Last Thursday 20th of June, we held at the Chamber the event ”Presenting with Impact”, part of the “Leadership in Focus Forum» series with the collaboration of Avocets Consulting.
As it was said at this inspiring workshop, a big audience is not always needed for a presentation as they happen very often in our daily life. However, how to engage people and grasp their attention? Or, in other words, how to act as a real leader to perform your speech?
Spectators can make a quick judgment on you during the first five seconds and then decide if it is still worthy paying attention to you. For this reason, it is important to know how to be memorable when speaking in public.
Mr. Andrew Weale getting attendees’ attention.
Some abilities and skills may come naturally, such as being charismatic or eloquent, but everybody can also practice presentations and learn how to improve them. To do that, we would need to prepare in advance with regards to our audience and our aims: bear in mind what we want to communicate and to whom.
To build the right conditions and atmosphere with your public, you can use some tips such as providing some kind of personal experiences, anecdotes, asking questions and let others participate.
Some of the first things we should think about when speaking in public are eye contact, body language and clarity. If you want to connect with your target, try to find a link with them and think about your audience and what they want to hear at first instance.
Your aim will have to lead you in approaching the subject with the best communication strategy, so that people around you get the right message. You will succeed if you can highlight the most important aspects for your audience by providing the key ideas clearly.
Further to this, you will make a good impression if you can dominate the connection between voice and body language. If your body is tense, your voice will sound the same. So if you want to speak using a friendly and fluent voice, relax . Stretch your limbs and make yourself at home on the stage.
Attendees were willing to practice the tips learnt during the session.
Tone modulation is also key, so you should try and put the stress in the most interesting parts of the speech. Do not stop highlighting facts or stories and changing your intonation, otherwise people will end being bored of your words.
As we could prove, everything comes to attitude, so if you try to be enthusiastic and energetic, people will remind that, and the feedback will be much more positive. And so was the result we got after this interactive and dynamic session, where all attendees showed themselves enthusiastic and put into practice what they learned while enjoying the networking breakfast.
We would like to thank all the attendees for coming and participating through the session and also to Avocets Consulting who provided such as impacting presentation.
The Leadership in Focus forum will resume in September, so keep posted to find out about the next session.