Feb
10
Written by:
richard
10/02/2011 17:07
The opening of your presentation has gone well. You have grabbed the attention of your audience. Currently, their focus is on you and what you have to say; it’s time to get your key message across. Attention can be fleeting and we are easily distracted so what can you do to keep your audience interested and to make your message memorable?
Firstly, remember it is not about you – the presenter, it is about your audience. Make sure you are giving them something of value. That may be knowledge, information, learning, new ideas or even entertainment or quite possibly a combination of these things. Don’t forget the entertainment element. How many excessively dull business presentations have you sat through? You will almost certainly remember the level of dullness, but are much less likely to remember any of the content. Now this does not mean you need to become a professional entertainer, telling lots of jokes or doing some sort of party trick. Of course not; however you do need to build some rapport with your audience and provide you message in a way that captures attention.
One key factor in helping audiences absorb and retain your message is simplicity. Sadly, it is often under valued. Many presenters seem to believe that the more complex and content rich they can make their presentation, the more professional they will appear. This suggests that their focus is much more on themselves rather than the needs of their audience. Keep your message clear and simple and focus on the essential core of your subject.
An unexpected or surprising element works just as well in the body of a presentation as it does at the beginning. This may be a fact, or statistic, or an unusual example to make a point and it has the effect of grabbing and refocusing audience attention.
Many members of your audience will be making sense of your message by relating it to their own circumstances. It is a key part of human nature to make judgements relative to ourselves. Ensure you are making an emotional connection with your audience by providing anecdotes and examples that they are able to relate to their own circumstance in some way. If at all possible make this a more concrete experience by encouraging your audience to touch, hear, see, taste or smell. You may be able to do this directly by having product samples available for instance, or using other props and objects. Likewise you can also build a more emotional response by using stories as part of your presentation. The art of storytelling goes back into the mists of time and few of us are able to resist being drawn in by a good story or anecdote. Make sure you make your story sensory rich to allow your audience members to build their own representations of what you are saying.
So when planning your next presentation, think about how you can weave these elements into the fabric of what you are saying. Your audience will appreciate it, and you never know, you might actually enjoy giving the presentation.
2 comment(s) so far...
Re: Now make it stick
This is good advice. The only thing I'd add to this is that there's a balance between doing these things to help grab attention and get message across, and being manipulative. There's many a presentation I've been to where the presenter uses one or more of these techniques and I've been extremely annoyed by them because it's obvious what he/she is trying to do.Story-telling can be particularly problematic because of culture. I would also avoid stories that show other people up in a poor light (even if they are fictitious).
By Bruce Levitan on
30/03/2011 09:57
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Re: Now make it stick
I agree with you about the annoying people who are simply stringing a series of techniques together hoping to get an audience to agree with them. The techniques are useful in helping presenters get their real message across, assuming their message is aligned to something of value or benefit to the audience.
The 'manipulation' word always has a strong negative frame for me, and in this case suggests taking an audience to somewhere they don't really want to go. I prefer the concept of influencing, where a presenter is giving the audience the best possible chance of getting their message. These techniques are simply tools. Sadly, some people will always misuse tools for their own ends. Thankfully, most people are simply trying to do a good job.
By richard on
30/03/2011 14:47
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