Article and photos by Adrianne Harris
There are just so many bad tips out there designed to make you feel better when preparing to give a talk. One of the worst tips that was ever given to me (and I suspect a lot of people heard this in the 80’s) was, when preparing to speak to a group of people was to picture them naked! What?! I never understood how this was supposed to help me calm my nerves or see that I was just talking to regular people just like me. Really, there’s nothing scarier when preparing for a talk than visualising your audience sans relevant articles of clothing! And no I can’t get that image out of my mind thank you 1986.
Another truly terrible tip is to start your talk with a joke! I have no idea how telling a joke (often badly) helps excite your audience and engages them with what you are about to say. Starting a speech with a joke can be a complete turn off, and indicates to me that you are stuck in the past and haven’t really thought about how to update your presentation style for the new millennium. Or it just that I am a terrible joke teller? Maybe this works for comedians, but not so sure about other professions.
A much better approach to planning to give a presentation or speech, is to spend some time thinking about who will be in the audience and to write down as much as you know about them. You should also write a list of things you don’t know about them and how you are going to find out the information you need.
Some of the things you can ask yourself to picture your audience include:
- How old are they – will the audience be a spread of ages, or clustered around one age group? This may influence the language, the phrases, words, images, jokes, references and stories you use in your presentation. Bam to a younger person is not a household cleaner.
- What do they already know about this topic – this saves you time going over old ground, or repeating basic information that is already known. Perhaps your audience knows little about the topic, in which case you should spend some time with the basics.
- How technical is their knowledge – can you talk in jargon and buzzwords that people will relate to, or do you risk alienating your audience if you use a lot of unfamiliar or uncomfortable language? This point relates to the first two and your language should change based on their knowledge of the topic.
- What do they need to know – what absolutely must be included in your presentation – what must they walk away understanding, knowing or doing?
- What would be nice to know – this information can be included if you have time. You may speak a bit faster in front of the group and have a few minutes left at the end, you might like to include some additional information. This should not be critical information, but instead should add value to what you have just presented.
- Will there be time for questions, or is audience participation during the presentation encouraged or not – how will you manage those – will you answer questions as you go along, will you anticipate questions and incorporate the answers into your presentation or will you take limited questions at the end? Questions need to be handled as professionally as your presentation or you risk losing your audience and any credibility you had.
How do you find out these answers?
- Ask the organiser – they should have a pretty good handle on who will be in attendance, see if they can give you a detailed picture of the potential audience – are there any previous event reports, pictures or other media to give you an idea of what the audience will look like?
- Do some web research – what does the company web page tell you about your potential audience and their knowledge?
- Ask your audience – informally as you arrive and meet people or formally at the start of the talk (not recommended for presenters with little experience as you may need to make modifications to your presentation on the run)
Through a realistic visualisation of your audience you will start to see yourself on the stage talking to this group of people presenting material carefully matched to your aims and their needs. By tailoring your presentation to meet the experience and expectations of your audience you can minimise your nerves and deliver a stand out speech.
Contact Broadly Speaking to discuss your presentation analysis and design.