If you want to learn how to improve public speaking watch other speakers AND observe their audience while they speak. Consider the faces of the audience members and look at their eyes. What you will see most of the time is polite interest at best and boredom at worst. On occasion you will see an engaged audience – what is the speaker doing (or not doing) to get that reaction? Take mental notes.
I watched a woman bore her audience with a Power Point presentation. BUT then, her computer quit. She had no hard copy; so she completed the presentation with NO aids. This created some tension, which awoke the audience from their mental slumber. Because she stopped reading from her slides, she connected with the audience. Their faces changed from exhibiting apathy to shining with interest. Even though her organization and smooth pace suffered a bit, her ability to connect more than compensated.
What can we learn from this? PowerPoint is great to make a visually powerful POINT, but not to deliver an entire presentation. A slightly bumpy presentation without the crutch of Power Point is far more effected that a smooth presentation with it.
What do you think?
Add impact to your presentation using PowerPoint.
Speaking from the heart & speaking from the heart II
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