This weekend, I served in an emcee role at a conference for Cru in Arizona. Serving as an emcee isn’t easy; it’s not my natural gifting, and it’s harder than it looks. You set the tone and expectations for the meetings. You tie program elements together. You help direct audience attention to key points. You introduce every speaker in a genuine way. You keep track of time. You need to know everything related to announcements, including specifics about the venue. Great emcees also bring humor to the room—something I’m also not necessarily the best at. But I’m learning.
For this event, I thought it might work as a lighthearted moment to talk about the hotel coffee and gelato shop. I even awarded a gelato gift card to an audience member who won a competition I planned. Every moment I was on stage, I decided to talk about my love of the gelato shop, and I updated the audience on which flavors I had tried. People started to look forward to my recommendations, so it naturally became my emcee duty to taste and rank the gelato flavors for the audience. I suppose if I must, I will take on this hardship.
Banana Dolce de Leche. Coffee Kahlua. Vanilla. Burnt Honey Strawberry—
This wasn’t just any gelato; this gelato was fabulous! Every flavor! I’m off to fulfill my emcee duties to try to more flavors. I suppose I will if I must.