Audience Interaction

Introduction Public speaking is a dialogue between you and your audience. Keep the dialogue from turning into a monologue by incorporating interaction into your presentation. It keeps your audience energized, engaged, and wanting to hear more; it puts the speaker in touch with the audience's interests and needs. 1Braithwaite, L. (2006, 11 01). Buzzle.Com. Retrieved 11 01, 2009, from Successful Public Speaking: Interact With Your Audience: audience.html

How do you get audience interaction You may or may not have had the opportunity to gather information on your audience in advance. Whether or not you’ve researched your attendees, it’s always effective to start off with a question or series of questions Also you can use icebreakers and energizers. The purpose of icebreakers is to warm up the group, help them get to know each other and to create a bond and a positive atmosphere within the group

Positive Audience Interaction The keywords when dealing with disruption are to be polite but firm, never lose your temper or your cool - if you enter into a shouting match with a heckler then they win and you lose. It is vital you don't let disruptive members of the audience derail your presentation - you are working to a tight schedule so don't get involved in protracted discussions.

Negative Audience Interaction As presenters, we tend to worry more about ourselves than we do about our audience. We worry that we won't look knowledgeable we won't be able to answer some questions we'll appear nervous we’ll forget what we wanted to say: These concerns, while valid, have the focus all wrong If you're going to worry about something, worry about how much value you are providing your audience. Your presentation is not about you, it's ALL about your audience. Reiffenstein, K. (2008, 05 22). Manager Smarter. Retrieved 11 01, 2009, from Five Things Not to Do in Front of an Audience: ns/e3ieeeb821466c455144bf23829aa29b77e

Concluding Remarks Audience interaction can be a scary thing, but with a few of these helpful tips you improve your audience’s interaction completely. Be sure to keep the dialog open and include plenty of interaction. This will help keep your audience energized and willing to hear every word you have to say