The skillset of any experienced and successful after dinner speaker will be varied. Their previous experience will always shine through when their presentation is compared to that of a newly emerging after dinner speaker. This is because inexperienced speakers may not have finely tuned all the skills which are so vital to great presentations.
Of course, given the massive variety of different messages an after dinner speaker might be asked to get across throughout their career, communication skills are a must. However, the speaker must also be able to incorporate humour into their presentation to avoid the audience becoming bored. Because the after dinner speech takes place during a natural lull in the proceedings, they must keep the audience entertained to prevent post-dinner lethargy taking over. As well as humour, brevity is a very important skill. The ability to get a message across succinctly is always important.
Furthermore, good, solid knowledge is very important for an after dinner speaker. They must have a good grounding in their subject matter or else the audience is unlikely to take them seriously and will probably disregard their message. In this regard, the person responsible for hiring the after dinner speaker has a role to play. Hiring a reality show star to talk about implementing new sales techniques is an unwise decision. Remember though, that even a knowledgeable business speaker should be given some introduction to the company.
Another large part of the after dinner speaker’s skill lies in their understanding of an audience and their needs. This is of course not to say that organisers should fail to provide a background. Failure to consider the specific needs and position of an audience has caused many an after dinner speaker to put their foot in it, with inappropriate jokes proving common.