audience interaction

Focusing Your Message for Maximum Impact
Recognizing both positive and negative signals from audience interaction during presentation should not change your planned presentation fundamentally. Your message and the material with which you are communicating it should have been carefully prepared and radical changes will almost certainly not be practical. The real point of reading signals from your audience is that it can help you to judge who you have on-side, who is opposing your point of view and who has yet to decide. This should help you to focus your message where it can have maximum impact, talking round those that can be swayed, whilst keeping your supporters with you and trying not to alienate the opposition. One or more members of your audience may attempt to disrupt your presentation, usually because they strongly disagree with your message. Learn to recognize how this disruption may manifest itself and you will be better equipped to cope with it.

Use Humor Carefully
The use of humor in presentations is a difficult area. On the whole humor is seen as a positive thing - but its all down to the way it’s delivered. There is an increasing trend towards actually opening presentations with a joke - and if you carry it off it can be an excellent way of creating a rapport with the audience. However, a badly executed joke, or simply the wrong joke can create erect an insurmountable hurdle - right at the start. You must be confident that any jokes you include do not offend or embarrass any members of your audience - as this will represent negative audience interaction during presentation. Timing is a critical aspect of using humor effectively. Good comedians work with timing, and practice setting up the punch line. The use of pacing, time and pauses are all important when telling jokes.

Another thing that can prove invaluable is knowing how to recover when a joke has failed; often this can be done just by pointing out the flatness of the failed joke - but once again this is a skill that takes a lot of self-confidence and practice. If you are tempted to use humor because the content of your presentation seems a little dull, then you may be safer using an analogy. Done with care, this can liven up a presentation and help the audience to remember your key points. For example, if you were a sales manager trying to explain to your sales force the attributes of your competitors you might draw parallels with popular family pets - from a loyal dependable unimaginative Labrador to a small tenacious hyperactive terrier to a large aggressive and dominant Rottweiller. In summary, if you are using humor make sure it is a medium that you are familiar with, check the appropriateness of the content, rehearse it well and have a contingency plan in case it falls flat.

Never get into an Argument
The keywords when dealing with disruption are to be polite but firm, never lose your temper or your cool - if you enter into a shouting match with a heckler then they win and you lose. It is vital you don’t let disruptive members of the audience derail your presentation - you are working to a tight schedule so don’t get involved in protracted discussions. Try to approach the point of contention from any common ground that you share, but if this fails to work then politely request that the point is discussed later at the pre-planned question and answer session.

If someone denounces something that you have said, avoid getting into an argument with them. If your point was based on fact then make this clear and present the evidence. However, if it was based on your personal opinion then don’t attempt to pass this off as factual - it is your presentation and therefore your opinion should be worth expressing. Always remember that what is underlying the point of contention may be a genuine concern and that if you try to brush it aside it is likely to be taken up by other members of the audience, who may then swing against you. Attention seekers may make silly or sarcastic comments simply to get themselves noticed, whilst other members of your audience may respond unwittingly to a rhetorical question that you pose - simply because they weren’t paying full attention. Try to analyze these sort of events as they occur and respond, perhaps with humor or support but don’t try to put people down - as this nearly always reflects badly on the presenter.

losing Your Presentation
It was recommended earlier that you planned your presentation to have a question and answer session at the end. This will enable you to deliver your message and then end strongly with a clear and concise summing up before entering the relatively unpredictable area of tackling questions from the floor. Unless you are using visual-aids make sure that they are switched off to avoid them causing a distraction during your conclusion. Step forward so that you are confidently asserting yourself as the center of attention and then deliver the summing up with confidence and authority. It may be a good idea to announce that the end is near - as this can refocus the attention of any members of the audience who are beginning to suffer from listening fatigue. For example you could say ‘Now to sum up briefly before I answer your questions’. Your conclusion, or summing up, should be strong and clear but not protracted. Ideally it will represent about 10 per-cent of the overall presentation. The last impression you make with the audience will be the lasting one and the last words that you say may be the best remembered - so always plan to finish strongly. Aim to reiterate the main points from your presentation. Use a combination of pauses, intonation and other verbal techniques - such as alliteration, in order to create a memorable statement.

The Question & Answer Session
It was recommended earlier that you provide your audience with a protocol in the introductory phase of your presentation; to include such elements as the timing of the question and answer phase. This is often best dealt with at the end of the presentation, just before your final summing up.

A good presentation can be ruined by a poor question and answer session. Conversely a mediocre one can be saved by a confident final session. The key to being confident in dealing with questions is preparation. When you have finished drafting your presentation read through it carefully and note any questions that it is likely to raise, and prepare answers to these in advance. This is the time to focus on any areas in which your message is short of facts or vulnerable to being challenged - in this way it is usually possible to anticipate most questions that are likely to arise. This analysis will also help you to prepare one or more lengthy answers in advance for questions that you are sure will be raised.

You may be facing an unresponsive group, one that just sits inert and will not show any interest in taking part - even during the planned question and answer session. You may think that the obvious conclusion to draw is that they have no interest in what you are saying. However it is equally likely that you are just facing an unresponsive group, this may be due to the character types within it or the intra-group politics. If your presentation has a chair then the chairperson should intervene and ask some initial questions in an attempt to involve your audience.

When answering questions do so by speaking clearly and confidently, otherwise you will appear unsure of what you are saying. Do not let nerves draw you into responding hastily, always think about your answer before you speak and if necessary refer back to your notes in order to answer a question. If the question requires clarification then ask the questioner to do this, rather than risk answering a question that wasn’t asked. When answering, address the entire audience and not just to the questioner, and avoid getting into a protracted debate on any point that is raised - you may offer to see a questioner after the presentation to continue a point that is of specific personal interest to them.

You may face questions that are unanswerable. These may be posed by people who are hostile to your message or by those just wishing to make a point. If you feel unable to answer a question you may find it useful to have a standard reply ready in order to reduce its impact on your presentation. Here are some examples that you may find useful:
“I'd rather not answer that here and now, but if you see me after the session I will take your details and get back to you as soon as I’ve checked some facts”.
“Let me think about that for a minute, can we come back to it later? Next question please”.
“I don’t think that the information necessarily supports either view definitively. However my personal opinion is that . . .”.

Regaining Control During a Presentation
Consider an example where the presenter has started well, and delivered a clear and concise introduction. However early into the main body of the presentation she became confused about where she was in relation to her cue cards, nerves set in and subsequently she lost the attention of the audience. At this stage the presentation could have degenerated into chaos, which is what would happen if control was not regained.

However by pausing, taking a drink of water and regaining eye contact with supportive members of the audience the presenter has managed to compose herself once more. She followed this by telling a joke at her own expense, and then firmly re-established her position in the presentation by summing up the main points made so far. Following this her confidence returned and the presentation proceeded well, with the help of smooth running audio-visual aids and some well researched but spontaneously delivered examples. The presentation ended with a clear and memorable conclusion and the question and answer session was also well managed. The overriding impression was of a professional and successful presentation. This example illustrates a key point - that if the presenter can remain calm and composed and deal with situations as they arise then they should be able to stay in control, hold the interest of the audience and make a successful presentation.

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