Originally published in 2012.
If you communicate with your audience through writing, video or audio they can stop reading, watching, or listening to you at any time if they are not interested. But when you communicate in person whether it is in a presentation, meeting, or one-on-one they do not have the luxury to walk away…without being rude. Just because they are present, does not mean they are paying attention to you and following what you are saying. Their bodies may be in the room, but their minds could be somewhere else, thinking about dinner, texting a friend, or wondering about their next date. How often in a lecture, presentation, or meeting you lose interest in what the speaker is saying? The same can happen with your audience.
In July 2010, I presented my research at a small scientific meeting at the base of Mount Taranaki. The room was cold, damp, and dim but I spoke with confidence, excitement, and even had humour in it. I thought I did well until I asked “Are there any questions?” I was expecting people in my audience were going to be fighting to see who asks the first question…but the room was in complete silence. No one had any questions. Have you been there? In that moment of awkward silence I realised that I had taken my audience for granted. Their bodies were in the room, their minds were somewhere else. Fast forward to December 2011. After presenting my research at the 13th Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Association for ChemoSensory Science, not only the audience had lots of questions, one attendee said “Pablo, this is not my field but it’s very exciting.”
Between July 2010 and December 2011 I dedicated myself to studying how to keep an audience interested. I will be revealing some of those strategies in my next blogs. In the meanwhile, think about this: do you take your audience for granted?