True story about the benefits of megaphones: I used to teach high school students at a summer program and for one activity, I had to take them on a walking tour of my college. Of course, when you have 40-50 people with short attention spans fanning out onto a college campus, it helps to have the vocal power and charisma of a Michael Buffer to keep your audience locked in. But what if you don’t? My employer understood and armed me with the most powerful speech amplification tool known to man: a handheld megaphone. Okay, that’s a bit of a stretch. But I just held down the trigger-like button, spoke into the mouthpiece, and I projected infinitely better than if I’d just cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled. Everyone picked up what I had to say, they stayed engaged, and many of them asked questions afterward.

So what makes a handheld megaphone so useful for outdoor engagements? Here’s a short list of benefits:

• Portability: You can carry your megaphone around with you as you walk and talk without having to plug it in anywhere. Plus, your battery lasts long enough for you to focus more on speaking and less on how much power you have left. This helps preserve the flow of your presentation because you don’t have to stop at inopportune times.
• Efficient, Space-saving Design: Think of a a megaphone as a microphone with the speaker built in. And since your voice is like an instrument, it’s good to have an output shaped like the bell on a trumpet for extra projection and a sharper, more focused sound.
• Power: Outdoor events force you to contend with background noise and wind, and a megaphone helps your voice rise above the din.

When it comes down to it, a megaphone can help you clearly communicate with the masses at a road race, concert, barbeque, or anywhere else you need to maintain order and authority. Pick one up for your next outdoor event and find out if it’s as useful for you as it was for me.