Engage Your Audience

A Grand Piano on a beach...how strange you might say? This is probably what the people of Florida thought when a Grand Piano suddenly appeared on a sandbar near Biscayne Bay. An article in The Telegraph tells how the piano prompted great speculation about why it had been put there, people were intrigued. One photographer swam over to it so they could take a closer look and take some photos and another person spoke about how they had seen someone playing it and someone filming it. Whoever put the piano there and for whatever reason, they have definitely engaged an audience.

Whenever you want to put a message across in whatever situation it is always important to engage your audience so they listen to what you have to say. Whether you are presenting to an audience of 100 or presenting to your team in the office, you really want them to take notice and act on what you say.

Here are some tips for engaging your audience during a presentation:

1.Ask a question and give people time to think. Don’t rush to fill the silence.

2.Make eye contact so people feel you are communicating with them.

3.Your voice, face and body language must tell participants that you want questions and responses.

4.Avoid questions that have obvious ‘correct’ answers, especially rhetorical questions.

5.Prepare questions in advance to stimulate thinking, create interest and add transfer of training value.

6.Be prepared to drop your agenda to focus on hot topics for the group.

For more tips on presenting why not join us at the preview of the High Impact Presentations Programme on Thursday 10th February, click here to register.

Sophie Whittall
Marketing Co-ordinator

www.London.dalecarnegie.com