A previous article entitled “Essential Presentation Skills" covered the basic steps that need to be addressed prior to a presentation. These include: preparing and rehearsing the presentation, and dealing with the logistics of a presentation.
In this article the reader can familiarize themselves with what to do once they are in front of an audience delivering their speech.
Reading the Audience
It is not unusual to find out that the same speech or presentation may go very well with one group of participants and not so well with another. This is because each audience is different. Being able to read the audience and adjust the delivery of the presentation accordingly is an important skill to master. While the topic itself usually cannot be changed, there are other components that can be more easily adjusted. These include: the tone of the presentation, the pace and style.
Things to consider while trying to assess and read the audience are:
- Level of familiarity with the subject
- Timing of the presentation in relation to other projects the audience is involved in
- Expectations of the audience
- Type of audience – Are they analytical or emotional, friendly or unfriendly, focused more on facts and figures, or theoretical concepts and hypothesis?
Dealing with Questions
Many presenters are afraid of questions, especially the type of questions that come at a bad time or have dark intentions behind them (such as putting them on the spot). In reality, all questions are good, as they give the presenter a sense of what the audience is thinking and how successful they are. If one person asks a question, chances are other participants were wondering about the same thing.
To be prepared, the presenter needs to think about the most likely questions they may get and rehearse what they would say. When appropriate, delaying the answer by saying, “Thanks for that great question, let me get to it in a few minutes," will help the presenter formulate a suitable answer. Another good solution is to have a “parking lot” set up from the beginning where questions can be captured and answered later on. The main advantage with this is that questions will not disrupt the flow of the presentation and, in many cases, some of the questions will actually be answered by the material presented after the questions were raised.
Time Management
Most presenters typically hope to get in more material than they actually have time for. The best rule here is to underplan and finish on time or slightly earlier. Nobody likes it when a presentation takes longer than initially announced, but everyone loves a presenter who finishes on time.
Sometimes, presenters are afraid they will run out of material before their time is up. If that is the case, it is not a bad idea to bring along a couple of additional slides. The important thing is to know where in the presentation to include them, so that they do not look like they are out of context. Ideally, they should be about material presented towards the end of the presentation, when the presenter will have a better idea whether they need them or not, depending on the pace of the session.
Last but not least, remember that delivering a presentation is like being on a stage. Everyone watches the presenter and they get a certain impression of who the speaker is based on their look, how calm and composed they are, how organized and prepared they are, and how well they handle the equipment (laptop, projector, AV).
But no matter how terrifying public speaking may be, it is important to keep in mind that most of the audience probably knows a lot less about the subject that the presenter himself of herself. They are the subject matter expert and people will respect that.
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