When they are finished, let them know. Provide opportunities for audience participation . If you think about it creatively, virtually every topic offers opportunities for audience participation. For instance, if you are trying to explain how the Internet works, you could have everyone in the audience hold hands while you explain that the information is transmitted to various electronic sites, all of which are connected, like the audience themselves. Anything that breaks the mono-tony will be received favorably.
Audiences love to be included, and they think positively about speakers who make the attempt.
Leave the soliloquies to Shakespearean actors. You want to be remembered as a personable, engaging, charming speaker who has taken the time to learn my name. I can't wait to hear you say it sometime. LisaMarie Luccioni is an adjunct assistant professor of communications at the University of Cincinnati. Originally published in the April 1998 issue of Presentations magazine.