Hi everyone,
I do a lot of talks and because of this I also attend quite a lot of them. I’ve previously shared some hopefully useful advice on how to give a decent presentation. But there’s something I’d like to add (direct link to the post “But first, connect with your audience”).
I’m still somewhat on hiatus, but things appear to be going better!
Audiences are already swamped by information. Torrents of it. On the day in question, your presentation might be the fourth one they listen to. And worse, you are also competing with social media, vital Hacker News posts and the latest developments in the international breakdown of climate, security and democracy.
A lot of talks are just incredibly bad. The audience will therefore have less than stellar expectations of your presentation as well. The default stance is “you’ll have to convince me your stuff is good”.
You could start your presentation right away, and hope that after a while your listeners conclude that it is better than they expected and that they should pay attention. But the window to make this happen is brief, and if you don’t deliver relatively quickly, everyone checks out. This is an uphill battle.
However, there is a better way: make sure you first engage usefully with the audience. Take out the earplugs. For more, do read the post But first, connect with your audience
And do let me know your thoughts!
Bert