Connecting with the audience

Connecting with one's audience. A daunting task.

I have a list of random public speaking tips I try to remember every time I give a presentation. I recently shared this list with a group of friends and thought I would post it here as well.

Pretty much all of the presentations I give involve PowerPoint, hence its presence.

• Know your subject. Know your presentation. If the power goes out or you suddenly lose your eyesight, you should still be able to deliver it.

• Don't chew gum, jingle your keys, move your hands around in your pockets...

• How well you know your topic is visible in your powerpoint slides. Lists of long sentences that must be read drive people crazy, especially if you flip through quickly. Instead, there should be one or two words that give a hint at the point you are trying to make and YOU deliver the long, drawn out sentence so it feels like a conversation.

• Powerpoint: there should rarely be more than 20 words per slide. Each slide should take one minute of your presentation. Thus, if you have a ten minute presentation, there should be close to 10 (or maybe 8 so you have time for questions) slides and a 200 word word count.

• Laser pointers are a priveledge, not a right. A laser pointer should not run out of batteries halfway through the presentation. If you must use it, use it sometimes. Push the button, point at what is interesting, stop pointing the button, set the pointer down. I can not trust myself with a laser pointer. I accept that my speaking style does not allow me to stop pushing the button and pointing the laser into the crowd from time to time, making people cross-eyed. I accept when offerred a laser pointer, I must sadly decline

• Practice, practice, practice. Practice out loud (we speak slower / faster in our minds than out loud). Practice in front of your mirror, your dog, your hampster, your mop.

• Give your presentation to your friend / group of friends / family.

• Powerpoint: you may have noticed not all of these points end in a period (but some do...). Decide whether you will or will not end each point with some form of punctuation and stick with it.

• Headings should line up from slide to slide and should be the same size.

• Busy backgrounds make people crazy.

• Time your presentation

• If you have a problem with saying things like uumm, ahh etc... Practice pausing silently. It is something we do to give our minds time to think about the next thing we want to say. For whatever reason, we figure if we are making noise, we still look like we know what we're doing. Doing this, however, makes us look nervous. If you pause, you'll have everyone hanging off your every word.

• Too many animations make people crazy. This is an art, not a science.

• Watch the news. Ever notice when there is a reporter AND a little square with a picture on it, the reporter is on the left and the square is above their shoulder on the right? People read left to right (at least reading english), people listen left to right. If you stand on the right of your presentation, people will focus less on what you are saying and doze off staring at your powerpoint.

• Using the same word / phrase over and over makes people crazy... It might also drive home a point (like continuously giving a newly defined word). Just be sure if you are doing it, realize you are doing it (repeating crazy a hundred times does not count as accepted use).

• Join a public speaking group (like Toastmasters).

• Consider your audience. Think of the times you have been in an audience. No one is there to judge you. They are there to learn from you. You are obviously an expert in the subject (work with me here, this is a pep talk) and you want to share what you know because it is important to you.

But what do I know about connecting with the audience? The last conference I presented at, I put the microphone backwards on my head, dropped the power pack on the floor mid-presentation and almost hung myself with the cord getting the stupid thing back on the waist-band of my pants.

Do you have any tips to add to this list?