Hi.
How are you today?
I hope you're doing well.
Today, I want to introduce "9 tips to get your audience’s attention in…10 seconds".
All right! Let’s have a look at 9 ideas you can use to get your audience involved in just “10 seconds”.
In fact, one of the main challenges when giving any sort of presentation, big or small, is immediately capturing the attention of those you’re speaking to.
The first ten seconds are typically a make-or-break moment.
Great speakers are able to establish rapport with the audience from the very beginning, awaken their curiosity, elicit feelings and get them involved.
There are countless different ways of doing this, and today I’d like to have a look at nine very practical and specific ways of breaking the ice within the first ten seconds, laying the foundation for a perfect presentation.
A few preliminary remarks:
A) The audience always starts off cold.
Sometimes, people who aren’t used to giving presentations may be shocked or discouraged by a lukewarm reception from the audience, which doesn’t respond to the speaker’s requests and solicitations during the first few minutes.
You should take it for granted that the audience will be cold at the beginning.
There are different reasons for this.
You still have to get acquainted with each other and, after all, it’s like dating a girl for the first time: it’s difficult for mutual understanding to appear quickly.
It takes some time before you start to understand and know each other and to get a good feeling. It’s the same with presentations.
Of course, when you only have a short time to speak, you obviously need to warm up the atmosphere and create a good feeling very quickly.
But always remember that the audience starts off cold. Just accept it!
B) Focus on those who are listening and ignore those who aren’t.
It’s very useful to concentrate on those members of the audience who listen immediately, pay attention and react to your input, while ignoring those who aren’t focused on you, are on their phones, puff and pant or shake their heads while you speak.
Staying focused on active people is a good idea, because they’ll bring the surlier, more timid, reluctant or uninterested members of the audience into the fold.
Therefore, active people are our main allies and we should focus on them all the time.
C) You’re not Steve Jobs. Sorry
Giving a speech is completely different depending on whether you’re a celebrity or an unknown person.
Think of Steve Jobs during his keynotes.
The audience was willing to applaud him before he’d even started to speak, and they basically would’ve applauded him whatever he’d said.
At a U2 concert, Bono will make the audience go crazy whatever he says.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for the vast majority of people, who are unknown to their audiences when they start.
And the start is tough.
Once again, it’s best not to set your expectations too high and to start knowing that there’s no supporting band to warm up the atmosphere before you begin!
That’s why it’s a good idea to try and lay the groundwork such that, when you start the presentation, the audience has already warmed up a bit and knows who you are….
Ok ready? Let’s start talking about the 9 tips to catch your audience’s attention in 10 seconds.
1) Audio shock
Work with audio (above video is a great example by McFerrin!)
You can enter the room and start the presentation straight away by asking the audience to… scream.
In practice, you enter the room, say something like “Hello everyone, the first thing I want you to do is to scream as loud as you can on the count of three. One, two, three!” and ask the audience to scream.
Your first attempt will probably be met with a lukewarm response and few people will scream.
In that case, you can overdo things a bit: pretend you’re somewhat disappointed, or tell the audience that’s not enough, that you’re sure they can produce the loudest scream in the world.
You can also run a funny routine in this sense and then ask them to scream again.
This little and apparently silly tactic has many things going for it.
First, screaming allows them to let off steam.
Second, if someone’s screaming, it’s obvious that the ice’s been broken.
Third, screaming people become physically active and their attention level immediately afterwards will be higher than that of people who start listening to your presentation completely still.
The important part is to tie in this icebreaker with something related to your presentation.
It shouldn’t be something completely unrelated. In my case, if I’m giving a presentation on the Internet, I can wait for the audience to stop screaming and then say:
“Well, a lot of people think the Internet is chaos, exactly like what you just heard. But the Internet is actually a very orderly place, and now I’ll show you why.” OK?
This is an example of a tie-in between what just happened and the start of my presentation.
2) Make your audience write
(actually the above video is not strictly related with the writing tip…but please just watch it
To do this, you usually hand out pieces of paper to the audience before you start.
Then, when you climb on the stage, the first thing you do is ask them to write something.
You can ask them to draw something, to take a portrait of the person next to them, to write the first word that comes to their mind when they think of the Internet, social media or whatever the topic of your presentation is.
Alternatively, you can ask them to draw the cover of the last book they’ve read or to warm up by writing and drawing something on a topic you like.
This strategy also has many benefits, because if people take the trouble to draw or write about something, they’re sort of appropriating the presentation because they’ve taken the time to “create” something.
Asking them to take a portrait of the person next to them is also useful, because you’re creating a fun and embarrassing moment (embarrassment is your friend ;-) ). Once they’ve finished drawing/writing, you’ll have to tie in your presentation with what they’ve just done.
For example, in my case I ask them to write the first word that comes to mind when they think of the Internet, and then ask them to raise their hands with a question such as:
“Okay, how many of you drew an at sign? 80%. And how many wrote the word Google? 80%. Okay. A lot of people think Google’s the only thing there is on the Internet. But it’s not true, and I’d like to tell you more about this.” And I start my presentation.
On the other hand, if I’ve asked them to take a portrait, I can then ask them to exchange their sheets of paper, using this socialising gesture to remind them that the Internet is made up of people, not technologies, and that it’s composed of people who share objects among them like we just did.
And so on.
There are countless examples, but the important idea is that having them write something is very useful because it activates them, personalises the message and gets the audience involved in the presentation.
3) Turn your back
The third type of icebreaker is very simple (and perfect for a presentation with 50 people or more, but not suitable for a small audience).
A very funny idea is entering the room, turning your back to the audience straight away and starting to tell them an anecdote.
You may remember that Jim Morrison used to turn his back while singing.
Comedian Robin Williams also likes to tell a joke in which he turns his back in the toilet, while speaking with someone else who suddenly turns towards him (miming the gesture of turning towards him in the toilet has a comical effect).
Turning your back is surprising, piques curiosity and generates interest.
A skilled speaker will be able to tell a story or anecdote and, just like before, tie in the icebreaker with his/her presentation to justify the initial action.
Let’s see an example of how to put this into practice. I could start speaking with my back facing the audience and tell Robin Williams’ joke, which I mentioned earlier, or explain that for years on end, every time I had to give a presentation on technological topics, I felt so embarrassed that I would’ve liked to stay in this position forever…
Or I could say that, as a child, my teacher used to punish me behind the blackboard, so I had to speak with my back turned towards the other people, and, if the audience is OK with that, I’d like to do something different for a change and turn towards them.
Once again, the possibilities are endless.
But this tip works straight away if done correctly, it leaves a mark and it’s not that common. In other words, this is a quick way to get the attention of the audience and catch them off guard with an unconventional attitude.
But be very careful when doing this: in Italy, for example, turning your back on someone is seen as disrespectful.
Therefore, it should be well reasoned, designed and tested before trying it on an official occasion (you can try it out with a small audience of friends or in-house workers and see how they react).
But this tip definitely has a lot of potential.
4) Video intro
Don’t begin to talk when you’re invited to.
Instead, start playing a video all of a sudden.
Use a video you’ve prepared to warm up the audience: it can be a funny video (show them Volkswagen’s recent advert, with the little Darth Vader trying to use The Force!).
You can also show them one of the most-viewed videos on YouTube (for example, a history of music in five minutes, which is also very entertaining).
Or you can have them watch a video of children laughing, which will inevitably make the audience laugh whether they want to or not.
The possibilities are endless: just do a search on YouTube or the Viral Video Chart.
Another possibility is to show them a touching video. Let’s imagine you want to make the audience reflect on the importance of thinking outside the box. Great.
Then start with the original video of the “Think Different” spot, with the voice of Steve Jobs and extraordinary words (the words of heroes, words about people who think outside the box, people who’re capable of changing the world).
Remember that, in presentations, your goal is to move people, to make them think, laugh and cry.
Your goal is to create feelings. Emotions and feelings get people more involved than cold reasoning.
That’s why it’s an interesting option to kick off your presentation with a video that stimulates the feelings of the audience.
A few years ago I had to open a keynote at the IAB Forum (check above video).
Before getting on the stage, I screened a video from The Matrix, featuring only Neo’s voice while the room was plunged in darkness. The voice described what would happen in the future and was accompanied by very touching, rousing music, at the end of which I climbed on-stage. The result was great
.
The advantage of using an interesting video is that it captures the attention of the audience straight away. People just can’t avoid watching a video during the first ten seconds.
I’m telling you this because, if you’re unlucky enough to give public presentation outside, where I’ve spent so much time giving open-air presentations with unknown people constantly going by, a good video with good audio is the best way of capturing the attention of occasional passers-by (therefore, it will have an even greater effect on people who’re already sitting and listening).
Another good thing about showing a video before you start is that you can make your entrance once it’s piqued the audience’s curiosity and warmed it up. In other words, the video does the same job a supporting band would do in the world of music.
Think about it: when they give a concert, the Rolling Stones don’t start singing straight away, nor are they the first band to play!
They have other bands to warm up the audience and only start playing once it’s ready.
Or think about the trailer of a film: your video acts as a trailer to capture the audience’s attention and awaken its emotions, and then you climb on-stage for your presentation.
5) Unconventional props
Using props is another good idea. In other words, you enter the room and start your presentation based on an object, which is usually quite weird.
You kick off the presentation by showing an object and immediately asking the audience what it is.
An example I’ve been using recently is a T-shirt that can be compressed until it becomes 2 cm wide and looks like a small brick.
If you show them this, they’ll have a hard time finding out it’s a T-shirt, since it looks like something completely different.
This lets you catch them off guard. Another cool prop I’ve seen recently are a pair of shoes that can be closed to create some sort of schoolbag.
You can use many different props.
Go on Amazon, you’ll find loads of interesting and curious objects. In this sense, a good idea is to find a wonderful, alternative, crazy object that lets you start with a riddle.
You’re not the first person to speak, you’re the one who asks a question and begins a conversation.
Like always, the trick is to tie in your presentation with the prop you’ve shown.
To see how we’d use this tip in practice, let’s imagine we want to talk about the Internet: in this case, we can show them a small object that can be compressed into a 2-centimetre block and turns out to be a T-shirt.
When we reveal what it is, we can tie in with the presentation by saying something like:
“Okay, the Internet is a network of people present all over the world. But what I’d like to tell you about is how small differences make a difference. I’d like to talk about how small is the new big.”
You should also tread carefully when using this, because the responses from the audience can catch you off guard.
The audience can answer almost anything, ranging from rude one-liners to comments on the speaker.
You don’t know what to expect from the audience, so once again it’s a good idea to try out this tip on friends or a more amicable audience before you use it in an official context.
That way, you’ll start getting familiar with potential rapid responses to points or objections raised by the audience. You just need to get some practice.
6) A ball…
https://langmaster.edu.vn/club/attachment.php?attachmentid=248&d=1337782353
Why not use a ball?
Imagine you enter the room where you’re giving the presentation with a ball in your hands and then throw it to the audience.
Then, you make them play with it and ask them to pass the ball around.
You get a game going.
This system focuses on the recreational aspect.
The “gamification” of the presentation is done in a way that is very primitive, but nonetheless close to the nature of people.
People love spherical objects, and a ball can be used for many different games, from football to basketball to children’s games.
That’s why it has a series of values that go beyond the object itself.
It’s also a great way of breaking the ice because, if you throw a ball, there’ll always be someone there to catch it.
In my case, I’ve sometimes used little balls to explain how the Internet was born.
With just two balls, I divide the audience into two groups, into two areas.
In one area, I have them pass the ball around in a chaotic way, whereas in the other one I have them follow a logic plan to pass the ball from one side to the other.
This makes the audience warm up and have fun and also allows for one-liners and gags.
Embarrassing moments are also good because, when the audience sees you in an embarrassing situation, they’re seeing your human side, which helps them connect better with you.
Once again, the trick is to tie in with the start of the presentation or to use the game as a demonstration of a concept you want to showcase in your presentation.
7) Join the audience
This is quite rare among speakers, because they’re often afraid of leaving the safety of their stands and mingling with the audience.
There are different possibilities.
One of them is to stand among the audience and start talking with its members as an equal.
Another is to climb on-stage and then get off again, mingling with the audience and making them speak, asking them questions straight away, reversing the relationship between the speaker who talks and the audience that listens.
It’s a way to surprise and connect right away with the audience in front of me from a spatial point of view. I can also take advantage of this proximity to bring up things such as a riddle, a game with the audience or, if I’ve provided them with sheets of paper to draw things, to walk among them to see what they’re doing, ask them to show me their drawings or texts and ask them questions while I’m amidst them.
When people ask questions, I ask them their names straight away and have them stand up so that the others can see them.
This creates an immediate synergy, since spatial distance is shortened and the speaker is no longer a stranger, but part of the group, of the audience.
Becoming part of the audience can be one of the most effective tools to connect with them from the very beginning.
8) Super surprise
https://langmaster.edu.vn/club/attachment.php?attachmentid=250&d=1337782449
The big “super surprise” usually requires more preparation work and effort, because the goal is to catch the audience off guard with something they don’t expect at all.
It’s a good idea to work on a skill of yours and showcase it to the audience.
Can you play the piano? Great, put a piano on the stage.
I used to be a professional ping-pong player, and used to put a ping-pong table on the stage and start playing.
You can have different skills: skateboarding, doing something other people don’t know how to do, performing yo-yo tricks, sporting skills, passion skills or solving the Rubik cube in five seconds… Whatever you want. The guiding principle is to start by showcasing a skill.
If you’ve also got a big object you can put on the stand, do so.
I know it’s tiring, but it’s the perfect way to break the ice in ten seconds, because you’re doing something unexpected and the audience wants to know what’s about to happen.
It wrongfoots them and catches them off guard. In short, it captures the audience’s attention directly.
Another advantage is that, if I showcase a specific skill in some field, the audience will transpose this skill onto the presentation I’m about to give, increasing my credibility and authoritativeness as a speaker subconsciously and directly.
9) An unwilling volunteer
https://langmaster.edu.vn/club/attachment.php?attachmentid=251&d=1337782462
Mingle with the audience and take volunteers on-stage!
You can use a blackboard to have them take notes or write down their remarks or the answers to the questions you ask, or you can have them fold a T-shirt in five seconds.
I once started by having a volunteer fold a T-shirt on-stage, using a technique with many views on-line (a famous video with a Japanese girl folding it perfectly).
Using a volunteer is effective but very tricky.
The risk of choosing a not-so-keen volunteer or one who doesn’t help with the presentation is high, so once again you should be very careful and practice a lot. I personally oppose the use of fake volunteers like those used by illusionists or preachers, but you’ll need to be very careful when selecting real volunteers.
As a rule of thumb, the best solution is to prepare a series of very specific questions or activities that must be carried out by the volunteers, therefore guiding them to the activities chosen by the speaker.
The big advantage of choosing a volunteer from among the audience is its surprise effect.
The audience projects itself onto the volunteer and it’s as if they were all on-stage, thereby increasing their attention level.
This is also because they start getting worried about whether they’ll be chosen next…
When you ask for a volunteer, the first reactions you see are people lowering their gazes and bowing their heads, because they are too shy to appear on-stage, to be “caught” as part of a show or a presentation, so this is a moment you should deal with carefully.
But it can help you establish a strong rapport.
It definitely breaks the ice within the first ten seconds and helps you to give a very successful presentation.
I hope these 9 tips will help you to deliver YOUR next impossible presentation!
Remember don’t be afraid to experiment, don’t conform and be one of the “crazy ones”
How are you today?
I hope you're doing well.
Today, I want to introduce "9 tips to get your audience’s attention in…10 seconds".
All right! Let’s have a look at 9 ideas you can use to get your audience involved in just “10 seconds”.
In fact, one of the main challenges when giving any sort of presentation, big or small, is immediately capturing the attention of those you’re speaking to.
The first ten seconds are typically a make-or-break moment.
Great speakers are able to establish rapport with the audience from the very beginning, awaken their curiosity, elicit feelings and get them involved.
There are countless different ways of doing this, and today I’d like to have a look at nine very practical and specific ways of breaking the ice within the first ten seconds, laying the foundation for a perfect presentation.
A few preliminary remarks:
A) The audience always starts off cold.
Sometimes, people who aren’t used to giving presentations may be shocked or discouraged by a lukewarm reception from the audience, which doesn’t respond to the speaker’s requests and solicitations during the first few minutes.
You should take it for granted that the audience will be cold at the beginning.
There are different reasons for this.
You still have to get acquainted with each other and, after all, it’s like dating a girl for the first time: it’s difficult for mutual understanding to appear quickly.
It takes some time before you start to understand and know each other and to get a good feeling. It’s the same with presentations.
Of course, when you only have a short time to speak, you obviously need to warm up the atmosphere and create a good feeling very quickly.
But always remember that the audience starts off cold. Just accept it!
B) Focus on those who are listening and ignore those who aren’t.
It’s very useful to concentrate on those members of the audience who listen immediately, pay attention and react to your input, while ignoring those who aren’t focused on you, are on their phones, puff and pant or shake their heads while you speak.
Staying focused on active people is a good idea, because they’ll bring the surlier, more timid, reluctant or uninterested members of the audience into the fold.
Therefore, active people are our main allies and we should focus on them all the time.
C) You’re not Steve Jobs. Sorry
Giving a speech is completely different depending on whether you’re a celebrity or an unknown person.
Think of Steve Jobs during his keynotes.
The audience was willing to applaud him before he’d even started to speak, and they basically would’ve applauded him whatever he’d said.
At a U2 concert, Bono will make the audience go crazy whatever he says.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for the vast majority of people, who are unknown to their audiences when they start.
And the start is tough.
Once again, it’s best not to set your expectations too high and to start knowing that there’s no supporting band to warm up the atmosphere before you begin!
That’s why it’s a good idea to try and lay the groundwork such that, when you start the presentation, the audience has already warmed up a bit and knows who you are….
Ok ready? Let’s start talking about the 9 tips to catch your audience’s attention in 10 seconds.
1) Audio shock
Work with audio (above video is a great example by McFerrin!)
You can enter the room and start the presentation straight away by asking the audience to… scream.
In practice, you enter the room, say something like “Hello everyone, the first thing I want you to do is to scream as loud as you can on the count of three. One, two, three!” and ask the audience to scream.
Your first attempt will probably be met with a lukewarm response and few people will scream.
In that case, you can overdo things a bit: pretend you’re somewhat disappointed, or tell the audience that’s not enough, that you’re sure they can produce the loudest scream in the world.
You can also run a funny routine in this sense and then ask them to scream again.
This little and apparently silly tactic has many things going for it.
First, screaming allows them to let off steam.
Second, if someone’s screaming, it’s obvious that the ice’s been broken.
Third, screaming people become physically active and their attention level immediately afterwards will be higher than that of people who start listening to your presentation completely still.
The important part is to tie in this icebreaker with something related to your presentation.
It shouldn’t be something completely unrelated. In my case, if I’m giving a presentation on the Internet, I can wait for the audience to stop screaming and then say:
“Well, a lot of people think the Internet is chaos, exactly like what you just heard. But the Internet is actually a very orderly place, and now I’ll show you why.” OK?
This is an example of a tie-in between what just happened and the start of my presentation.
2) Make your audience write
(actually the above video is not strictly related with the writing tip…but please just watch it
To do this, you usually hand out pieces of paper to the audience before you start.
Then, when you climb on the stage, the first thing you do is ask them to write something.
You can ask them to draw something, to take a portrait of the person next to them, to write the first word that comes to their mind when they think of the Internet, social media or whatever the topic of your presentation is.
Alternatively, you can ask them to draw the cover of the last book they’ve read or to warm up by writing and drawing something on a topic you like.
This strategy also has many benefits, because if people take the trouble to draw or write about something, they’re sort of appropriating the presentation because they’ve taken the time to “create” something.
Asking them to take a portrait of the person next to them is also useful, because you’re creating a fun and embarrassing moment (embarrassment is your friend ;-) ). Once they’ve finished drawing/writing, you’ll have to tie in your presentation with what they’ve just done.
For example, in my case I ask them to write the first word that comes to mind when they think of the Internet, and then ask them to raise their hands with a question such as:
“Okay, how many of you drew an at sign? 80%. And how many wrote the word Google? 80%. Okay. A lot of people think Google’s the only thing there is on the Internet. But it’s not true, and I’d like to tell you more about this.” And I start my presentation.
On the other hand, if I’ve asked them to take a portrait, I can then ask them to exchange their sheets of paper, using this socialising gesture to remind them that the Internet is made up of people, not technologies, and that it’s composed of people who share objects among them like we just did.
And so on.
There are countless examples, but the important idea is that having them write something is very useful because it activates them, personalises the message and gets the audience involved in the presentation.
3) Turn your back
The third type of icebreaker is very simple (and perfect for a presentation with 50 people or more, but not suitable for a small audience).
A very funny idea is entering the room, turning your back to the audience straight away and starting to tell them an anecdote.
You may remember that Jim Morrison used to turn his back while singing.
Comedian Robin Williams also likes to tell a joke in which he turns his back in the toilet, while speaking with someone else who suddenly turns towards him (miming the gesture of turning towards him in the toilet has a comical effect).
Turning your back is surprising, piques curiosity and generates interest.
A skilled speaker will be able to tell a story or anecdote and, just like before, tie in the icebreaker with his/her presentation to justify the initial action.
Let’s see an example of how to put this into practice. I could start speaking with my back facing the audience and tell Robin Williams’ joke, which I mentioned earlier, or explain that for years on end, every time I had to give a presentation on technological topics, I felt so embarrassed that I would’ve liked to stay in this position forever…
Or I could say that, as a child, my teacher used to punish me behind the blackboard, so I had to speak with my back turned towards the other people, and, if the audience is OK with that, I’d like to do something different for a change and turn towards them.
Once again, the possibilities are endless.
But this tip works straight away if done correctly, it leaves a mark and it’s not that common. In other words, this is a quick way to get the attention of the audience and catch them off guard with an unconventional attitude.
But be very careful when doing this: in Italy, for example, turning your back on someone is seen as disrespectful.
Therefore, it should be well reasoned, designed and tested before trying it on an official occasion (you can try it out with a small audience of friends or in-house workers and see how they react).
But this tip definitely has a lot of potential.
4) Video intro
Don’t begin to talk when you’re invited to.
Instead, start playing a video all of a sudden.
Use a video you’ve prepared to warm up the audience: it can be a funny video (show them Volkswagen’s recent advert, with the little Darth Vader trying to use The Force!).
You can also show them one of the most-viewed videos on YouTube (for example, a history of music in five minutes, which is also very entertaining).
Or you can have them watch a video of children laughing, which will inevitably make the audience laugh whether they want to or not.
The possibilities are endless: just do a search on YouTube or the Viral Video Chart.
Another possibility is to show them a touching video. Let’s imagine you want to make the audience reflect on the importance of thinking outside the box. Great.
Then start with the original video of the “Think Different” spot, with the voice of Steve Jobs and extraordinary words (the words of heroes, words about people who think outside the box, people who’re capable of changing the world).
Remember that, in presentations, your goal is to move people, to make them think, laugh and cry.
Your goal is to create feelings. Emotions and feelings get people more involved than cold reasoning.
That’s why it’s an interesting option to kick off your presentation with a video that stimulates the feelings of the audience.
A few years ago I had to open a keynote at the IAB Forum (check above video).
Before getting on the stage, I screened a video from The Matrix, featuring only Neo’s voice while the room was plunged in darkness. The voice described what would happen in the future and was accompanied by very touching, rousing music, at the end of which I climbed on-stage. The result was great
The advantage of using an interesting video is that it captures the attention of the audience straight away. People just can’t avoid watching a video during the first ten seconds.
I’m telling you this because, if you’re unlucky enough to give public presentation outside, where I’ve spent so much time giving open-air presentations with unknown people constantly going by, a good video with good audio is the best way of capturing the attention of occasional passers-by (therefore, it will have an even greater effect on people who’re already sitting and listening).
Another good thing about showing a video before you start is that you can make your entrance once it’s piqued the audience’s curiosity and warmed it up. In other words, the video does the same job a supporting band would do in the world of music.
Think about it: when they give a concert, the Rolling Stones don’t start singing straight away, nor are they the first band to play!
They have other bands to warm up the audience and only start playing once it’s ready.
Or think about the trailer of a film: your video acts as a trailer to capture the audience’s attention and awaken its emotions, and then you climb on-stage for your presentation.
5) Unconventional props
Using props is another good idea. In other words, you enter the room and start your presentation based on an object, which is usually quite weird.
You kick off the presentation by showing an object and immediately asking the audience what it is.
An example I’ve been using recently is a T-shirt that can be compressed until it becomes 2 cm wide and looks like a small brick.
If you show them this, they’ll have a hard time finding out it’s a T-shirt, since it looks like something completely different.
This lets you catch them off guard. Another cool prop I’ve seen recently are a pair of shoes that can be closed to create some sort of schoolbag.
You can use many different props.
Go on Amazon, you’ll find loads of interesting and curious objects. In this sense, a good idea is to find a wonderful, alternative, crazy object that lets you start with a riddle.
You’re not the first person to speak, you’re the one who asks a question and begins a conversation.
Like always, the trick is to tie in your presentation with the prop you’ve shown.
To see how we’d use this tip in practice, let’s imagine we want to talk about the Internet: in this case, we can show them a small object that can be compressed into a 2-centimetre block and turns out to be a T-shirt.
When we reveal what it is, we can tie in with the presentation by saying something like:
“Okay, the Internet is a network of people present all over the world. But what I’d like to tell you about is how small differences make a difference. I’d like to talk about how small is the new big.”
You should also tread carefully when using this, because the responses from the audience can catch you off guard.
The audience can answer almost anything, ranging from rude one-liners to comments on the speaker.
You don’t know what to expect from the audience, so once again it’s a good idea to try out this tip on friends or a more amicable audience before you use it in an official context.
That way, you’ll start getting familiar with potential rapid responses to points or objections raised by the audience. You just need to get some practice.
6) A ball…
https://langmaster.edu.vn/club/attachment.php?attachmentid=248&d=1337782353
Why not use a ball?
Imagine you enter the room where you’re giving the presentation with a ball in your hands and then throw it to the audience.
Then, you make them play with it and ask them to pass the ball around.
You get a game going.
This system focuses on the recreational aspect.
The “gamification” of the presentation is done in a way that is very primitive, but nonetheless close to the nature of people.
People love spherical objects, and a ball can be used for many different games, from football to basketball to children’s games.
That’s why it has a series of values that go beyond the object itself.
It’s also a great way of breaking the ice because, if you throw a ball, there’ll always be someone there to catch it.
In my case, I’ve sometimes used little balls to explain how the Internet was born.
With just two balls, I divide the audience into two groups, into two areas.
In one area, I have them pass the ball around in a chaotic way, whereas in the other one I have them follow a logic plan to pass the ball from one side to the other.
This makes the audience warm up and have fun and also allows for one-liners and gags.
Embarrassing moments are also good because, when the audience sees you in an embarrassing situation, they’re seeing your human side, which helps them connect better with you.
Once again, the trick is to tie in with the start of the presentation or to use the game as a demonstration of a concept you want to showcase in your presentation.
7) Join the audience
This is quite rare among speakers, because they’re often afraid of leaving the safety of their stands and mingling with the audience.
There are different possibilities.
One of them is to stand among the audience and start talking with its members as an equal.
Another is to climb on-stage and then get off again, mingling with the audience and making them speak, asking them questions straight away, reversing the relationship between the speaker who talks and the audience that listens.
It’s a way to surprise and connect right away with the audience in front of me from a spatial point of view. I can also take advantage of this proximity to bring up things such as a riddle, a game with the audience or, if I’ve provided them with sheets of paper to draw things, to walk among them to see what they’re doing, ask them to show me their drawings or texts and ask them questions while I’m amidst them.
When people ask questions, I ask them their names straight away and have them stand up so that the others can see them.
This creates an immediate synergy, since spatial distance is shortened and the speaker is no longer a stranger, but part of the group, of the audience.
Becoming part of the audience can be one of the most effective tools to connect with them from the very beginning.
8) Super surprise
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The big “super surprise” usually requires more preparation work and effort, because the goal is to catch the audience off guard with something they don’t expect at all.
It’s a good idea to work on a skill of yours and showcase it to the audience.
Can you play the piano? Great, put a piano on the stage.
I used to be a professional ping-pong player, and used to put a ping-pong table on the stage and start playing.
You can have different skills: skateboarding, doing something other people don’t know how to do, performing yo-yo tricks, sporting skills, passion skills or solving the Rubik cube in five seconds… Whatever you want. The guiding principle is to start by showcasing a skill.
If you’ve also got a big object you can put on the stand, do so.
I know it’s tiring, but it’s the perfect way to break the ice in ten seconds, because you’re doing something unexpected and the audience wants to know what’s about to happen.
It wrongfoots them and catches them off guard. In short, it captures the audience’s attention directly.
Another advantage is that, if I showcase a specific skill in some field, the audience will transpose this skill onto the presentation I’m about to give, increasing my credibility and authoritativeness as a speaker subconsciously and directly.
9) An unwilling volunteer
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Mingle with the audience and take volunteers on-stage!
You can use a blackboard to have them take notes or write down their remarks or the answers to the questions you ask, or you can have them fold a T-shirt in five seconds.
I once started by having a volunteer fold a T-shirt on-stage, using a technique with many views on-line (a famous video with a Japanese girl folding it perfectly).
Using a volunteer is effective but very tricky.
The risk of choosing a not-so-keen volunteer or one who doesn’t help with the presentation is high, so once again you should be very careful and practice a lot. I personally oppose the use of fake volunteers like those used by illusionists or preachers, but you’ll need to be very careful when selecting real volunteers.
As a rule of thumb, the best solution is to prepare a series of very specific questions or activities that must be carried out by the volunteers, therefore guiding them to the activities chosen by the speaker.
The big advantage of choosing a volunteer from among the audience is its surprise effect.
The audience projects itself onto the volunteer and it’s as if they were all on-stage, thereby increasing their attention level.
This is also because they start getting worried about whether they’ll be chosen next…
When you ask for a volunteer, the first reactions you see are people lowering their gazes and bowing their heads, because they are too shy to appear on-stage, to be “caught” as part of a show or a presentation, so this is a moment you should deal with carefully.
But it can help you establish a strong rapport.
It definitely breaks the ice within the first ten seconds and helps you to give a very successful presentation.
I hope these 9 tips will help you to deliver YOUR next impossible presentation!
Remember don’t be afraid to experiment, don’t conform and be one of the “crazy ones”
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