How to treat your audience when giving a presentation

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Respect your audience

It is important to check your tone before speaking to a fellow audience member. It is unadvisable to speak down (or even up!) to a fellow audience member. Speaking respectfully to your audience builds relations and ultimately the presentations purpose is to share knowledge or information.

Data delivery

Inform your audience of your objectives and what the presentation entails so they know what to expect. Do not bore your audience with irrelevant information or a build-up that drags out your presentation. Deliver the important information first.

Presentation length

Your audience should be aware of how long your presentation is going to take. You are expected to issue breaks when necessary and start and stop your presentation on time.

Be responsive

When audience members ask questions, try to answer them instead of waving them of with ‘no questions please’ which creates a bad impression. The goal of your presentation is to explain your objective to the audience.

Do not back your audience

Your audience is not interested in the back of your head, therefore refrain from using gestures that cause you to turn your back on them. It may even muffle the volume of your voice and exasperate your audience.

The presentation end

After summarizing your presentation, let your audience know of what comes next. The audience should feel as if they have gained insightful knowledge and you should feel accomplished after sharing your presentation.