This is something that is more easily done than you might expect! What looks like enough content for the time for your presentation when written is often too long when it is spoken as speech takes longer than reading.

As a first step therefore you should practice your speech out loud and time yourself. You will very quickly see whether your estimate of speech content matches your given time and can adjust it accordingly.

I learnt the second step from another professional speaker, Kate Atkin; identify which are the core principles that you wish to convey and which ones you can drop if pushed. Then if your speech looks as if it is going to run over with the full content, you can drop the less important parts on the fly, so to speak, whilst still getting your main message across in time.

The third step is to employ the assistance of the meeting chair or a good friend in the audience and ask them to give you a sign two minutes before the end of your alloted time, so that you know you have to wrap up and present your conclusions.

Chris Thomas, Milton Contact Limited,

Business Development Manager for Dale Carnegie, Cambridgeshire