What did the speaker eventually do
Answers
1. . Reinforce who you are. At most conferences, you will be introduced, and that introduction should make the audience look forward to hearing your story..
2. Help everyone find you. A lot of presentations end with a slide that shows the speaker's name, URL, Twitter handle, and email address.
3. Share real stories. People love stories. The best presentations I've seen didn't feel like presentations at all--they were stories told by people with amazing experiences. When you want to explain something to an audience, see if you can translate it into a story, an anecdote, or even a joke. (If you need to convey data or information, tie it to a story.) If the story you tell is something that happened to you, that's even better. If the story is funny, even better!
4. Entertain as much as inform. An often forgotten point: Your job is to, at least in part, entertain the members of your audience. They're taking a break from something else. They've closed their laptops and are focusing on you. Why not reward them with something interesting or funny? Your entire talk doesn't need to be completely on topic. It's fine to start off with something that is beside the point as long as it's entertaining.
5. Time it perfectly. When you're speaking, in effect you're borrowing your audience's time. They're investing in you--respect that investment and don't abuse that trust. If you're given 30 minutes, feel free to use only 25 minutes. Your primary goal is to entertain and inform your audience and make their time with you worthwhile. Your goal is not to use up every available minute.
6. Provide something to take home. I always try to think of something specific I can deliver--in words, not in swag--that the members of the audience can apply as soon as they get back to work. I learned that from a speaker at one of our events who had a hugely inspiring story, but then interrupted himself and said something like: "But you can apply this very easily tomorrow by doing the following ..."
7. Feel free to repeat. It's natural to assume everyone in the audience is paying attention to everything you say. In reality, people hear about 30 percent of what you say, and of that they're constantly translating it to fit their own perspectives or agendas. Plus, things you think are logical and even self-evident might not immediately make sense to everyone in your audience.
8. Help the audience remember at least one thing. It's very easy to overload the audience with information. You think, "Wow, I have 30 minutes. I need to really fill that 30 minutes." But most people can't really absorb a lot of information, plus chances are you might be one of a number of speakers that day.
9. Really connect with your audience. No matter how big the crowd, your goal is to make everyone in the audience feel like you are speaking with him or her personally.