HP Innovation Journal Issue 14: Spring 2020 | Page 65

VIRTUAL AUDIENCES,
AUDIENCES,
VIRTUAL
REAL RESULTS
RESULTS
REAL
Practicing speeches using VR makes people better—
and braver—public speakers.
BY TRAVIS MARSHALL
Billionaire investor and philanthropist Warren
Buffett, a successful man by any measure, struggled
with public speaking as a young man. “I would throw up,”
he said in the biography The Snowball: Warren Buffett and
the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder. “In fact, I arranged
my life so that I never had to get up in front of anybody.”
If you’re among the millions of people who also struggle
with public speaking, you know how uncomfortable—
even terrifying—it can be to have a sea of faces staring
at you expectantly. In the grip of anxiety, you might trip
over words, lose your place in a presentation, and maybe
even spiral into panic. The fear of public speaking, or
glossophobia, can be paralyzing, and it can also limit
your career growth in jobs that require presentations to
clients or executives.
Buffett, who has said that he believes building
communication skills is the fastest way professionals
can boost their career prospects, overcame his fear by
taking a Dale Carnegie public-speaking course (twice).
Today, there’s a new option that can make becoming a
better, more confident speaker a lot less scary by using
VR technology. For educators, corporate professionals,
politicians—even a best man dreading a wedding-night
toast—practicing in front of a virtual audience can take
the terror out of the real thing.
REHEARSE, REVIEW, AND REPEAT
The best way to overcome a fear of public speaking is to
get up and do it as often as possible, and then learn from
your mistakes.
“Repetition is the key to improving your skills,”
says Josephine Lee, an award-winning speaker and
longtime member of the public-speaking and
leadership education organization Toastmasters
International. “Groups like Toastmasters work because
they provide a safe environment to practice, fail, and
get constructive feedback.”
VR public-speaking programs can offer many of the same
benefits, from an immersive experience that feels like
standing in front of a crowd, to real-time feedback that
lets users recognize and correct mistakes as they practice.
“The conventional wisdom about public speaking is that
you should practice a couple of times in front of a mirror
or a group of family and friends,” says Jeff Marshall, CEO
of Ovation, a public-speaking VR software startup. “With
VR, you can give speeches over and over and build muscle
memory that carries over when you step up in front of a
real audience.”
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
The root of most public-speaking discomfort is a certain
amount of social anxiety. For some people, this fear can
trigger debilitating physiological responses like rapid
heartbeat, hyperventilation, even dizziness or fainting.
These are all potential signs of glossophobia—the clinical
term for the fear of public speaking. Practicing through VR
can offer a much-needed first step for people seeking help.
Robert Reiner is a clinical psychologist at the Manhattan-
based cognitive behavioral therapy clinic Behavioral
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