One of us was let lose this month and found himself in front of 300 sleepy post-lunch sets of eyes staring blankly back at him. Of course, the content up on the stage screen was grossly over-engineered as our intrepid speaker could not shake the thought that by representing Business Docs in a public arena, […]
One of us was let lose this month and found himself in front of 300 sleepy post-lunch sets of eyes staring blankly back at him. Of course, the content up on the stage screen was grossly over-engineered as our intrepid speaker could not shake the thought that by representing Business Docs in a public arena, the slides had BETTER be good!
For what it is worth, here are a few tips we can offer for getting up on stage and trying to stop a room full of people boo or fall asleep.
- Remember who your audience is
- Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them it, then remind them what you just told them
- Humans seem to work better with 3 things be it sections, content or ideas
- Memorise your lines, practice your lines, learn the flow
- Know your next slide so you can transform effortlessly from one to another
- If you even bother with slides – some of the best speakers use few
- Don’t be so rigid with your presentation that you can’t flex a little with the mood in the room
- Don’t sell your own product – sell your presentation
- Make it feel like you wrote it for that audience
- Remember that they are more scared of you than you are of them*
*That might be dogs