I was invited to speak at the  Xplor/BCPIA/BFMA Annual Conference  this week, which brings to me a lot of emotions; I feel appreciated and happy that people see some value in my experience, but I also feel anxious; not because I don’t know what to say, but how to say it.

Some people say that when speaking in public, the best way to calm your nerves is to visualize the audience naked as this will take away the stress of being in front of strangers.  I personally think that the most important factor when giving a speech is to observe what is your audience doing.  It is not worth spending your time talking to a group of people if you’re not getting your message across.  To me, the most important skill a speaker should have is the ability to change the language they use to capture the interest of the audience.

Usually before giving a speech I prepare and make sure I know the ‘ins and outs’ of the topic I am presenting. (That is a given; never get in front of people to talk about something you don’t know in depth).  I don’t need to be an expert, but if I prepare well, the presentation will come out as second nature and I can then focus on my audience.

Sometimes I know the profile of the people listening to my presentation, but I never know how they will react to what I say! I might be speaking about something new to them, or they might be experts and know more than me.  That is when the body language of the audience will tell me which path to take.

According to  Wikipedia : “Body language refers to various forms of non-verbal communication, wherein a person may reveal clues as to some unspoken intention or feeling through their physical behaviour. These behaviours can include body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. … Body language signals happen on both a conscious and unconscious level”.

We can see from the physical posture of our audience if they are interested, confused, bored, believing or unbelieving, positive or negative, so we can use these clues as a tool to give a successful presentation!  I am not saying that they will drive the agenda of the presentation, as the agenda has a purpose which needs to be fulfilled; but the audience might help the speaker decide on the spot what language to use to get the message through.

Applicable examples of what I am trying to explain are: maybe skipping a definition of a term because the audience is already aware of it; maybe asking questions to engage the audience; maybe talking about a personal experience the audience can relate to.  These are only a couple of examples, but there are many options to drive your presentation. It is only matter of paying attention to the people in front of you instead of simply following a script.

One of the most commonly used tools when presenting to others is a set of slides which help us keep on track.  One suggestion is to minimize the amount of words on each slide unless statistics or references are needed. This allows the presenter to work around the presentation based on the audience’s body language.

A couple of weeks ago I gave a presentation on VDP (variable data printing) in Vancouver and in Calgary. Each presentation was completely different even though I had the same set of slides. Based on the questions I received during the presentation and the attention I was getting from each group I was able to change what I said about each slide.  Yes, both groups listened about the same topic, saw the same statistics, and in some cases I used the same examples, but each presentation was unique.

I am so excited about Friday because I will be talking about some business automation processes I have implemented in the last 7 years.  So as I said, I definitely know what I need to say.  I only need to have the proper language for my audience.  I will have the morning to get to know some of them a little bit; but it is still only at the time of the presentation that I will know how to say it.

…  Hmmm, I also need to take into consideration that my speech is at 2:30 pm!