I got an opportunity to listen to various speakers over the July 4th weekend. Some of the speakers managed to engage my attention whereas in certain other cases I lost interest rapidly after the first 5-10 mins.
Oratory – the art of public speaking is an art and not everyone is good at it. What are some of the things in a presenter that makes you want to concentrate for the whole duration of the presentation?
My list of advice for presentors includes:
1) Hold the mike real real close to your mouth. Some orators have the habit of holding the mike at chest level. That is simply not going to work. Even after being reminded couple of time, the mike would go back to chest level soon. The mike should be only around 1 inch or so from the lips.
2) More slides does not necessarily mean a good presentation. I know you have a lot to say, but at the same time please remember the audience attention span is very less. If you keep showing slide after slide, the audience will lose interest rapidly. Keep the content on the slide “short” and “to the point”. Dont try to cover everything under the sun.
3) Keep giving examples and real life scenarios. Examples are a great way to keep the audience engaged.
4) Make a dry run on your presentation with someone and take their feedback.
5) Keep your tone dynamic. Monotonous tone causes me to be drowsy.
6) Show respect to the time limit allotted to you. Often I have seen the compere or m/c will specify the timelimit to the speaker and the speaker will say “I will just take 5 mins” and ends up taking up 3 times that amount. This really throws me off when speakers dont respect the timelimit and go on and on.
Join ur company’s Toast Master team 🙂
Miloni did a course on this – Public speaking. I will direct her attention to this post so that she can share what she learnt. From the things that I remember:
1. Make eye contact with the audience
2. Talk loudly and clearly
From my own experience
1. Practice and rehearse
2. Create the script for rehearsing and capturing all the points
3. Don’t read from the script during actual presentation/webinar
4. Speak slowly (for all Indians speaking in English in foreign countries)
5. Use examples related to the audience
6. If you are visible to the audience then you must dress and present yourselves appropriately as well
7. Last but not least – know your topic well
* Try to avoid filler words:
We, Indians, have a habit of using filler words such as, “like”, “so”, “basically”, “uh”, etc… that are actually not part of sentence. We normally don’t realize when we speak, but the person listening picks it up immediately. Have someone listen to your presentation and ask them to point these to you.
* Stop fidgeting while talking as it distracts person listening.
* Adding to Prashant’s point 2, use right font size and color. You may be able to see it but person at the back may have trouble seeing it.
* Use the stage space appropriately.
Recording your voice and listening to it also helps identify the issues highlighted by Jeinay.