Interact with Your Audience

When you are in a conversation with another, you will receive feedback about the effect that your message is having. You know to adapt your message accordingly. Do the same with public speaking.

Because it is in your audience's best interests for you to succeed, participants will give you feedback before, during, and following your talk. This is where excellent listening skills come into play.

For most U.S. Americans, eye contact demonstrates confidence, honesty and caring. Whenever possible, strive to make contact with as many audience members as you can. This means making contact long enough to discern whether your message is clear and interesting. As you make contact, you will be able to show that you care about what effect your words and movements have upon your audience.

Like a good conversation, the first thing that you do when greeting your audience is to establish rapport and find common areas of interest. Look at your audience and give each participant a warm virtual nonverbal handshake. Introduce yourself and clearly state your purpose and rationale for choosing the topic and thesis that you have for this talk.

If you are willing to take questions during your talk, invite your audience to interrupt you. If you plan to talk for 20 minutes and then take 10 minutes for questions and comments, make that clear as well. This gives your audience a clear sense of how you expect to interact with them.

See the University of Hawaii’s Public Speaking Web Guide at http://www.hawaii.edu/mauispeech/html/public_speaking.html and click on “Speech Day” for suggestions on presenting your speech. Also find related topics such as speech research, practice, tips, anxiety.