Whether you are speaking to a small group of 10 or an audience of 300, you should do as much research as time allows to understand your audience. When I first started public speaking and training small groups, I did not make this my first priority. As I developed my skills, I have learned this is a critical element that should not be overlooked prior to speaking to a group of any size.
Where do you start?
Each audience has gathered to listen to you for their own reasons or because it may be a requirement mandated by their employer. If it is a weekly meeting and you have gained the knowledge of each participants experience level and skill set, then the research should be focused on how can I, as a speaker, impact their skill level; operational knowledge; leadership abilities or any criteria that is needed to further their productivity or enhance their career goal achievements.
Research, Research and Research
If the audience is one that you are not familiar with, do your research. Gather as much information as possible about the group from the class instructor or the community official that invited you to speak. Gain as much insight as to the purpose of the gathering, their motivation to attend, what the instructor or community official had in mind when they selected you and then go to phase two. In this phase you should consider what topic you wish to focus on to either influence the audience or enhance awareness on the chosen topic.
Following this preliminary work, I recommend creating an outline of what subject you wish to lecture on given the allotted time constraint. Opening statements or short stories pertinent to the topic that capture the audience initially are critical to the format.
Be a Joiner
I recommend attending and actively participating in an organization such as Toastmasters. I attended several different groups of the Toastmasters meetings varying in size from 6 to 35 attendees. Toastmasters have suggested that speakers use the “call and response” technique at the beginning of the talk. With this method the speaker is able to frame questions at the beginning geared toward gaining insight about the audience. With this technique the speaker is able to find out how much experience the audience has with the chosen topic and adjust the speech accordingly.
It’s Go Time
During your presentation make mental notes of the attentiveness of the audience. Varying your tone and punctuating specific factors will enhance the audience mental alertness and therefore increase their chances of remembering certain points that may be important to the participants. Involving audience members, such as a role play or a brief Q&A mid-way through the presentation will also be beneficial to the overall quality of the topics appeal.
Feedback and Follow Up
To obtain feedback from the audience and gauge how well they understood your presentation of the topic, it is my recommendation to allow time for a Q&A 5-15 minutes prior to the end of your allotted time. This brings up the point of time management. It is a good practice to conduct the presentation in a practice session to gain valuable insight of the total time it will take and modify it to fit into the allotted time frame. This will enable you to stay on target and allow for the valuable Q&A we discussed earlier. We have all attended speeches where the speaker went over the time constraint and there was no time left for the interaction with the audience upon conclusion.
Lastly, I would advise you, the speaker, to conduct a follow up with the individual that invited you to make a presentation and gain as much feedback as possible. This will enable you to reflect on the topics relevance to the audience, based upon the perspective of the inviter. This process will also enhance your knowledge of strengths and weaknesses of the presentation from another point of view. Another option is to hand out a brief questionnaire to be completed by the audience participants to gain the perspective insight from the invitees. This is a helpful tool for future presentations in many aspects of public speaking. There will be a variety of responses based upon skill level and attentiveness to the topic. You, as the presenter, will be able to gauge a general sense of how your speech was interpreted and in some instances gain helpful knowledge from an attendee regarding new concepts, techniques or technology relating to the topic. I also recommend staying in the auditorium or meeting place after your presentation for additional interaction with the audience participants on a one on one basis. In depth conversations with invitees will guide you to customize your speech in the future on specific points, in some instances. Most of all be confident with your knowledge of the topic and present in a relaxed and enthusiastic manner.
Bio:
Richard Secord is the director of sales and marketing for the UF Hilton and Conference Center. In addition, he is a sales consultant and trainer.