Some years ago, I was invited to Macau by one of the big-4 consulting companies to speak on the topic of Leadership Communication at their annual China Partner forum. There were approximately 600 attendees and six presentations running concurrently in six different rooms. Three were presented by internal leaders, and three were delivered by external consultants like me. Each presentation lasted 45 minutes and was delivered three times, twice in the morning before a long coffee break and once after the coffee break. The partners had the option of which of the three presentations they attended.
My first two presentations were attended at full capacity with approximately 100 senior leaders in each. They went fabulously well. After each I received warm applause and many of the partners approached me to request my business card or comment on how the content was relevant to them.
After the coffee break however, my third and final session was only half full – clearly many attendees had used the coffee break as an opportunity to leave the conference. What should have warned me of what was about to unfold however, was the seating position of the partners that had decided to attend the session; not one of them was in the front half of the room, the closest being a good 10 meters from me. When a room with capacity for 100+ has only 50 people present, and none of them are in the first half of the room, this leaves a physical void that as a presenter, you need to communicate across.
What unfolded was the most challenging presentation I have ever given in over a decade or public speaking. It was as if I was talking to a room full of tailor’s mannequins. No one moved or smiled. No one responded to my prompts. The same humour that had received warm laughs before the coffee break fell on stonewall silence.
In fact, had it not been for the fact that I had already delivered the content twice to strong acclaim, I could have well had my first ever case of presenter’s confidence crisis. Without those previous presentations, I would have had no reference point to confirm that I was on topic and relevant to my client. At the end of the presentation, I crossed the 10-meter void and directly addressed the audience;
I said “Wow, you guys were hard work! I ran this session twice this morning and it went great, there was a lot of interaction”
The response I received was “That was really interesting and useful, thanks, we were just a bit tired after the coffee break!”.
All my panic and worry were for nothing; however, it was one of the most valuable learning experiences I have ever had as a presenter and public speaker.
Here are the two key takeaways:
1. Don’t assume just because your audience isn’t responding in the way you would hope, that they are not enjoying or valuing your talk. To do so would result in your focus shifting from giving your very best presentation, to worrying about what the audience is thinking. This shift in focus can only damage your end result and may well become self-fulfilling, turning a presentation that was actually going well, into a lesser version. Stay focused on your task at hand rather than the audience. Believe in yourself and this will give you the best chance of success.
2. If you are the recipient rather than the speaker, don’t be the mannequin! Interact with the speaker by giving facial feedback (smile, use of facial expressions), nodding, acknowledging questions etc. These small cues communicate that you are engaged and encourage the speaker to deliver their best version.
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Good post Neil. I've had that experience and had similar learnings from it. I've also learned from other speakers that the audience has more confidence in you when they think you don't really care about their reactions or other distractions that might occur in the room. When you show that you are ruffled, you lose the audience even further.
Useful Neil, thanks, trying to come to terms with the fact that I may have to present in front of an audience in my new job which was something I never had (or wanted to do) in my previous career.