As part of preparing with the organizer, you need to understand
the anticipated timing of your presentation. Will your performance be
during a meal, where glass and silverware will be clanking all around
you? As follow up to the control-your-environment section, this is a
critical detail to account for; if you know that a meal is immediately
before or after your speech, make every effort to avoid the time when
the food will be served. Wait staff moving around will inevitably distract
the audience.
Will you be speaking in a classroom or similar setting, where papers
may be shuffling throughout your talk? If you are in a classroom,
you do have some control by setting the appropriate expectations.
For example, you may let the audience know that you will stop and
announce when key notes should be taken. In some cases, you may
even announce that you will supply take-away notes after the session,
so that the audience can sit back and relax. Again, speaker preference
is important regarding what expectations you set with your audience.
Use what works best for you and the type of audience you are working
with. The key is to reduce the factors that can throw you off your game
by anticipating as many distractions ahead of time and taking the time
to mitigate or eliminate them.
Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):
- Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
- Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
- Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
- The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
- From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
- The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood
See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com. Book, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only) purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com