Tips on Making Presentations / The Audience

The key to satisfying your audience is to understand what they need. So think about standing in their shoes so you can:

• Understand their concerns.
  
• Understand what’s relevant to them.
  
• Gauge their knowledge of your topic: What do they already know?
  
• Gauge their emotional state: What are they feeling?

How do you find out these things?

• Ask someone who will be in your audience.
  
• Ask someone who has a similar role to those in your audience.
  
• Ask the person organizing the event at which you’re speaking.
  
• Ask a colleague who has made a presentation to a similar audience.

Once you are delivering your presentation, it’s still important to focus on your audience so you can read their reaction to what you’re saying. Be aware of:

• Facial expressions.
  
• Questions asked.
  
• Body language.
  
• What else they’re doing (besides listening to you).