Your key objective is to familiarise the whole audience with your topic. Otherwise, you risk losing them: they will stop listening and focus on other things instead. If you don't want your audience to become frustrated even during a lengthy presentation, the presentationmagazine.com website advises involving them somehow in your speech and giving them a little bit of exercise.
Tell them what they are going to hear
A briefing ahead of your actual presentation will strengthen the audience's engagement and stimulate their curiosity. Give them some time to prepare questions they may want to have answered. The briefing may be a short e-mail with the agenda of your presentation, sent a day in advance, or it might be a leaflet that every attendee receives when entering the presentation hall.
Get them on their feet
Tell them to stand up and help you to illustrate any statistical insight you are going to talk about. This will be a relief for any restless listeners, whose type is found in every audience. Furthermore, it will reinforce your message and a little bit of exercise can also freshen everyone up. How to go about it? You can simply fire a question and have everyone who agrees with a certain answer vote by standing up, which is much more fun than just raising hands. Ask, for example, about the means of transport people used that very morning. You might hide cards with something written on them under certain people's seats and, when the time comes, ask them to take their card and react according to what is written there. You can ask them how they like their coffee – with milk and sugar or black ... And you can add some funny commentaries, which is always a stimulus for any sleepy public.
Let your audience speak
By doing so, you will get their full attention. No matter what kind of people your audience consists of, no one likes being spoken to with no opportunity to make a contribution. Schedule a question-and-answer session or ascertain audience opinion through a raising of hands.
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