6 TIPS TO CONSIDER WHEN PLANNING A SPEECH PRESENTATION

The first month of the year is about to end, you say? But, have you thought about why there are lots of fliers indicating a number of events which require excellent presentational skills on the part of the speakers? If you ever get called upon to deliver such speeches to an august audience, would you be up to the task? Well, for some of us who are quite shy and reserved, we have no option but to learn to deliver when we’re called upon at such times. You just can’t afford to disappoint whoever invited you to mount that podium. In such instances, one may wonder if I’m truly shy and reserved like I mentioned earlier but you know, a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do. I might not be entirely excellent during the speech delivery process but I can’t afford to be entirely bad as well.  Mind you, there’s no way you can give a very excellent speech or presentation when you have not planned it.  Planning in itself is an entire process and every stage of the process counts and must not be ignored. Here are some things you should consider doing if you want to plan an excellent speech presentation:

Effective planning equals excellent speech delivery.

1. HAVE A FAIR IDEA OF YOUR AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHICS OR CHARACTERISTICS – delivering an impactful presentation largely relies on how well you are able to relate to your audience. You can only relate to your audience if you know who your audience is. In this case, you are no different from the marketer who has to do a field research to find out what his potential customers need and how he can satisfy those needs by manufacturing products that can satisfy those needs. You have to find out from the event organizers who their / your audience is.
2. KNOW THEIR AGE RANGE OR GENDER – You should have a fair idea what the ages of your audience are. Are they adults, teenagers or children? You have to know! Every individual, based on their ages has a varied way of comprehending issues and as such, there is no way you can prepare the same presentation for all parties. If you do, it’ll be a complete failure! There is every reason why you should know the gender of the audience as this also goes a long way to affect the impact of your message. You must know whether the presentation is for men only, women only or both. You simply can’t take this for granted!
3. EDUCATIONAL LEVEL – There is everything wrong with your presentation if you have absolutely no idea what the educational level of your audience is. A college student may not understand the depth of the matter you are presenting if you use highly learned and technical vocabulary in communicating with them. Doing this would create a semantic barrier in the communication process and would result in a less impactful presentation in the long run. Your style of speaking, examples and illustrations would only affect your audience positively if you use the right forms of the aforementioned.
4. OCCUPATION – Knowing the occupation of your audience is essential to creating and delivering an excellent presentation. You would end up being severely embarrassed if you prepare and deliver a Science themed presentation to a Creative Arts centered audience. Save yourself the embarrassment and walk to your seat heads high after delivering that presentation by knowing the occupation of your audience.

   

   Sharing the same values with your audience would crave their loyalty.

5. CULTURE – There is the need to familiarize yourself with the culture of your audience. You should know whether they prefer to be spoken to in a particular language or otherwise. Having a similar culture with that of your audience gives you an edge over them and magnetically draws them to you once you begin to deliver. Imagine you are speaking to an LGBTA audience and end up giving a judgmental and religious presentation about LGBTA. Do I need to tell you – you might not leave the premises whole?
6. BE AN EXPERT ON THE SUBJECT AND FIND OUT IF YOUR AUDIENCE ARE FAMILIARISED WITH IT- This is the make or break of the entire presentation. There is the need for you to have absolute command over the subject you are making the presentation on. The audience would be attracted to an expert speaker than a non- expert. Do your homework well on the subject you are delivering. Also, take note of the fact that there is the need for you to know if the audience would relate well to the message you are about to deliver. Imagine what a mess you would be if you were delivering a presentation on how to be successful in your job to workers who had just been laid off by their respective companies. Their emotions would override their cognitive and they would hate you!

I trust the above is enough to equip you with the significant steps needed for planning an excellent presentation. I must commend Brain Tracy for the incredible lessons in his book: “Speak to win…” Now, I need you to go to that event and slay that presentation! Go for it! Thank me later!

Images: Google

© Ivy Edith Makafui Agbozo 2018