Al Gore WeDay Speech

   Al Gore, former us vice president and activist delivered a speech at We Day, Winnipeg.  The amazing speaker delivered his speech being very calm, using emphasis, using affective pauses and eye contact with the audience.  These are things that improve his career as an activist and make him one of the greatest public speakers introduced to this blog.

During the speech, Al Gore stayed calm, but still showing emotion during the entire speech.  Having lots of experience, the expert speaker remained at peace in front of the grand audience of thousands of screaming and cheering teenagers.  Although, he did do this with sufficient of emotion.  This improved the speech because the speech was a very emotional one.  These are key things to making the speech affective on the audience.

Also in the speech, Al Gore used hand gestures as a component to the delivery of the speech.  It was usually affective (when he was counting, emphasising, etc.) but could sometimes be a bit more like flapping hand motions.  Also during the presentation, Al Gore used affective pauses that held the audience in suspense.  Then sometimes talked fast making the crowd take in the information at a varied rate.  Keeping the emphasis, pace and gestures make the speech more interesting in many different ways.

Al Gore is one of the best public speakers introduced to this group.  I think that this group can learn many great things from this speaker.  Being able to maintain calm, use gesture properly, use affective pauses, and using emphasis are many things that all great public speaker know.

The Sixth Topic

Al Gore’s We Day Speech

Al Gore, another We Day speaker, comes to Manitoba with the purpose of teaching about climate change. This is sets him apart from the other activists, like Martin Sheen, who are focused on human rights. Other than this, the structure and style of the two speeches were very similar. For me, I was very interesting to compare two speeches on the same topic, one by a politician and one by an actor. I found that Al Gore’s speech had some minor problems. The speech wasn’t very concise, and was a bit monotonous. However, other than this, he did very well in writing his speech to fit the audience.

Firstly, I felt that Gore could have been more to the point. The fact is that we all know he was an environmentalist and was there to tell the audience about climate change. He starts by mentioning sports; not the best move. This is because Canadians are not as big on football, and those who are prefer to follow American teams. After, he repeats the story of the origins of Free the Children. Also not necessary, as any one is dedicated enough to go to Winnipeg for We Day would already know the story. In reality, he doesn’t mention “climate change” till four minutes into the speech. That’s more than one third of the speech.

Also, He was very monotonous with his speech. This is where being an actor would be useful. He didn’t have many pauses between phrases, and didn’t have much tone and volume variation. Martin Sheen, who is an actor, was exactly the opposite. He had long dramatic pauses in between sentences and line, but also started his speech at a normal volume and ending shouting. And the difference shows; Al Gore had respectful applause and Martin Sheen got standing ovations.

Lastly, He did suit to the audience. This is something that they had common. He spoke about sports, which is not as an effective in Canada as I explained, but is better than just starting with statistic, considering that the audience is full of teens and kids. What he doesn’t have in tonal variance, he makes up with interesting stories and passion in his subject. He tells stories that seem to be irrelevant, but tie it to his point in the end. For example, his Michael Jordan story.

Overall, I still like Martin Sheen’s speech better. He voice was more interesting than Gore’s, and got to the point of his speech earlier. However, both speakers had interesting personal stories that kept the audience entertained. After watching both Sheen’s and Gore’s speeches, I would like to someday go to We Day in person and experience it for myself.

Third presidential debate: President Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney

Topic: Foreign policy
Date: Monday, Oct. 22
Time: 9 - 10:30 p.m. EDT
Location: Lynn University, Boca Raton, Fla.
Moderator: Bob Schieffer, chief Washington correspondent, CBS News, and moderator, "Face the Nation"
Format: "The format for the debate will be identical to the first presidential debate and will focus on foreign policy."

The book I recommened this week:
Tension City Inside the Presidential Debates
by Jim Lehrer

 

 

Al Gore WeDay speech review

 

Al Gore was an environmentalist and was a proud former vice president of the United States. Al Gore gave a speech at the Winnipeg 2012 WeDay about his focus on climate change. In my opinion, Al was trying to send a message to explain that there needs to be change in our society and maybe even our laws. Al's main focus was to show everybody just how much damage we have done to the Earth already and that it was not too late to change our ways.

 

In my own opinion, the best way to start of a speech was to connect with the audience and get them exited and full of energy. The reason for this was that it would attract Al's audience and would keep his audience from the barrier of thinking his speech was uninteresting. Al kicked of his speech by connecting with his audience with sports, and Al talked about different teams to get the crowds fuelled with energy that would last throughout his whole entire speech. To top of all that, Al got the crowd even more excited when he talked about his experience with Kreg Keilburger, Al said that every single person in the crowd was making a difference in our world.

 

After Al got everybody ecstatic to listen to his speech,  he told his message to the audience that everybody could make a difference in our world, and they just have to reach out furthermore speak out to transform our world into a better place for all living organisms. Al constantly repeated this message to the audience for the idea to sink in and make the crowd truly understand that our generation was the change and we must make our voices heard. As an environmentalist, Al focused on one of the biggest problems in our world, climate change. Al wanted to put an emphasis on the idea that this problem had to be solved now, and to make that emphasis Al used several very shocking facts about the damage we have done to the Earth in the last few years. A few of Als facts were, 90 million tons of pollution go into our Earth’s atmosphere every single year. This year, floods in Pakistan drove 20 million people out of their homes. In Thailand, one third of the land is underwater. In Columbia, there is 5 times more rain this year than the average year. When Al tells all of these facts, it made his speech leave an impact in everyone’s mind.

 

Al once again repeats that our generation could make a change. Al told us, if we want to change our Earth into a better place we need to speak out, and make our voices heard. He said that if we were going to help out our planet, we were going to put a price on carbon and switch to renewable energy and use more solar, wind, geothermal and hydro energy. I personally believe, we the children have a very big role in this action. As Al said, we may have to change our laws and what better way to do it than making our generations voices heard and to try to make a change.

 

Al's speech had made me realize that there had to be change and the change had to start now. For everyone that is reading this, I hope you to have understood Al's message and would carry it out to everyone you know. I encourage Al to keep on changing our world as an environmentalist, and continue to inspire young and pure minds such as myself.  Keep up the amazing work Al Gore, and furthermore good luck to all of you out there who are trying to make a difference.

 

Al Gore at WEDAY 2012 - Anna Shinn

From environmental activism to Vice President of the United States of America, Al Gore continues his crusade to educate the world on climate change and global warming. For the attention he brought to global warming, he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Even today, he continues to speak out about the world’s most pressing issues. Al Gore inspired the young audience at We Day, and encourages them to take action to change the world.

 

 “Speak up. Get active. Remember you can bring about positive change.”Every word has a message, and every message has a meaning. Al Gore encourages teens to continue taking action in changing the world. He shares his belief with the audience, that young people are the answer to a better world. Using metaphors, he demonstrates how, now, people are destroying the planet, “treating the atmosphere as an open sewer”.

 

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” An important quality in inspirational speakers is that they inspire others and as well, are inspired by others. He used quotes from various people and countries, such as an African Proverb, and quotes from Mahatma Ghandi. He is inspired by the people around him, everyday, ordinary people. The speech that he gave at WE DAY 2012 was metaphorical to the fact that he felt inspired by teens, and felt as if that he had to push them in order for them to realize what they could achieve if they tried.

 

“Speak up. Get active. Remember you can bring about positive change.” As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, he felt as if that he had to push them in order for them to realize what they could achieve if they tried. This inspired them to do things that they never expected themselves to do. He encourages teens to take small actions, such as changing their own habits. Al Gore uses metaphors to educate the audience, using  words and phrases that hold meaning; he mentions how people are “treating the atmosphere as an open sewer”.  In conclusion, the true inspiration is how he shares his belief that young people are the answer to a better world.

Obama United Nations Assembly Speech

    Obama delivered a speech at the UN assembly almost one month ago.  The speech was mostly on what recent activities the world has seen that need to be changed.  I believe the speech was well written and even better recited.  It was also somewhat well suited for the audience (the representatives of many different nations) but could be better.

Al Gore

Vice President Al Gore recently delivered a speech in Winnipeg, Manitoba as a part of We Day 2012. He spoke to the children assembled about the climate, and how even children are able to change politics, and more importantly, the world.

What came as a surprise to me was the fact that VP Al Gore was such a good speaker. Having watched all his debates, and listened to many of his speeches, I have never seen such a good performance as this. He was motivational, confident, and sincere.

He was able to build a human connection with the kids there by giving anecdotes of him when he was around 12 or 13. He also referred to Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, which was strategic since everybody sees that as a beacon of hope. He was not there to push or promote his global warming agenda, but to motivate young children to become leaders and change politics.

Al Gore also started his speech well by mentioning the Winnipeg Jets, and other sports events to be held in Manitoba. Being the ex-Vice President of the United States, he needed a way to connect to Canadian children, and that was the best way to do so.

Although the purpose of this visit was not to promote his agenda of global warming, he did allude to it. He very strategically exposed the kids to the effects of global warming by referring to recent weather-related events in Manitoba.

Al Gore was able to bring himself down to the level of a 7th or 8th grader in this speech. He mentioned many people and interests that the children could relate to, such as Michael Jordan and hockey. He used vocabulary that children could understand, so that his audience got exactly what he was trying to convey.

In terms of his body language, I felt that it was somewhat dizzying how he kept spinning in circles as to speak to everyone in the auditorium. Other than this, he was standing straight, and addressed the crowd with confidence.

VP Al Gore used many stories to convey his thoughts and points. This was very effective, as it not only guaranteed the attention of the kids, but made it do that they could more easily remember the points.

In conclusion, Al Gore exceeded my expectations at the We Day event in  

Winnipeg. He maintained a good posture, communicated effectively both verbally and  

through body language. He was able to connect well with the audience through repeated

use of stories, and anecdotes. I am absolutely sure that most children at the We Day  

conference were inspired by his words to take action.

 

Review of Obama’s Speech at the United Nations General Assembly

        

            During this speech, President Obama addresses the assembly regarding recent attacks on U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya. In particular he goes into the detail of one of the diplomats who was killed during this attack, U.S Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Obama also talks about the viral video that ultimately caused the attack, Innocence of Muslims, as well as the morals issue surrounding it. I personally find this video, which you can find on YouTube, incredibly disgusting and certainly not one of America’s better sides.  He also addresses another controversial subject brought to light by the video, Internet censorship and freedom of speech. Regarding his speech itself, I find a few things very interesting.

            The first thing that I thing I take note of, is this completely different side of the President. During his re-election speech at the DNC, he was relaxed and spoke about his personal life whereas here, he has his game face on. Even his tone of voice is different; he uses a firm, powerful voice that clearly means business. I find it remarkable how much he can change to fit the audience. Most potential voters were people who had families for the DNC, but here, the audience is a group of politicians and ambassadors who just want to get to the point. He is much more concise with his speech than before, and speaks more professionally. This shows even how a speaker presents a speech and the tone of his/her voice can be changed to fit the audience.

            Another aspect of this video that we could potentially learn from is how Obama thought about diplomacy and international relations in every line he spoke. For example, he makes sure that he apologizes about the video but still stands up for freedom of speech. As a prominent public figure, the president needs to balance on the thin line between offending people and not stating his point with enough power. In this context, Obama needed to emphasize that this video was not acceptable to keep the people who protest this videos happy, yet still protect the rights of the people and get his point across. This can be applied public speech in our lives, especially when debating over a controversial subject. Some people don’t sell their ideas with enough conviction, yet still, some people are too aggressive with their wording and end up offending one group of people or another. To conclude, it is important to think about how the audience will react to your speech.

            Lastly, I would like to reinforce the point I made in an earlier review about personal content in speeches, specifically how it appears in most good speeches. This is the perfect example. Even though he doesn’t talk about his own personal experiences, because it would not work in this professional environment, he doesn’t take out the personal aspect of the speech. Here, Obama uses the personal life of Christopher Stevens, going into very personal details about him (like his place of birth, and even eventually calling him “Chris”), to connect to the audience. This is an effective way to create a mournful atmosphere. Instead of simply saying that three men were killed (including two of Stevens’ colleagues), Obama uses the personal aspect to make the audience understand that the life of successful, unique man was lost, and rather than just giving a casualty report. Marilyn Manson, a controversial heavy metal artist (who I happen to be a fan of), once said, “The death of one is a tragedy, but the death of many is just a statistic”. I believe this quotes captures my point perfectly. To reiterate my point, personal stories help a speech feel intimate.

            Overall, this speech is a good example of three important things to keep in mind while speaking publically. Firstly, your tone of voice should fit the situation and audience. Secondly, you should try to predict your audience’s reaction. Lastly, personal stories are a good to have in a speech.

           

The Fifth Topic

Hi, The awesome group members,

 

Here is the 5th topic for you:

 

Al Gore’s speech at We Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Ux6gCjBnQ

 

 

 

High five!

 

Public Speaking Toronto