Are They Listening?

Ten Tips to Send Your Audience to Sleep

Have you ever fallen asleep when listening to a speech or presentation? Sometimes a little nap during a presentation can boost your energy for the rest of the day.

Speakers- if you want to be the one to send your audience to sleep, so they will be fully alert for other people’s presentations follow these ten tips.

1. Make sure that your material is dry and boring. Make sure that your material is either highly technical or complex. If at all possible fill your speech with specialized academic content that is not easily understood without prior study and research.

2. Do not include any explanations or illustrations to make the content understandable to the average person in your audience.

3. Schedule your speech to be at the end of a long day or after a big meal. This will give added incentive for drowsiness and lethargy.

4. Speak softly and avoid any expression or vocal variety that might distract or interest your audience.

5. Stand still behind the lectern for the entire speech. Any movement or sudden gestures could wake up your audience.

6. Avoid any variation in style in your presentation. Do not change from talking to using a flip chart, PowerPoint or any other kind of visual aid or prop that will attract attention.

7. Do NOT include any humor or stories in your speech that might illustrate the important points you wish to communicate.

8. Do not keep to the topic of the speech. Spend a large amount of time rambling about subjects or personal experiences that are boring and totally off topic.

9. Speak about a topic that is very familiar to your audience. Keep your content to things that they already know.

10. Provide highly detailed handouts, so that your audience will not miss out on any important information during their snooze. Make sure that you do not say anything that is not included in the hand out. For best results, just read the handout word for word.

Hopefully, by following carefully the ten tips outlined here, you will have the satisfaction of seeing an entire audience snoring quietly and happily throughout your entire presentation.

Remember, if you do not follow these tips you may be alarmed to discover that your audience is alert and interested in what you have to say.

To your speaking success

Fran Watson

Distracted Listeners ?

This article was reproduced from "Speaking in Public with J.A.", a FREE electronic magazine authored by J.A. Gamache, International Inspirational Speaker. To subscribe to his FREE e-zine or to find out more about his presentations, visit: http://www.jagamache.com.

HOW TO RE-FOCUS THE ATTENTION OF DISTRACTED LISTENERS
by J.A. Gamache
Third place Champion at the 2001 Toastmasters International World Championship of Public Speaking

Although you may be an energetic and interesting speaker, it's still normal to lose the attention of some of your listeners. To remedy this situation, plan to include in your presentation some attention-getting elements that will pull in absent-minded audience members. In other words, make your crowd react regularly. There are many ways to make a room react. I find that I can snap out of my daydreaming if a speaker uses one of the following methods:

1- LAUGHTER When I hear everyone laugh, I stop daydreaming and ask my neighbor what the speaker said. After that, I'm on the edge of my seat so I don't miss the next joke.

Since almost everyone likes to laugh, inject humour into your presentation when it's appropriate. The more laughter you get from your presentation, the more you motivate your audience to listen.

2- MOVEMENTS OF OTHER AUDIENCE MEMBERS When everyone around me starts to move, it obviously gets my attention. I ask my neighbor what's happening and the person explains that the speaker has asked everyone to participate to an activity. In spite of myself, my interest re-focuses on what's happening in the room. That's why professional speakers often ask audience members to shake hands and say something to their neighbor.

A participating audience is an attentive audience. Make it a habit to incorporate a strategy to refocus absent-minded listeners, and make them react regularly. An easy way is to have humorous moments in your speech and invite audience participation. These are all good methods to reclaim the audience's attention.

Happy speech! ©

MMXI J.A. Gamache www.jagamache.com.
All rights reserved. ---------------------------------

To your speaking success!
Fran Watson
P.S. Sign up for some more speaking tips on my websitehere