Speaker prep & interviews

Speaker prep and interviews

High-level EU guests arrive with a briefing pack and cleared messages. Your job is to ensure the session fits the room: concrete, listenable, and worth the audience’s time. Prep starts with questions to ask a guest speaker before anyone walks on stage.

Three crucial questions before you let someone give a speech

1. What is the one thing this audience cannot Google?

Push for specificity: a trade-off they weighed, a negotiation moment, an implementation surprise — not a restatement of the Communication.

2. What will you not say on stage?

Red lines reveal shape. They also show whether a 45-minute lecture is appropriate — or whether ten minutes plus dialogue is smarter.

3. What do you want the room to do differently on Monday?

Speeches without a requested action feel like broadcasts. If the speaker cannot name an action, the moderator’s job is to extract one live — or pivot to audience priorities.

When to interview instead of keynote

• The guest is compelling but not a natural speechmaker.
• Time is short — twenty minutes of Q&A beats forty minutes of slides.
• The topic is sensitive and needs steered challenge.
• The room is hybrid and needs conversational energy on camera.

An experienced interviewer respects cleared lines while still pressing for examples and timelines.

Prep checklist

• Share audience profile and language needs.
• Agree format: speech length, slides yes/no, interpretation.
• Circulate forbidden topics and preferred anecdotes.
• Collect audience questions early and merge with your own.
• Rehearse handover and how you cut overrun.

Questions that work in EU contexts

• “What did you underestimate when this file started?”
• “Who did you not listen to early enough?”
• “If implementation fails, where will it fail first?”
• “What question do you wish Parliament or Council would ask but rarely does?”

One clear question, silence while they think, one follow-up — that is the discipline.

For fireside interviewing see on-stage interviewer. For full programme support visit moderation services.