Mark Goulston writes:

When following a presentation by an important person at a convention there is a call for comments or questions and there is dead silence, the last thing that speaker thinks is that he or she has been profound.

It’s an awkward silence (that I’ve experienced as a speaker). This is a great opportunity. If you are the first one to ask a question that the speaker will like answering, the audience will admire you for breaking the ice, you will preemptively serve as a deterrent to irrelevant and insulting questions and the presenter will be grateful to you and make solid eye contact with you to show it. This will give you the opportunity to then introduce yourself afterwards and follow up with a letter following the meeting.

Want to distinguish yourself even more? Contact that speaker ahead of time, tell them you’re attending the meeting, looking forward to hearing him/her speak, and would be very happy to ask the question that they would like to you to ask to help the ensuing Q & A and discussion go in a constructive direction.



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