Many speaker and presenters find it a challenge to keep their audience riveted and absorbed in their presentations and talks. They worry about being able to maintain the right level of entertainment and information or building a rapport with their listeners. Whether you’re an online or off-line speaker, if you need to have tools and techniques to help break up your talk and retain audience attention, this article will provide you with quick and easy tips and techniques to leave them asking for more.
Most people have a concentration span of about 20 minutes before their mind begins to wander. The easiest and one of the most effective ways to break up your talk is to involve your audience. Interactive questioning, poll taking with a show of hands, getting them to repeat words or phrases or respond as a group, are great ways to draw in your listeners in an off-line setting.
If speaking in an online event such as a teleseminar or webinar, ask them to answer a poll or write a comment on the webinar platform or connect via a social media platform such as Facebook or Twitter and comment there.
You need to judge how often and to what degree you want to bring in the audience into the presentation – too many interruptions and you’ll break the flow of your talk or overrun your time. For the same reason, keep questions from the floor to the end as part of your usual Q&A slot – keep control of the interaction so that it enhances not detracts from the points you want to make.
Balance and judgement are also needed if you want to use props or comedy to engage with your audience. Inappropriate jokes or over-elaborate, vulgar or overly complex props are clearly out of the question. But gentle humour can build a rapport with your audience while suitable visual aids can highlight a point or concept to help them reach a better understanding more quickly.
If your audience can’t relate to what you’re saying, you’ll soon lose their support and interest. A key way to build a bond and keep your audience listening is to be relevant and genuine. People don’t want to be talked at – they want to feel that you’re sharing your knowledge as part of a common experience. Hearing about how you have dealt with your mistakes or difficulties, how you’ve overcome challenge and adversity is more interesting and relevant to them than hearing of unqualified success.
Keep this sense of sharing and intimacy through your body language and voice. Keep eye contact with people from all parts of the room; smile frequently which will again strengthen bonds and help your body to unwind. Make sure your body language is open and expressive – people respond to confidence, authority and someone who is relaxed and comfortable. For virtual events, show this warmth through your voice. Remember that your smile can be “heard” so keep smiling as you would if were onstage.
If the facilities are available, ask for a remote slide control so that you’re not tied to the computer to move along your PowerPoint slides. If they don’t have one, then break the routine by occasionally walking away from the computer to talk through a slide and then walking back to move the slide along. If the room size allows, you could move along the aisle space when you’re interacting with your audience, and then return to the stage area when you resume your talk.
Avoid Death-By-PowerPoint presentations. Don’t show over-wordy slides for every point you make in your speech. The audience should be listening to you, not reading long paragraphs on screen. Use the slides to emphasise and highlight only salient points and provide strong visual images that reinforce or explain a point quickly. New versions of PowerPoint allow you to easily embed videos and audio media – again judicious use can create a powerful impact for both online and offline events.
A speaker who clearly understands their topic and is passionate and enthused about it, is someone that an audience will respect and warm to. If they can see your obvious enthusiasm to share and connect with them, they will be only too eager to respond in kind. By offering content that is relevant, informative, addresses their issues and concerns, and which is tailored to their level, you’ll keep your audience interested in what you have to say.