Barack Obama walks up to the lectern at an election rally in 2008.
He delivers his speech with grace, power, and emotion. He reads off our outdoor presidential teleprompter while giving numerous ad libs to the crowd. Obama’s teleprompter is only for key reminders, since he knows his message by heart.
What the audience doesn’t know is that we were handed his script only a few minutes before. We normally prefer 30 to 60 minutes before an event to edit scripts into the most readable teleprompter format. However, that day we flew through his script to triage the editing for best use of the available minutes.
It was his staff’s trust in us and our 20+ years of experience that let them deliver the speech moments before he took the stage. He connected perfectly with the audience, and later that year, Barack Obama became our country’s 44th President.