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Welcome to E = Emcee Squared: Tips & Techniques to Becoming a Dynamic Master of Ceremonies.

Before we get started with all the exciting tips and techniques, let me share with you why I set out to create this book in the first place.

My professional career has been as a Registered Nurse working predominantly in mental health & psychiatry. I can’t recall there being many if any opportunities to practice my craft of emceeing while working in that capacity. In fact, being an Emcee hasn’t even featured on my “bucket list” of things that I need to accomplish before I pass on to the afterlife.

You might have noticed that I called emceeing a craft in the previous paragraph. I truly believe that it is. For me, becoming a proficient master of ceremonies developed incrementally while participating in hundreds, if not thousands of weekly Toastmasters meetings. I joined Toastmasters to develop my public speaking skills. Before joining, I was terrified of standing and speaking before a group, public speaking as it is commonly referred to. I quickly learned that public speaking and leadership went hand-in-hand. To be an effective leader, you have to be a good communicator. To be an effective speaker, you have to be a good leader.

The Toastmasters program provided me ample opportunities to develop my emceeing skills in their weekly meetings as well as outside of the club environment. The weekly program provides as many speaking opportunities for its members as can be packed into the amount of time allotted. The different roles, while providing speaking opportunities, also provide varying levels of leadership skill building. The basic leadership skills that you learn are readily usable for the more challenging roles you take on.

My journey to becoming an accomplished Toastmaster has included many leadership roles and positions. Each has brought its own challenges and lessons learned. In my early years in Toastmasters I recall being volunteered to introduce an Area Governor at a speech contest gathering that was being hosted locally. The Area Governor’s role was to officiate at the speech contest, that is, emcee the event.

I can recall being terrified of having to go up on the stage, with everyone staring at me and having to introduce the Area Governor. The very next year … I was the Area Governor! A lot can happen in a year. I found that I actually liked standing on the stage, with all the audience’s eyes on me.

Since then I have taken on ever-increasingly challenging leadership roles in Toastmasters as Division Governor, Lieutenant Governor of Education & Training (LGET), District Governor and Past District Governor. Outside of Toastmasters I have taken on leadership roles as a Director, then the Chair of a local entrepreneur’s society. In that capacity I organized 30 or so Townhall meetings which were panel discussions with local, experienced entrepreneurs discussing issues of importance to those interested in the topic of the meeting. My role included subject development, speaker recruitment, speaker coaching, marketing and promoting the event, selling registrations, developing the agenda/timeline, moderating the event and providing post event follow-up.

Much of those activities could arguably be described as an event planner’s duties. As an Emcee, I take a proactive approach and don’t leave anything to chance. Throughout this book I provide you with tips and techniques that I have learned along the way in becoming an effective Emcee and turning it into a business venture. As Mr. Emcee (my business name) I provide master of ceremonies and event organizing services in my local market.

The task of emceeing is very much like the proverbial tip of an iceberg i.e. much of what takes place is behind the scenes where the public doesn’t see. Far too many people have the view that anyone can walk onto a stage, announce a bunch of names, crack a few jokes and be effective. Nothing could be further from the truth! As you will see I share with you the “behind the scenes” details needed to be a dynamic Master of Ceremonies.

Throughout this book you will notice that I use a conversational style of writing. Sure, you don’t get to speak back to me but it might be helpful to read the book as if I was coaching you. This book is written from the perspective that you the reader has a basic concept of what is involved in being a Master of Ceremonies but would like to learn more, so that you can do it yourself. An Emceeing for Dummies, if you will.

As in other articles and books I have written I utilize what I call an “onion” approach. In exploring a topic we peel layer after layer away so that we get to the essence of the subject. Much like peeling back the layers of an onion but hopefully, without all the tears that often accompany doing so. I hope you find this appealing! Okay, that’s the only pun I will be using … maybe.

Wondering about the title of this book? E=MC [squared] should easily be recognized as originating from Albert Einstein. The MC (Emcee) portion should be fairly obvious. But what about the E portion of the formula? Drawing from the field of public speaking and leadership, E can have multiple meanings (all of which you should be):

•Entertaining

•Educational

•Enthusiastic

•Endearing

•Encouraging

•Effortless

•Economic [of time]

•Efficient

•Early

•Engaging

I could likely pull out my dictionary and overwhelm you with a plethora of words that start with E, so I will stop here.

One last comment before we get started. While this book provides a systematic approach to serving as a dynamic Emcee, your self-confidence, poise, courage, public speaking skills and courage to take on a role that many others would avoid at all costs, will go a long way in ensuring your success. Those are all factors that are beyond the scope of this book. However, if I can do it … you can too!

Rae Stonehouse a.k.a. Mr. Emcee

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