I am sitting in the Charlotte, North Carolina, Airport at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, 24 Jul 2025, after missing my 2:30 p.m. connection to Phoenix, Arizona, where I will attend the National Speakers Association’s Influence 2025 Conference.

I am using the delay until my rescheduled flight to write my weekly article for Monday, 28 Jul 2025. The missed connection got me thinking. Are there any lessons public speakers can learn from missed airport connections? It turns out there are.

Below are three lessons public speakers can learn from missed airport connections, each with real-world relevance:

The Value of Buffer Time: Build in Margins for the Unexpected

Missed connections teach public speakers the importance of strategic padding in their schedules.

Just like tight layovers increase the risk of missed flights, tightly scheduled speaking engagements without prep or travel buffer leave no room for delays, mental reset, or tech issues.

When an event planner asks you the soonest time you can speak, resist the urge to say you will be ready in a week or even two weeks. Resist this urge for three reasons:

• When you first meet the event planner, you will not fully understand the audience’s needs and wants. This will take another call between you and the event planner.

• You don’t know how much time it will take to create a presentation using the material you already have

• Because you will need a bit of time to prepare your presentation, you will make it as relevant to the audience as possible

Arrive the day before a speaking event. Allocate time for AV checks, rehearsal, and recovery from travel.

You may also have travelled across one or more time zones. You need the extra day to acclimate yourself to either adding or losing hours of your time.

An extra day will also allow you to meet with the backstage support for any specific requests you may have.

So, one lesson public speakers can learn from airport delays is the value of including buffer time to account for the unexpected.

Another is being adaptable under pressure.

Adaptability Under Pressure: Stay Calm and Pivot Quickly

Airport chaos forces travelers to navigate the unknown calmly and creatively—a valuable mindset for public speakers to adopt.

You’ve all heard it. You can’t control your circumstances, but you can control your reaction to them.

Missed flights demand quick problem-solving: rerouting, calling ahead, rebooking. You need a calm mind to wade through this.

There may be a meeting you were scheduled to attend later in the day. The missed connection precludes you from attending it now. Call ahead and tell your colleagues about the unfortunate missed connection. Are you a key player at the meeting? If so, ask if the meeting can be rescheduled for the next day.

I’ve discussed Plan B before in these articles. Plan B is in case an unfortunate event occurs during a presentation. Speakers must remain composed when things go off-script, such as technical glitches, audience questions, or shortened time slots.

Similarly, if you are traveling somewhere, you also need to have a Plan B in case of potential travel delays.

Try to space airline connections at least an hour to an hour and a half apart. In the event of a delay, you and your checked luggage may still be able to catch a later connecting flight.

Practice speaking with interruptions, shortened time, or no slides, so you can pivot calmly if time is short or your slides cannot be projected.

I always plan my presentations to finish at least five to ten minutes ahead of time. This accounts for the inevitable delays in your presentations (e.g., responding to audience reactions, questions from the audience, and technical challenges).

So, two lessons public speakers can learn from airport delays are the value of including buffer time to account for the unexpected and being adaptable under pressure

Another is showing empathy for your audience’s journey.

Empathy for the Audience’s Journey: Everyone Has Their Delays

Being stranded in an airport fosters empathy for unseen struggles, such as missed calls, fatigue, or stress.

Norman Vincent Peale, in his famous book The Power of Positive Thinking, says, “A calm mind generates power.”

Panicking hinders your ability to think clearly about the situation. You may want to trick your brain a bit and assume you are not the person who missed their connection. Now you can look at the situation with clear, detached eyes.

My educated assumption is you have a significant amount of tasks “on your plate.” I bet a good number of those tasks can be solved by using your laptop. You can accomplish those tasks while you wait for your later connection. As I mentioned earlier, I used the time between my missed connection and the later one to start this weekly article.

Every audience member may be carrying emotional or logistical baggage. My life experience has shown me that everyone faces delays in their life, including your audience members. Empathy, like kindness, not only helps the person you are empathetic towards but also benefits you.

Being empathetic to your audience deepens your ability to connect with people on a human level. Humans strive for this connectedness every minute of their lives. Why not foster this connectiveness with your audience?

Next time you miss a connection, why not be empathetic to those who have missed their connection? You can tell who they are by their disappointed faces.

Acknowledge the audience’s effort to be present. Open with a comment or story that makes people feel seen and welcomed.

So, three lessons public speakers can learn from airport delays are (1) the value of including buffer time to account for the unexpected, (2) being adaptable under pressure, and (3) showing empathy for your audience’s journey.

Think of what you can do now that you have missed your connection.

You might accomplish a task that has been unfinished for weeks.

In the middle of difficulties, opportunities do lay!

Call to Action

• Leave buffer time between your speaking engagements. It will give you time to recover from the past one and plan for the next one

• Control your response to challenging speaker situations. You can only control your response, not the situation

• Have empathy for your audience’s journey. Each audience member is dealing with their challenges

References

• In Harvard Business Review, Dorie Clark emphasizes “white space” in scheduling as essential for high performers to reflect, prepare, and respond to surprises effectively (Clark, 2016).

• In “The Obstacle Is the Way”, Ryan Holiday describes how stoicism builds the resilience to turn setbacks into opportunities (Holiday, 2014).

• Brené Brown, in “Dare to Lead”, highlights that empathy is a leadership strength, especially when addressing groups under pressure (Brown, 2018).

Being a confident, engaging, and effective technical speaker is a vital personal and professional asset. With more than 40 years of engineering experience and more than 30 years of award-winning public speaking experience, I can help you reduce your presentation preparatory time by 50%, overcome your fear of public speaking and be completely at ease, deliver your presentations effectively, develop your personal presence with your audience; and apply an innovative way to handle audience questions deftly.

Working closely with you, I provide a customized protocol employing the critical skills and tools you need to create, practice, and deliver excellent technical speeches and presentations. Let’s connect and explore how I can help you become the exceptional speaker you were meant to be. Please reach out to me at frank@speakleadandsucceed.com or 703-509-4424 for a complimentary consultation. Schedule a meeting with me at calendly.com/frankdibartolomeospeaks