The Show Goes On
Author: John Anderson
November 2009
Did You Know
Ready. Set. Meet.
It’s been said that the No. 1 fear among people is public speaking, just ahead of death at No. 2. Which means—as Jerry Seinfeld once quipped—that most people at a funeral would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy. So having a microphone shoved into your hand as you’re thrown onto a stage can be a tad stressful, as some company officers and representatives at a meeting can attest. At the same time, the attention level of attendees at a meeting is often dependent on the ability of the speaker to keep everyone engaged.Enter Scott Bloom, a corporate host and emcee who has been in front of crowds at meetings and events for nearly two decades. With credits that include a stand-up comedy career and a stint as co-host of a program on VH1 with Candace Bushnell (of Sex and the City fame), Bloom knows how to work a room both large and small. And it’s his willingness to come up with new and different formats to help keep attendees engaged that has led to his long-term success in the industry, with ongoing gigs at events for companies such as Gillette, Merck, Motorola and FedEx.
“I started as a stand-up comic, then hosting these corporate game shows to get all the sales people all riled up,” says Bloom, between rehearsals for a corporate event in Atlanta. “In my early years, I was hired to design the game-show format, then moved into a [event] host capacity. It was an easy transition for me, to keep the meeting lively and the audience involved.”
His latest offering is a talk-show format he calls The Morning Show with Scott Bloom. Using well-tested templates and basic stage sets, Bloom uses the casual setting of a typical daytime talk show to introduce speakers, initiate a dialogue through Q & As or lighten the proceeding with loose stage banter—all of it designed to put the speakers at ease. He sees it as an antidote to the usual parade of PowerPoint presentations.
“It makes things more spontaneous, and gets the speakers to speak in a lot more causal way,” Bloom says. “I can gauge the interview or presentation, and through humor can ad-lib on what someone said to engage the audience. It helps the presenters because sometimes they’re nervous when they come on. Then the presenters tend to be more spontaneous and animated.”
Bloom says he’s done variations of the talk-show format for years, but is just now branding and marketing it to a wide audience. Part of its success is due to the flexibility of being able to tweak things according to individual speakers. “Some want to sit, some might want to stand up,” he says. “And then with others we sit down and have an interview. It’s just another way to present the material.” scottbloom.net
