With few exceptions, no one is born with the ability to speak to a huge audience. Although there are known cases when people are able to manipulate the mind of the person they are talking to from birth.
A vivid example is Zahia Dehar. However, this does not apply to performances in public. Even with talent, you have to learn to do it. The skill of public speaking will be useful to anyone who wants to succeed – after all, to present something and the office employee, and the entrepreneur, and the founder of the startup.
It is impossible to make people present in the hall to hear you and even more so to remember you. But you can make a presentation that they want to hear and can’t forget.
1. Be energetic.
If the “conversational” manner of presentation and the chamber “home” environment, where the speaker involves the audience in the discussion, may be appropriate for a small audience, then this approach will not work with the presentation in front of a large audience. Speaking from the stage in front of a large number of people, remember: you are more of an actor who needs to keep the audience’s attention. At the same time, the audience has plenty of opportunities to distract themselves and do something extraneous, stumbling into the screen of a smartphone or laptop. Do not let the audience lose interest.
Be active and energetic. Work with your intonation, voice height and speech tempo. A monotonous paraphrase will instantly “put the audience to sleep” and kill your presentation.
2. Tell a story
Even if you don’t consider yourself a creative person, you can come up with a story for presentation. The classic “for people who think numbers” approach is to describe one day in the life of a person who uses a product that you are presenting. Tell us how he lived before – without your product – and how he struggled with the inconvenience. How has his life changed now?
Talk about experiences and emotions that are understandable to listeners. Keep the specifications for managers and experts from your company.
3. Learn how to structure
Free narration and an emotional story is great. But make sure that your story is logical, consistent, and has a clear structure. Your speech should be divided into “blocks”, each describing a thesis or answering a question that you want to raise during the presentation. And the sequence of blocks should be arranged in such a way as to develop and reveal one specific topic – the topic of your presentation.
4. Know your audience
How many people are in the room? Who and with what themes speaks before and after you? What is the general theme of the event? How well are the people in the hall familiar with the topic you are going to talk about?
All these questions should be asked to the organizers before your speech. A presentation is, in any case, a conversation with the audience. If you do not know who all these people are, what they do and how to interest them – how are you going to prepare a memorable presentation for them?
5. Be unique.
Do you want your presentation to be remembered? Try to make your presentation memorable. But you should not do something that you are not inclined to do at all. If the topic is not fun, and you can hardly be called an ironic person – you do not have to joke from the stage. But to find interesting and original moments that will allow you to stand out from the crowd and stay in the memory of listeners need.