5 Dynamic Thoughts to Engage Your Audience
One of the challenges most speakers would face is to engage the audience or get them involved. To have a non responsive crowd would not be a good thing. The speaker with all his enthusiasm and excitement pounces into action to inspire the audience to speak and has a mental timer inbuilt waiting to be triggered off. One of the many outcomes the speaker could face is not knowing when would be the appropriate or right time.
It would be too late and awkward to realize from the time the presenter asks for the crowd's participation and coming to the rude awakening that he is not getting the desired outcome. That would crush him or cause him to make further mistakes, creating a not so promising atmosphere and an uneventful presentation.
We can avoid these situations. Let me spark off some ideas that could alter the course of your presentation and making it not only interactive but interesting as well.
Build bridges
Some preparation that you could do is to make as many friends with the audience as possible. You could do it before your speech or during the speech complimenting your audience, possibly gaining some favour or eventually some fans. Just by making friends ensure you are not talking to a cold audience.
Observe bodies that speak
Look out for possible gestures and movements of your audience and pay closer attention to those who nod or smile and build on them. They are your anchors that illuminate your environment. They can possibly assist you in the interactive portion of your presentation.
Be a story teller
Stories are always great, but people would be more engaged if it were your story, personalize it to make it powerful. By doing so, it allows the audience to relate to you and share with them that you are actually one of them. The walls of barriers would come down. If possible inject some witty humour or even ask the audience what they think the morale of the story is or it would be even better letting them share a similar short experience or story, encouraging participation. You would be able to set the scene or the mood; this allows you to channel your energy to the audience, making it two ways.
Play the game
Everyone who I know of loves to be involved in a game. Playing a game allows the creative juices out, makes us relive our childhood and enables us to relax. When you show the audience or make them have a great time, you will be rewarded with an appreciative crowd. Use it as a fantastic lever.
Gift giver
Everyone adores the fact of walking away with something. If they realize that they would be gaining something from the presentation that would charge them up.
See it in your mind's eye of having a dynamic and engaging presentation, gaining participation is a mental obstacle. Use these five ideas to help you in motivating and inspiring your audience. A final tip for thought from E.W Howe "No man would listen to you talk if he didn't know it was his turn next."
Santhanaram Jayaram holds an MBA in International Business (USA). He is an accredited consultant of FIRO-B (Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation – Behaviour) and an NLP Practitioner with 18 years of extensive experience. Ram is also an actor who has been featured in Kallang Roar the movie, and in various local television productions and advertisements.
