Heard a speaker the other day enter that cardinal sin world of talking about time. It was subtle — “… and we’ll end with this…” So many problems with this. His main problem was… he didn’t end with that. He went on, thought of something else he wanted to say, said that, took a question and a comment, and had still one more thing to cover. The audience was book-slamming, out-to-lunch, day dreaming done with the first hint of being done (everyone except the question-asker).We’ll say it again — the only person who should be aware of time is the speaker and someone who HAS to leave early. Everyone else should be shocked your done, and it’s even better if they want more. When you announce you’re ending, you better end, and that means you have less options, and worse, you have given your audience a reason to stop paying attention.
Don’t announce the end. Just end.
