At some stage in your life, you are going be standing in front of an audience to present something. The audience may be a mere handful of people whose faces you can make out; or you may be privileged enough to be standing somewhere blinking at bright lights, wired up and about to recorded for posterity. You may be about to speak about an academic topic, a business issue, a hobby; you may just be standing up to introduce someone else.
There is one rule that you need to keep in mind, irrespective of the context. You need to grab your audience’s attention within the first 60 seconds. Less, if you really want people to follow you on your journey. If you don’t manage to engage within that magical first minute, you will soon know: from the fidgeting with smart phones to the mumble of side-conversations.
The deck of slides embedded here consists of a bunch of useful tricks, many of which I have employed over the course of my business and academic speaking career. If you’re an actor, most of these suggestions are second-instinct to you. If not, it’s worth five minutes of your time if you wish to stand a chance of getting your message across to the ‘unknown audience’.
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