or coming to the event shortly after being absent (so I know I have to do more to prepare them for this)

• Reflection - After event working to get feedback this is from both the speaker and audience experience. For speakers I'm looking to understand how they found the script, there perception of how they took it. Audience I'll look to reaction (on the day and after on social media, or the press is always good for pulling out the best sound bites). I try and get a video recording of it if I'm there in person, or ask someone else to get me a copy, at worst I'll get a recording from the speaker so I can listen how it sounds. I also ask the speaker to complete an 'outcomes' form sharing their whole perception of the event, and what speaking was like

Generally it can be challenging if I don't get the full intelligence, or a speaker asks me to include some information I can't get access to the original source, or there is a last minute addition that impacts thr full flow.

But on the positive I think there is an objectiveness you can take from being a third party - you can cut the waffle or the bits that don't contribute to the message.

Preparing is a combination of knowing and listening to the speaker, doing desktop research on the event, and my own past experiences. There is generally a key line of what the message is but I'll adjust this tone to suit the individual circumstances.