Develop Your Presentation Skills, 5th Edition

13

Handling your audience

We have established that the audience is probably the single, most important factor when considering a new presentation, but what exactly is ‘an audience’? How can we get to know it better? How can we be more in tune with it and encourage it to respond positively to what we are saying?

Fear of the audience

If you think that you’re the only one who is nervous when you get up to speak, you’d be wrong; the audience is ‘in fear’ too. Here’s why.

Most of us have had the experience of going to a live performance of something we know little about, like a concert or a comedy show. When the curtain goes up the thought at the forefront of our minds is, ‘I hope this isn’t awful’. That’s how your audience will be. Get the opening ...