Tips for presenting at FYI talks, conventions, etc.
Audiences come to a presentation asking, "Why am I here?"
If you do well, they'll leave asking, "How do I implement these ideas?"
The presentation should be more about persuading than informing. Why?
Lectures are actually very bad at transmitting information - about 10-30% retention rate.
So, focus your speech on one key message. Build your talk around that message and make it easy for the audience to take the first step toward whatever it is you want them to do.
Before you start on the meat of your talk, you have a lot of planning and preparation to do. Here's how.
Great speakers listen to their audiences, and to do that well, they must know the audience. So find out:
Get detailed answers to these, as they'll be key to persuading the audience.
Next, find out:
Once you know the audience, know the venue. Find out:
The seed of your talk is the elevator speech, the thing you'll tell to anyone you want to get to come hear your talk. It should contain:
Example: "If you attend my speach, you will learn how to give presentations without fear, presentations that move your audience o action every time."
Once you have your elevator speech, use it as a litmus test for anything you want to include in your talk: Anything that doesn't relate to the elevator speech, no matter how interesting to you, must be excluded from your talk. If something doesn't support the key concept, it doesn't belong in your talk.
Audiences don't like to be overwhelmed with detail. They don't like to have their time wasted. They want what's important, the key concepts, the distilled essence of all the knowledge you've sought and accumulated.
The level of need shapes the kinds of examples you use, the claims you make, and the stories you tell. See Maslow's Hierarchy of needs (link). Find out which of the audience's needs your talk most applies to, translate that broad need into terms your audience relates to, and emphasize that need throughout the talk. The lower you can go on the hierarchy of needs, the more visceral impact your talk can have on the audience. Just be sure the need is real and it's consistent throughout the talk.
Use an archetypal story structure. There are about 30 key story structures (link), but there are five that most easily hook into talks:
Your talk will bore the audience unless you present it in terms they're interested in.
The key here is to state up front a problem that you know the audience has, and frame your talk around how to solve that problem.
If you get stumped, answer this: What is the problem the audience has for which my information is the solution?
Here are some tools you can use to frame the problem and solution:
As you create the structure of the presentation, you need to keep the audience's decision making process in mind. It follows five steps:
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Use a parable to frame your presentation and orient the audience
State a problem the audience has for which your information is the solution
Use the residues method for contentious topics
Help the audience picture the benefits of the solution you've given them
Rather than a Q&A, close by getting the audience to take an action step
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Four good ways to involve the audience:
Get the audience to take what they've learned and test it against someone else, or coach someone else in their development
Get the audience to weave their personal stories into the larger on that the speaker has just told
Get the audience to compete or play in some way to make the point of the talk real
Get the audience to design a path forward, or next steps, or complete a diagnostic exercise
Use these categories to design action steps and for interaction with the audience throughout the presentation
Whatever you get the audience to do must reinforce your elevator speech.
Break up the talk into 15-20-minute chunks, with breaks for questions
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Ways to focus on rehearsing a speech:
The outline or spine of the speech
Giving parts of the speech with huge emotion
Using nonsense words to concentrate on the nonverbal
To help you transcend your own limitations
The political stump speech as a model
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Rehearse important speeches for the kinesthetics and transitions. Do at least one dress rehearsal where you put it all together
Use four zones of space to underline the meaning of your speech and connect with the audience
Move toward your audience when you're making an important point
Practice making smooth transitions between your topics, or your slides if you use them
Try to rehearse at least once in the presentation area itself to get used to it
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Review your presentation and be sure it includes simple pictures, stories, and movement
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Given your level of need, use the following to help with speech anxiety:
Do your due diligence. The more you know about the subject, the more comfortable you'll feel
Try writing out the speech in its entirety before the rehearsal
Visualize yourself being successful. If you're very nervous, begin by breathing
Practice your presence
For the terror-stricken, don't make eye contact. Otherwise, make real eye contact
Before the talk, focus on the audience
Redefine your symptoms for what they are: excitement
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Use modern communication research to build a public persona that communicates well with your audience
Your voice needs both resonance and presence
Speak at your natural pitch
Use universally understood facial gestures to convey emotional meaning and engage the audience
Use open body language to connect with your audience
Employ the "heart" posture
Use the passion you feel about your subject to get your message across effectively
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Use a variety of exercises to prepare during the morning of your talk
Visualize yourself succeeding
Visit the site early if you can
Get to know the space
Talk to someone in the audience before you begin
Remember, the audience wants you to succeed
Let the audience help you; if you run into problems, get them to help you solve them
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Focus on the audience in the moment of delivery
Read the audience constantly for signs of how it is absorbing your message
Involve your audience at every step to make it part of the success of the occasion
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