By: Ellen Egan
When we prepare for a presentation, its easy to focus solely on the topic that we will be discussing. Researching your topic is probably the easiest part of public speaking. It is generally something that you are already interested in and have some knowledge about. But, this is only part of the preparation. One of the most important aspects of a successful presentation is your audience. As you are preparing, you will want to get as much information about your audience as possible. The preliminary step in analysing your audience will include some basic questions. •Who are they? (e.g. are they Directors of the company and you are giving a sales presentation) •Where are they from? (e.g. are they all from the same company or organization or are they from different organizations) •How many will there be? (will you be speaking to 20 or 200) Answering this first set of questions will already help you to feel more in control of the situation. Also, the answers to these questions will help you to prepare with other aspects of the presentation such as: •Will you need a microphone or audiovisual aids? •How many handouts will you need to bring? •Can you expect interaction from the group (generally a smaller group will be more amenable to interaction) This is just the beginning of your audience analysis. I will cover other aspects in this series. To your success, Ellen
By Ellen Egan
Oftentimes when preparing for a presentation, the speaker will focus entirely on their topic and forget the most important part of public speaking – the audience. The audience is a participant in your presentation and they must be considered during your preparations.
There is a common way to remember all of the aspects of your audience when preparing for a presentation. In public speaking courses, we call this the audience analysis.
A nalysis – Who are they? How many will be there?
U nderstanding – What is their knowledge of the subject?
D emographics – What is their age, sex, educational background?
I nterest – Why are they there? Who asked them to be there?
E nvironment – Where will I stand? Can they all see & hear me? What will be their seating arrangement?
N eeds – What are their needs? What are your needs as the speaker?
C ustomized – What specific needs do you need to address?
E xpectations – What do they expect to learn or hear from you?
In the upcoming blogs, I will be addressing each aspect of the audience analysis. Public speaking becomes much easier when you clearly understand who you are speaking with and what they want or need from you.
To your success,
Ellen
By: Ellen Egan
This is one of the key elements to overcoming your fear of public speaking. Even though most public speaking advice is about having the perfectly prepared speech, knowing everything about your topic, eye contact and the number of “umms” and “ahhhs” in your delivery. That is not what successful public speaking is all about. Those are details.
Feeling good about public speaking and delivering a successful presentation are all about confidence.
Well, what if I don’t have confidence? Borrow some. Seriously, borrow some until you have some of your own.
Think of someone you know (or you know of) who is a confident public speaker. Someone that you would like to emulate. If you can’t think of anyone, go to www.ted.com and find a speaker that you like.
Once you have an image of that person firmly in your mind, think of their characteristics as a speaker. How do they stand, how do they move, how do they use their voice, how do they use their hands? What are they wearing? What does their voice sound like (strong, weak, loud, soft, etc.)? Do they use props? Etc…
Write these attributes down, if it helps. Whatever you need to do to get a clear image of the person, a clear sound of their voice and feeling for that person.
Once you have all of the characteristics clearly in your mind, imagine them standing next to you. Now, step into that person and imagine, even for just a moment, that you are them.
Now, practice your public speaking presentation as though you are that person. You will immediately notice a change in your confidence and a strength in your presentation delivery.
Keep practicing and modelling the person that you want to emulate until you have absorbed the qualities that you wish to have as part of your own style. Be sure to do this modelling exercise (step into the person you want to be) just before you begin your speech so that you can deliver your presentation with confidence (even if its borrowed confidence).
To your success,
Ellen
Uncategorized | sparkler | 
July 31, 2009 2:37 pm | 
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