Public discussion suggestions

[XkillerX]

xbojanx and me are holding a public discussion about the "abuse of animals", this saturday, commemorating World Animal Day.

got some advice?

Our idea is: 2x quick powerpointless 5mins presentations, then talk. Keep other powerpointless and videos in the stash to answer more articulate questions.

I guess the public can be focused for one hour max? Smokers and shit.

Hit us up.

[JP]

what kind of people will be present?

already vegans/veggies?

how did you advertise?

never worry though even with low amount of people attending - quality not quantity and all that. Sometimes you may only have couple people but if one of them goes vegan/veggie, its already not too bad of a result.

[XkillerX]

i expect mostly rec drug loving self-proclaimed "aertists". (non veg)

and similar types who claim to be eco activists (some can actually sort of back this up). (also non veg)

advertising is done via regular internet social media crap and by asking schools to put up our notice.

i will also put up some adverts in the city so various bystanders can check it out but i don't expect much notice that way.

[JP]

well you will only get people in who are interested, so they are prime folk.

+ couple who like to argue. Do not spend too much time with them, but be ever so friendly, that sets the tone

eco folk are great fertile ground.

might be good to ask in the start if there are veggies in the crowd already. If there are a bunch might be worth it to include more dairy/egg stuff too.

one hour sounds like a LONG talk! Dont know what the tradition in serbia is but in most places that would be a very long time to listen to one person. Though you can split the time with media - but short and sweet could perhaps work better? Then leave nice amount of time for discussion?

[Hiking Fox]

got some advice?

Yeah:

5 mins PP each sounds about right. Keep the talk to a minimum, but allow loads of time for questions. Also make it quite clear to people that you'll be hanging around at the end if anybody wants an individual chat. Some people are too nervous to put their hand up, but will happily come up to you when formalities end, make time for those people.

Take a selection of leaflets and booklets from various groups and put them on a table that people walk past on the way out.

Take a list of good books and websites. If someone asks a question that you can't answer, say you don't know, but x.org will probably have the answer. It is a good idea to photocopy the list of sites to hand out.

Take some vegan recipe sheets to hand out or cookery zines to sell.

If the venue allows it, take some sample vegan food to hand out. Things like cake, pizza cut into little bits etc. are really popular. Chocolate soya milk is a good one, too. People will like you because you're giving them something free, and it breaks the ice. Some people will come specially if they know there will be food samples.

Have colourful, funky visuals, but not anything that makes it look like you're trying too hard to look professional and corporate. People like a bit of grass-roots look to campaigning literature, but they don't like endless blocks of text with no colours, photos or artwork.

I disagree with the suggestion to ask who is vegetarian, as it puts people on the spot and makes non-veggies feel like they are being guilt-tripped. You could always ask any veggies in the audience to come over to say hello at the end.

[ultra_whippet]

I guess the public can be focused for one hour max? Smokers and shit.

Less than that - people start to lose attention after about 10 minutes. So try and cover the gist of your presentation in this time, and then use the rest of the time to fill out the details, in chunks of 5-10 minutes. You can break it up with short anecdotes or something that involves audience participation - but don't try and talk to them for more than 10 minutes at a time, or they will start to lose interest.....

And don't put too much text on your powerpoint slides - pictures work much better

[Konstantin]

Do a demonstration of vegan strength. Seriously.

Stress some positives of what people can do. In the UK we have around 70 million people, and kill about 70 million chickens per month. So going vegan is going to save a life a month before you get on to the pigs cows sheep starving kids etc.

Stress the continuity of rspect for life and how animal abuse is part of human abuse, with ADRs, starvation etc linked in.

Well done dude, sounds good!

[Hiking Fox]

In the UK we have around 70 million people, and kill about 70 million chickens per month. So going vegan is going to save a life a month before you get on to the pigs cows sheep starving kids etc.

That's an excellent way of putting it; I'll remember that one.

[XkillerX]

Thanks folks, lots of great information.

One thing I thought about is not to reveal our veganism at all until the end, so that the deathatarians wouldn't feel threatened and suspicious immediately.

You all remember how fragile we were back then

[Gelert]

I guess the public can be focused for one hour max? Smokers and shit.

Less than that - people start to lose attention after about 10 minutes.

Less than that. Think 1 minute 20 seconds is the most recent average attention span I've heard of for adult learners. On the webs it drops to 9 seconds - just like a goldfish.

If you have slides, aim to spend 1 minute per slide.

So every minute, talk about something new or in a different way - faster or slower, or whatever - break it up.

Sell the idea and not the detail of things, and less is most definitely more.

Use three part lists - not 2 or 20, but use three things to convince them of your argument. e.g.

I think X is crap cuz

A.
B.
C.

There are key words to use - in this time space of 5 minutes, pick maybe 5 words that really convey the points you want to get across, or you want to associate with them. Then use them repeatedly, with subtle emphasis.

Use humour (if you are OK with it) more than the hard sell of blood and guts of poor innocent animals.

Dress smartly and shine your shoes.

Spend the first twenty seconds looking at your audience engaging with each and everyone of them in a positive, smiley, non-threatening way and fixing the mood. You then have a minute to catch them properly, to hook them and raise their curiosity. Two minutes later jump off the stage or something to wake them up. Then sum it up.

Before I write my lectures I listen to Hitler's Nuremburg rallies for tips - not a bad starting place for a public speaker.

[soniczip]

Dress smartly and shine your shoes.

and have someone taking pictures so that you can post them here

[XkillerX]

Let's follows this up with a quick rundown of how to, in a friendly and non aggressive way, shoot down idiots.

Ladies, gentlemen and both, let me present you the stereotypes:

1. it's a cult, it's a bloody cult!!!

2. whaddya mean EET NO MEET?!?! THAT'S NOT HEALTHY!!!! CRAZY PEOPLE!!!!

3. but i want to eat my burger, i love my burger, i eat burger every day, and i dont want no soy burger, i want my burger, cant you see how much i want to eat my burger 5x daily

4. raw food ftw!!! COOKING IZ EVIL!! EVIL!!!

5. nevermind the rawfoodists, MACROBIOTICS ARE OF UPMOST VALUE!!! YING AND YANG AND BALANCE AND SHIT!!!

6. yes, but you know so much about it. how can i learn. you need to go to school and college to know to eat like that.

7. i dont have time. i dont even have time to be here!

8. that's all american! none of that applies to <<this country>> !! it's all fbi cia conspiracy!!

9. my horoscope (clairvoyante; tarrot master; palm reader; secretary; the local butcher-baker-candlestickmaker) told me that i must xxx to yyy because of zzz

10...

well honestly if 10 people show up that will be a success, so there you go, now have some fun and come up with witty comebacks i might yet be unaware of.

ciao!

[Konstantin]

Let's follows this up with a quick rundown of how to, in a friendly and non aggressive way, shoot down idiots.

Ladies, gentlemen and both, let me present you the stereotypes:

1. it's a cult, it's a bloody cult!!!

2. whaddya mean EET NO MEET?!?! THAT'S NOT HEALTHY!!!! CRAZY PEOPLE!!!!

3. but i want to eat my burger, i love my burger, i eat burger every day, and i dont want no soy burger, i want my burger, cant you see how much i want to eat my burger 5x daily

4. raw food ftw!!! COOKING IZ EVIL!! EVIL!!!

5. nevermind the rawfoodists, MACROBIOTICS ARE OF UPMOST VALUE!!! YING AND YANG AND BALANCE AND SHIT!!!

6. yes, but you know so much about it. how can i learn. you need to go to school and college to know to eat like that.

7. i dont have time. i dont even have time to be here!

8. that's all american! none of that applies to <<this country>> !! it's all fbi cia conspiracy!!

9. my horoscope (clairvoyante; tarrot master; palm reader; secretary; the local butcher-baker-candlestickmaker) told me that i must xxx to yyy because of zzz

10...

well honestly if 10 people show up that will be a success, so there you go, now have some fun and come up with witty comebacks i might yet be unaware of.

ciao!

Beware of: "if you were on a desert island and you had to starve or eat meat, I bet you'd eat meat. So that means you like meat, so you're a hipocrite, so you should eat meat now". Bloody good point, I've never worked out an answer yet.

[xrodolfox]

I second the looking spiffy part.

I get away with murder because I'm dapper. A good smile doesn't hurt. A good laugh is even better. It's unfortunately true, but half of the arguments are made by how you look on stage rather than what you say.

The ideas part, that's pie.

[baldy]

Beware of: "if you were on a desert island and you had to starve or eat meat, I bet you'd eat meat. So that means you like meat, so you're a hipocrite, so you should eat meat now". Bloody good point, I've never worked out an answer yet.

I would counter with, if you were on a desert island and you had to starve or eat tofu, I bet you'd eat tofu.

My favourite argument is they way we have dogs and cats as pets and people will do anything for them. Then sheep, cows and pigs are food.
Then try and find any fundamental difference between these classes of animals. Is it based on the animals IQ, ability to suffer or is it just because we have accepted that they are for food and we cant get attached. (we as in humans not vegans)

If someone gives you a solid reason, like people will say ow dogs are clever cows are stupid. Then you can counter with how some dogs are stupid (and annoying) should be eat them? How some food animals are clever like pigs.