#4 “Boring!”

Audiences are generally very forgiving though there is one unforgivable sin – being boring.

You need to grab an audience’s attention and keep it throughout your presentation. That’s why those first minutes are so important.

It’s when your audience will devote more of its attention to you than at any other point in the presentation. Don’t waste it.

Be funny, be provocative, be candid, be contrarian, be excited – just don’t be boring. The worst thing you can do is to look as if you have been sent by your boss to deliver the presentation on her behalf.

Look like you want to be there – whether you want to be or not. Remember that no matter how dry your topic, how important the content nor how much information you wish to convey everything goes down better when audiences are interested.

Hootville is running a public Presentation Savvy workshop Thursday December 7 for everyone who needs to improve their public speaking whether it be to audiences of 1 or 1000.