Speaking to large and small audiences

When speaking size matters

Photo: Contributed

There are different approaches to take depending on the size of your audience when making a speech or giving a presentation.

When it comes to public speaking, some might assume the bigger the audience, the scarier the experience.

But that isn’t always the case. Some of the most nerve-wracking speaking experiences I’ve had have been in rooms of only six or seven people. In this month’s column, I will break down three tips for speaking to large audiences, and give three tips for speaking to small audiences.

Three tips for speaking to large audiences

1. When you’re speaking to a large audience, it often requires you to have a big stage presence.

Tools you may want to leverage are vocal variety, body language and visual aids. Your base volume should be loud enough for the entire room to hear you, and you can increase or decrease your voice at strategic moments of the speech to keep the audience’s attention.

If you’re speaking to a large crowd, you’ll want to move across the entire stage and incorporate body language to ensure the entire audience feels included in your presentation.

If you show up to a speaking event and there is a lectern with a mounted mic on one side of the stage, ask the event organizer if you have permission to use a lavalier or handheld microphone so you can move around and not get stuck in one spot. If you choose to use visual aids, such as a Powerpoint presentation, reduce text and avoid small fonts when using images or videos to supplement your message.

2. Humour is one of your most powerful tools when it comes to presenting to a large audience.

When an audience member takes his or her seat, they are often wondering whether they will enjoy the presentation and whether it will deliver them with any value. The sooner you can make the audience laugh, the sooner each audience member will relax because laughter is a universal sign that the crowd is enjoying your talk.

When you hear your audience laughing, this also gives you a boost of confidence to help reduce nervousness you may be experiencing while presenting.

3. One of the quickest ways to lose an audience’s attention, is by making a statement that doesn’t really resonate with audience’s occupation or background.

As an example, if you are speaking to a room full of real estate agents and your presentation is about how they can impress their boss to earn a promotion, they likely wouldn’t get value from the message because most real estate agents are independent contractors who don’t have a boss.

To prevent that, do your research before giving presentations to any large crowds. As part of your research, consider asking several questions of the event organizer in advance or sending out a survey to attendees prior to your presentation.

Three tips for speaking to small audiences

1. One of the luxuries you have with a small audience is it’s a more intimate setting, which allows you to make the experience more of a conversation than a formal presentation.

With a small number of people listening to you, you can ask each individual questions directly to open up a conversational presentation style. When audience members are actively participating in the presentation, they’re much more to likely to stay engaged throughout the entire session.

2. Another advantage of speaking to a small audience is you can do more detailed research in advance.

For example, if you’re speaking to five individuals, there’s a good chance you can not only memorize each of their names, but also do a bit of background research on each of them to utilize relevant examples during your presentation. If you take the time to get to know your audience in advance, they will appreciate it and your message will resonate with them on a deeper level.

3. My final tip for small audiences is to read the room.

If there are six audience members and four of them are yawning, while the other two are scanning their phones, it might be a signal that your current delivery isn’t impactful. Be willing to adjust and pivot your presentation, perhaps by asking more questions, injecting humour or posing an activity to re-energize the group.

Every type of presentation comes with its own set of challenges, but hopefully these tips help you differentiate your strategy and make a maximum impact on every type of audience.

If you’re thinking about joining Toastmasters to improve your public speaking skills, the Kelowna AM Toastmasters Club is always looking for new members.

If you’re interested in learning more about Impactful Communication, subscribe to my YouTube channel.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.

Advice from a professional keynote speaker?

Tailoring your message

Photo: Contributed

What does it feel like 24 hours before delivering a closing keynote speech at a conference with more than 1,000 people in attendance?

When I launched the Keys from Keynotes interview series and podcast two years ago, I dreamt of interviewing speakers in-person, hours before they were about to take the stage for a keynote speech.

Until recently, every Keys from Keynotes interview was done over Zoom, but I finally had the chance to interview a professional speaker just 24 hours before he delivered the closing keynote speech at a recent conference in Banff, Alberta.

Shawn Kanungo is one of my favourite speakers. Each of his presentations includes fresh information customized for those he is presenting to. Last year he booked about 80 speaking gigs and he was on the road for 150 days. If you visit Speakers Spotlight’s website, his image appears at the top of the page, yet he says he still feels as though he’s a rookie who is just getting started.

Today's column contains the three biggest takeaways from my interview with Shawn. (Scroll to the bottom to watch the full video interview.)

Content creates luck

Even though Shawn brings a video crew to almost every conference he speaks at, if he could go back to day one, he would’ve shot even more video content.

“I think that content creates luck,” said Shawn. “But I believe a lot of speakers put up a lot of vanity posts, like, ‘look at me, I spoke here.’ That’s not helpful to anybody.”

Shawn said the key is to capture content that adds value to the audience. He said speakers should record their presentations and then figure out which clips will add value to their audience so others will voluntarily share that content.

Not all rooms have the same energy

When Shawn walks into the room he will present in, he can tell pretty quickly how the speech will likely go before he says a word.

“The reason why comedy clubs have low ceilings is because that energy is trapped. When people are sitting side-by-side, it’s a tight room and there’s lots of people, you can feel the energy,” said Shawn. “If it’s spread out with high ceilings, that energy is going to dissipate.”

Shawn changes his approach depending on the room layout and demographic of the audience. When the energy is going to be good, he dials up the humour from the stage. When it’s a more difficult setup, his focuses less on being entertaining, and more on delivering attendees with valuable takeaways.

Events will likely thrive as A.I. evolves

There’s no question many industries will be impacted by artificial intelligence, but Shawn believes events will thrive.

“Events are going to have a boom. Events are where you create new knowledge. You’re colliding with other people. You’re learning what’s happening inside people’s businesses. That is data A.I. can mostly not get.”

While an increase of events is good news for speakers, Shawn believes audiences will demand speakers go beyond giving simple information that could be found online, and show a preference toward those who have the ability to provoke them.

“I think, as a speaker, your job is to build something A.I. can never do—it’s to be so different, so provocative, so game-changing… and not just through the energy but through the content.”

If you’re thinking about joining Toastmasters to improve your public speaking skills, the Kelowna AM Toastmasters Club is always looking for new members.

If you’re interested in learning more about Impactful Communication, subscribe to my YouTube channel.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.

Seven-day guide to giving a properly prepared speech

A speech in a week

Photo: Contributed

Wade Paterson

Imagine , you’re asked to give a presentation on a subject you are passionate about. You’re honoured and excited but there’s one problem, the date of the requested speech is exactly one week from today.

In this column, I’ll provide you with a seven-day strategy to not only build a powerful speech in that time, but deliver it like a pro.

Day 1 – Define your “why”

Why have you been asked to give a speech? Why should the audience care what you have to say? What do you hope they take away from your presentation?

These might seem like simple questions, but they are an important starting points for any great speech. On the first day, I want you to focus simply on the purpose of your speech and what your desired outcome is. Perhaps the goal is to inspire business clients or, if it’s a wedding speech, the goal might be to entertain the audience while celebrating the bride and groom.

If your mind is filling up with ideas, you can jot those down on a piece of paper and start to think about the overall structure, but I want the majority of your first day to be identifying the goal of your speech.

Day 2 – Research and rough outline

Construction of your speech begins on day two. After identifying the speech’s purpose in day one, you want to begin the research process to identify what the substance of your speech will be. For business presentations, this will likely include citing data that supports your message.

If it’s a wedding speech, you may want to think about memories you have with the bride or groom and see if you can come up with interesting or entertaining stories that could be woven into the speech.

If you’re building a Powerpoint slide deck, day two is when you should begin the process of creating the visuals that will accompany your speech. Avoid writing out the entire speech word-for-word. Instead, focus on an outline you can expand on naturally.

Day 3 – Finalize structure

Day three is when you finish your research, lock in the order of your points or slides, and ensure your speech has a clear introduction, a body, and a conclusion.

The best speech openings have a powerful introduction that hook the audience’s attention. Hooks could include, jumping right into a story, asking a powerful question or making a powerful statement.

The best speech bodies (middle part of a speech) usually have three or five points that reinforce the main idea. For example, if your speech is about the benefits of exercising, your first point could be about the long-term health benefits, your second point could be about the mental benefits and the third point could be around physical aesthetic benefits.

The best speech conclusions often bring everything together by coming full circle. If you opened your speech by asking a powerful question, you could consider ending it by answering the question you asked at the beginning.

By the end of day three, you should have a nearly completed version of your talk ready to go.

Day 4 – Refine and begin practicing

The fourth day is your opportunity to put the final touches on the content of your speech, paying extra attention to the introduction and conclusion. Once you’re happy with the content of your speech, this is the day when you can begin the process of practicing.

Try not to get flustered if your delivery isn’t perfect at first, you will have more than enough time to improve the delivery over the next two days.

Day 5 – Rehearse and make final content tweaks

Days five and six are your days to get reps in with lots of practice. My suggestion is practice at least three times on day five. Resist making any content changes initially, but after the second time practicing, feel free to revise any clunky sections or timing issues.

Complete your fifth day with a final run-through to ensure all changes feel right.

Day 6 – Intensive practice and delivery skills

Day six is all about practice. At this point in time, you should have a decent familiarity with the structure, so now you can shift your attention to perfecting delivery with things like body language and vocal variety. Try recording yourself or practicing in front of a supportive friend who can offer constructive feedback.

I suggest avoiding any major changes to your speech on day six. Hopefully you have a solid structure in place and you can use this day to build confidence.

Day 7 – Presentation day

You made it to the day of your speech. Congratulations.

Find a calming routine, such as exercise or meditation, to do in the morning. Eat well and then do a final run-through of the speech. Prior to stepping in front of the crowd, ensure you’re hydrated and try some breathing exercises such as box breathing to steady your nerves.

Most importantly, enjoy the process.

If you’re thinking about joining Toastmasters to improve your public speaking skills, the Kelowna AM Toastmasters Club is always looking for new members.

If you’re interested in learning more about Impactful Communication, subscribe to my YouTube channel.

YouTube /Wade Paterson

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.

Keep your audience’s attention with ‘Pecha Kucha’

Unique presentation method

Have you ever sat through a presentation that went on and on with no end in sight?

In 2003, two Tokyo-based architects—Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham—were frustrated by the droning, unstructured presentations regularly being delivered at industry events.

To fix this problem, they developed a new presentation style called Pecha Kucha (a Japanese phrase meaning “chit chat.”).

Within the Pecha Kucha format, speakers are required to feature 20 slides that are pre-timed to automatically advance after 20 seconds. This results in a total presentation time of six minutes and 40 seconds.

What I love about this structure is it forces speakers to streamline their message and get straight to the point. It also makes it less likely for presenters to showcase text-heavy slides, since the audience only has 20 seconds to look at each visual.

In the video accompanying this month’s column, I explain how to give a great Pecha Kucha speech (and I do so while delivering the video in the actual Pecha Kucha format). I strongly suggest you watch the video before reading further

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If you’re thinking of building your own Pecha Kucha presentation, here are a few important tips you may want to consider:

Build your speech first and add the visuals after

The key to a great Pecha Kucha speech is the same as the key to any great speech—you need strong fundamentals. Your speech should still be interesting, you should still engage your audience with body language and vocal variety, and your presentation should have a beginning, a middle and an end.

Once you have the general theme and structure in place, you can then choose what visuals help enhance your subject matter and eventually work on the placement and timing of those.

Limit the number of words on your slides

A common mistake many presenters make is including too many words on their slides. With Pecha Kucha, the audience only has 20 seconds to look at each visual, therefore, there’s not enough time for them to read a screen full of text. Ideally, your slides should contain no text at all. If some text is necessary, try to limit it to five words or less.

Don’t look back at your slides

In order to deliver an impactful Pecha Kucha presentation, you need to have some idea of what’s happening with your slides. If the slides are being projected behind you, it might be tempting to consistently turn your back to the audience to see what image is on the screen, but this isn’t an effective use of body language.

If possible, try to have a screen in front of you that is showing the same slides that are being projected behind you. One way to do this is to have your laptop open in front of you, with an HDMI cord that is connected to both your laptop and the projector. This will allow you to subtly glance down at your laptop to see what slide you’re on, rather than turning your entire body.

When your slides are in front if you, it looks much more professional and allows you to follow along with the timing of the slides.

Set up the timing with Powerpoint

Pecha Kucha is a unique format, but it is fairly easy to build with Microsoft Powerpoint. Once you have your 20 slides in place, you can adjust slide timings under “Transitions” and the “Advance Slide” timing option.

Leave gaps for audience laughter

Twenty seconds can go by very quickly and while you may think you have your timing down, things like audience laughter can slow down the speed of your speech. If you find you’re rushing through one particular slide, or if you’re planning to make the audience laugh, you may want to make one slide a buffer that buys you a bit of time and allows you to slow down or take a break for audience laughter.

While Pecha Kucha is an engaging format, it can be tricky to deliver if you feel as though your speech isn’t keeping pace with the visuals on the screen. So, practice! Pecha Kucha is an art form, and like any art form, mastering it requires practice.

After you’ve built your Pecha Kucha presentation, give yourself plenty of opportunities to practice and get used to the timing. You want to get to a point where you become so familiar with the timing that you know exactly when your slides will be changing without even looking at the screen.

If you’re thinking about joining Toastmasters to improve your public speaking skills, the Kelowna AM Toastmasters Club is always looking for new members.

If you’re interested in learning more about Impactful Communication, subscribe to my YouTube channel.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.