What is the take home message?

Here’s my ten point guide to the take home message:

• Decide the one key message that you would choose for your listeners to remember if they forgot everything else.
• This is your take home message
• Ingrain it upon your memory: if you can’t remember it, how will your listeners?
• Keep it short: avoid “and ninthly…”
• Make sure that the evidence for the take home message is in your talk, but keep the declaration of the message uncluttered with justifications
• If the audience can’t see that the take home message arises from the talk, then there is likely more wrong than the take home message itself.
• The take home message may be emphasised through delivery by change in tone and speed. It should stand without further reinforcement.
• Because you want to finish with the take home message, if you need to do an Oscar style ” I wish to thank my wife, children, cat, assistants, co-workers, manager, listeners, favourite rock band, sausage supplier” acknowledgement then do it at the beginning before getting to the meat of the talk.
• A simple “thank you” at the end acts as an indication that you have stopped without hopefully distracting from the take home message.
• The take home message should be the last thing in your talk. This is the take home message here!