By Roz Morris, Managing Director TV News London Ltd

There have been a number of questionable judgments in recent years by the man currently fifth in line to the throne of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. However the one I’m writing about now is nothing directly to do with his place in the Royal Family. 

Having relocated back to England with his family at the end of August, Prince Harry returned to the USA a month later to make a speech in New York about AI. Is he an expert on this complex subject? 

“And that’s it”

Apparently not really after this speech showed that he could not carry on talking when his teleprompter stopped working.  He started his speech but soon stopped abruptly saying after a long pause: “And that’s it”.

One of his spokespeople later confirmed there had been a fault with the teleprompter and this was fixed while other speakers, including former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, took to the stage.

Harry reappeared 40 minutes after his emergency stop and completed reading his speech after saying: “Hello again. So, AI got into my speech, so I was asked to come out and finish it. Interesting to see what it was so concerned about in part two.”

Oh dear. Harry did not look happy about this incident and nor should he be.

What can we learn from this and what should he have done?

The first and most important thing to emphasise is that it is very unwise to accept a speaking engagement on a topic you don’t know much about and certainly one where you don’t know enough about it to be able to keep talking and summarise what you want to say if your script disappears.

Prince Harry more an actor than an expert

Some comments pointed out this incident showed Prince Harry is more of an actor than an expert. Others inevitably on social media were less kind.

If Prince Harry had actually known more about what he was talking about, he would have been able to recover the situation by explaining that the teleprompter had stopped working, made a joke of it and then carried talking about his main points. Even if his speech was shorter than planned it would have been effective.

In his speech he was taking on the role of a total expert on the subject of AI and offering dire warnings to the world. But the fact that he couldn’t carry on without his script revealed his lack of knowledge. He just stopped as if someone had pulled the plug out.

Be prepared for problems

We should feel some sympathy for anyone whose technology lets them down, however being prepared for  a problem is not catastrophising. It’s common sense. 

If you want to know more about how you can prepare your speeches and presentations professionally contact us on 0208 275 8854 or email us at info@tvnewslondon.co.uk