Proper Body Language of Master of Ceremony for the Academic Conference

Abstract

Body language is a person’s behavior reflected from his/her awareness and should be expressed properly in different contexts. A master of ceremony must express his/her body language suitable to the context and atmosphere of conference, especially in a formal academic conference. In the conference, the master of ceremony’s role is not only to inform participants general information but also to ensure that the conference runs smoothly by coordinating with various sections to be able to solve problems that may happen and/or to continue even when there is something preventing the conference to run as planned. Because conference committees are people with qualifications, academic titles from the host institution and many other academic institutions from Thailand in a national conference and also from other countries in a case of international conference, and all participants who are the presenters and those who are attendants are academics, it is undeniable that the master of ceremony is a representative and represented as the image of the host institution. Therefore, the master of ceremony’s body language while on duty on stage facing participants of the academic conference should be humble and elegant while standing, walking and sitting, and using his/her hands, arms, and moving his/her head and shoulders because his/her body language should set the mood of the participants to correspond with the atmosphere of the academic conference.