Speak up please....

Oh dear the Tonbridge Civic Society talk last night promised much with an architect speaking about his specialist subject of the history of Wealden building. The content was very detailed and the pictures of houses around the Weald of Kent and Sussex made me drool with envy. But I'm afraid that at least half the audience, from about half way back in the room, were straining their ears to hear very much at all. They don't hold back those elderly, usually genteel folk, of the TCS; when speaker Stephen Langer began in a seated position about half a dozen shouted out in unison, "We can't hear you, can you speak up please!" and "It might help if you stood up!" In fact the Chairman had to intervene to politely explain the problem to our guest speaker. Fair enough I say because, if you rush to get to the meeting, often after a hastily eaten dinner, and you're interested in the topic enough to make the effort, as over a hundred people had, then the least you can expect is to be able to hear the speaker. If you have a very good speaker who can project their voice in a theatrical manner then no problem, they'll be heard however loud the air conditioning is at the back of the Riverside Suite of the Angel Centre; but we can't all be Brian Blessed so for heaven's sake make a microphone standard for every talk. The content of the talk was actually very detailed and interesting and Stephen spoke with great authority about many of the traditional building techniques which had been passed down to us since medieval days and before. Techniques which his company have actually used in reconstruction on many projects around the region. But I'm afraid, what most people would have taken away from the night was that they couldn't hear much, which is a shame....