When you were younger, your mom and dad read to you so you would fall asleep,
but you don't want to put your audience to sleep.
It is a rare prodigy who can enter a room and speak extemporaneously and with
clarity and coherence. Experts recommend preparing at least an hour for each
minute of speech time, and while that may seem daunting, it is not too far off.
For speeches of five to ten minutes, memorizing may be worthwhile. Go over it
in your head more than a few times. Get to the point where you can affect a
conversational tone.
Longer speeches will require notes, but while it may be tempting to write an
entire speech out word-for-word and just read it, you should try to limit your
notes to just main points and important facts.
Maintain Audience Contact
Whether the crowd is ten or ten thousand, each listener wants to feel they
have somehow connected.
Survey the audience as you begin your speech and pick three people that seem
to be the most interested. Make continuous eye contact with them, and watch them
to make sure the speech is working.
If eye contact is intimidating, look at the tops of their heads. They won't
know the difference.
Above all, do not make the mistake of staring at the back of the room.
Audience members will feel disconnected and wonder what it is you're looking at.
Murphy's Law of Technology
PowerPoint was once an innovative program, and it still has a use, but most
audiences will not be impressed.
If you are going to use technology, make sure it actually adds something.
Speakers who write out their entire presentations on PowerPoint and read them
word for word are abusing the medium. As with notes, write out only main points.
When preparing a presentation, assume your technology will fail you and have
a backup plan to go on without it.
Avoid common problems by going to the venue early or by sending a
representative. Most audio-visual technicians want to be helpful, but they can
do a lot more before a presentation than when it is time for it to begin.
A good guideline is to arrive an hour early, and the earlier you arrive the
more problems you can solve.