5 ideas to jazz up your presentations
Your message is terrific, but will it have lasting impact with your audience? Try these techniques to leave an indelible mark on those watching and listening to your next public address.
No speech is truly idiot-proof, but some are far more likely to succeed than others.
So, how do you elevate your presentation content? Here are five ways to think about your speech, ways that will elevate the success of the occasion:
1. Identify and intensify the underlying emotion. Is it excitement? Concern? Curiosity? Raise the stakes, double down on the urgency, add complications and tension and conflict. Controversy always makes a speech more interesting.
2. Figure out what the audience can contribute. Audience participation continues to be rare in most speeches at most conferences. Sure, it’s easier to simply talk for 30 or 45 minutes, so you don’t have to deal with the messiness of audience response, but don’t you care what the people in front of you think? Merely asking for a show of hands does not count as audience participation. Your audience can testify, tell stories, play games, compete, design things, make choices—but it has to be something real.
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today
Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.
