Isaak Gelbinovich

You are giving a great presentation. You are on the roll and suddenly you notice a “blank” stare, and then another and another. Your audience has checked out. They are not with you. How do you catch these situations on time so you may have time to correct them?

Verbal responses
Your audience may respond verbally by expressing agreement or disagreement with your message. They may ask questions that will tell you their level of comprehension or confusion. Depending on your audience’s response, you should take certain actions. You may explain your point using different examples if it was misunderstood, or continue if your audience is on the same track as you are.

Non verbal responses
Your audience responds with their body language the very powerful and underused language. Nodding and eye contact normally mean understanding and agreement. If, on the other hand, you see blank faces and no eye contact, it’s time to signal an alert. Check in with your audience and try to figure out where is the confusion and at what point you have “lost” your audience. You can start by asking probing questions.

Ask questions
Ask check-in questions. Appropriate and timely questions can make the difference between a happy audience, and a confused and unhappy one. In addition to helping you as a presenter to catch confusion or misunderstanding on time, questions are great routine breakers. An appropriate question will make your audience think or shift gears or reflect. Any of the above is a very good routine breaker.

How important is your body language during your presentation? Study shows that 93% of what your audience receives is none verbal. I would say that body language is very important. A lot of times I see that presenters interpret body language as hand movement or moving around the stage. Unfortunately little attention is given to facial expressions and eye contact. I suggest to take the body language as a package as a whole. For instance eye contact presents you to the audience as an honest person. Avoiding eye contact gives an impression that you have something to hide and you are not trustworthy. Facial expression should be friendly, do not be afraid to smile when it is appropriate. Movements around the stage must be purposeful. For example building a time line on stage is a good reason to move on stage. Showing structure on stage is another good reason for movement. Try not to clasp your hands or make fists. Try not to cross them in front or behind your back. Suggestion is to assume an open posture, be friendly, smile and exhibit a feeling of having a good time. I realize that you may not have a good time standing in front an audience. You may have a very difficult time, however your audience must not see or feel that. At least on the outside try to show that all is good and you are enjoying the company.

To interact or not to interact, that is the question. But is it? Is it really a question when we present in front of an audience. Nowadays nobody wants to listen to a “talking head.” Our audiences want to be involved, and rightfully so. Only 7% – 8% of information is transmitted verbally the rest of the information is transmitted through vocal variety and body language. However the most importantly activities and interactions serve as very good anchors when we make a point. Our audiences may not remember what we said but they will remember the activity or how it made them feel or what it made them think and they will remember our point. There is a great variety of interactions. Asking a rhetorical question or asking question that actually require an answer. Raising hands (please do not overdo this one) I have seen people simply getting annoyed raising hands gazillion times. Audience can repeat a phrase or a word after you. Giving feedback on what they heard and learned so far. And the best interaction of them all, an activity. The activity can be also very different. The most important consideration is that it must be relevant. There should not be a question in your audience mind “Why are we doing this? What is the purpose of this?” Activity may be as simple as writing something in the notebook or as complicated as multistep one involving one or many participants in a group. Please make sure you thoroughly explain what exactly you want your audience to do, then ask if there are any questions. If there are questions please address all of them. Do not expect your audience to figure out what they need to do. They simply do not know what you have in mind and they cannot read your mind, so be mindful of this and explain what needs to be done in great details preferably step by step. And do not forget to let your audience know how much time there is for each activity.
Go ahead and interact with your audience and have fun doing it. Make sure your audience has fun interacting with you. If this is the case you will have a great presentation and your audience will have a great experience.