Another thing that audiences always enjoy is the chance to laugh. It achieves several things for both speaker and audience when humour is successfully injected into a speech or presentation. Amongst these are that it relaxes the speaker (or at least reassures them); similarly the audience is unified and reassured about the speaker’s general composure [...]
The moment you rise to your feet or walk out ‘on stage’ you can sense that little kick. We all can, however much we say we can’t. For some, the onset of the butterflies is mild, for others very much more unsettling; just occasionally the sensation can be close to terror. We know the line [...]
You’re settled into the meeting, neatly ticking off the agenda items and thinking about getting back to your desk when you hear the chairman of the meeting mention your name. “Now,” he says, “We’d just like a quick update on where we are with the widget project. Over to you.” This wasn’t pre-planned and you [...]
Of all the things that audiences value most their time has to be the most precious. We need to recognise it, we’re all time-poor; there’s just never enough, is there? Well it’s definitely true for your audience. You may know (it may even be in the day’s programme or up on screen behind you) that [...]
Under just about any circumstances we know, without needing to be told, that it’s important to maintain eye-contact. One-on-one or one-on-many, the same general principle applies. If you don’t look at me, occasionally at least, I’m going to get turned off pretty quickly. Leaving aside some interesting cultural variations on this theme, one question that [...]