265: Where Should The Formality Line Be When Presenting?

<p style="font-weight: 400;">Sometimes we read that when we are presenting it should be just like a conversation with your friend.  The idea is we should be relaxed, inclusive, totally focused on the people we are speaking to.  Now will that work in the boardroom when presenting to the senior executives, none of whom are particularly friendly?  Will this work with an audience of legitimate experts in your field?  Will this work with clients when pitching for their business. </p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">We need to determine from the very start what it is we are trying to achieve.  Are we going to pass on a lot of recent and relevant information that our audience will appreciate, because they can then use that in their work or use it to add to their own presentations?  If it is a technical topic and the attendees are experts, then an inform style speech will work very well.  Should it be chatty?  Probably not.  The audience may feel we are not taking them seriously enough.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">This doesn’t give us a blank cheque now to be dull and boring.  We need to tailor our talk to our audience and to how much they know about the subject.  Too high level and full of insider jargon and we, the great unwashed, will feel stupid, isolated and diminished by the speaker.  Then we will get angry at our unfair treatment. </p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">As the speaker our job is to be an effective communicator, so we need to be using power in or power out to highlight certain words we want to stress.  We should be using gestures which are congruent with what we are saying.  Our eyes should be on the audience the whole time picking up visual clues as to how well they are receiving our message.  We should be telling stories to make the points easier to recall.  Where possible we should include aspects of our own experience both good and bad, to be added to the mix to make it real for the listeners.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">If the object is to impress your audience and convince them of your sugge