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The average attention span of a literate adult is 20 minutes.

Good, you think to yourself. 20 minutes is plenty of time.

But how many speeches have you sat through where you fell asleep within the first two minutes?

And how afraid are you that people are going to do the same for yours?

It seems terribly obvious: unless you’re interesting, no one is going to pay attention. When you watch an episode of the O.C. or Gray’s Anatomy, you’re there to be entertained. You watch because the plot twists and the developing relationships on-screen are interesting. Not interesting? You switch the channel.

People may not have the luxury of turning off a speaker. But they can certainly turn off their own brains, and if you’re not careful, you’ll find most people snoozing in their chairs.

Find out your audience’s expectations, and do your best to break them. Does your audience expect you to be very formal? Take off your jacket and walk out from behind your podium. Does your audience expect you to be very serious? Be irreverent. Be self-deprecating.

One simple way to do this is to ask unexpected questions. It makes people think and also keeps them awake because it’s embarrassing to be singled out for sleeping.

5) Laugh! Never underestimate the power of humour. It’s been said to the death, but somehow people still don’t seem to get it. And they end up with dead audiences.

And I don’t mean just a humorous beginning or ending. Make sure you keep it up! It’s a pity if your audience doesn’t pay attention to the body of your speech.

6) Be visual. Okay, the above blog post advises that you ‘show a (half) naked woman’. But take that with a pinch of salt. It might not be appropriate, and you never know when you might have a dedicated, stone-throwing feminist in your audience.

Instead, you can be visual. It’s pretty much an undisputed fact that we remember images better than words. If you have a powerpoint presentation, make it visually striking. At the most basic level, it’s as simple as bolding words to make them stand out. At higher levels, you can add images or even videos.

7) If you’re stuck with words only, then use what fiction writers and poets have been using throughout the ages: metaphor, simile, and analogy. All these techniques are meant to call up images in the mind of the reader – or in your case, the listener – and help them retain your message better.

Tell stories [http://blog.ericfeng.com/getting-your-audience-engaged-excited-at-the-edge-of-their-seats-at-all-times]. It may sound difficult but it’s not, because we do it all the time.

When you tell your friends about the time you were stuck in a traffic jam or about dealing with your horrible boss or about the time you tried so hard to get tickets to a concert, you’re essentially portraying the essence of life: conflict.

Tell your audience about a particular conflict you resolved. It endears you to them and also helps them empathize with you. Besides that, stories are simply far more memorable and interesting than a series of unconnected facts.

9) Start writing your speech early. A lot of people wait till the very last minute to start working on their presentation, which results in them being unconfident and boring. If you don’t craft your jokes and stories carefully first, you’ll end up telling them badly or not telling them at all.

10) Keep your role as a public speaker in mind, all the time. You can start keeping a folder of notes or materials to use in any speech.

If something interesting happens to you, write it down. If a friend tells you a good joke or if you happen to read a nice anecdote from a book or the Internet, write it down. You never know when it’ll come in handy.

My son lives five hours away from my home but travels with me for professional speaking engagements. He usually arrives a day or two before the scheduled event and we begin strategizing and preparing so that I can be my best.

Following are the steps that we take:

1. Review of the materials that I have received from the hosting organization – We want to make sure that we understand the specific needs and requests as well as the logistics for our stay. We double-check the times they have set for us to fulfill their banquet and room reservations as well as any specific details for setting up our sales booth and doing sound checks.

2. Refinement of the presentation – I have usually prepared notes for the topic to be covered and we then coordinate these with any slides, photos or videos that we want to incorporate into our power point so that it flows.

3. Prepare a customized free gift for the audience members. This is usually a mini-book that they can download through a hidden page on our website. We give them the address and they get the gift in exchange for entering their name and email address into a database form. We find this method is less expensive than having a paper handout and it also allows us to capture contact information for future marketing.

4. Draw materials – We also print slips of paper on which the audience can write their names and email addresses for a draw in which they can win two or three of my books or audio products. Most people carry pens but having a supply with you is a good idea as well as having a container for entries. Describing the prizes to them allows you a comfortable way to market,

5. Back up materials – We use luggage with wheels to transport supplies for the book table such as business cards, bookmarks, and sale items.

6. Inventory – It is better to have too much than to run out and then be faced with shipping costs. Make sure you also have a good pen for autographing the sale items, paper and pens for audience members to write out specific requests they might have and a prepared method for issuing receipts that purchasers need. You will also need to have a good supply of small bills in order to make change for the buyers.

7. Technical supplies – My son carries with him his laptop, specific cords that he might need for the sound system, audio/video devices for recording the event and his iPhone for taking photographs that we can later use in marketing materials.

8. Presentation props – I usually put my outfit for the second half of the presentation into a piece of luggage that I can actually pull on stage with me. That way I don’t have to worry about going back to the hotel room or looking for specific things in a short break.

9. Invoicing documentation – I usually ask for a down payment of half the fee at booking and the remainder on the day of the presentation. It is a good idea to take a copy of the invoice showing balance due with you for the organizers.

10. Travel preparations – We usually plan to be at the venue the day before I speak. This means that I will need to have my hair professional done, the car filled with gas or travel to the airport arranged.

It sounds like a lot of things to get ready but we are finding that the more times we do this, the easier it becomes. They key, of course, is to have a plan and allow the time in order to do all of the tasks so that you truly can say that you are ready when you need to be.

Business presentations are a collateral reflection of who you are. A glimpse of your personality could be seen in the ways and the content of your presentation.

The way you carry yourself, the way you speak, deliver your sentences, tackle tricky questions with confidence and successfully convey your message, speak volumes about your personality.

Still, there are much more ways in which you can support your business presentation to reach its maximum potential.

HIGHLIGHT YOUR SUPERPOWER

A positive way to keep your audience attentive to you is to show them that you are worth their time and trust. Rather than speaking about your achievements and future goals, speak about your credibility because if even little points will exist with which the crowd will not feel connected to then the tables will instantly turn.

Talk about your goals within the first few minutes of the presentation

Choose your presentation design which corresponds with your goals, which should be introduced to your audience as early as possible. This will help your audience to correlate what you are expressing with the ‘why’ and ‘what’ you want to achieve.

Never underestimate the impact of a powerful image/quote

A business presentation is usually a collection of fertile ideas, knit together as one to illustrate a larger picture. So, the smart use of different images/quotes to introduce different ideas will supply more power to your presentation. Vocalising the quotes or speaking few important words out loud will bring your presentation to life, especially if the presentation has numerous bar graphs, bullet points, and pie charts.

GIVE YOUR AUDIENCE THE POWER TO BRAINSTORM OVER YOUR QUESTIONS

One of the unbeatable ways to make your presentation more interactive is to begin it with a question which you, yourself will answer. Like you can start with “I asked myself what all can my team will be able to do and contribution for making this project a success?”. So, based on this question you can build up your presentation. Be alert to all the questions from your audience as they are icebergs of curiosity. The more you will suffice your audience, the stronger their trust will grow in you.

Be ready to tackle tough questions

Always be confident and logical at answering the questions from the audience. There will always be questions whose responses if given without solid facts and coherence, will put your image down in your crowd’s eyes. If you know your topic as well as you’re your audience, then always keep your business binary clean and do not ever shelve any question from the audience.

KEEP YOUR OWN QUESTIONS READY IF NOBODY ASKS YOU ANY

It could be a possibility that your audience is shy or somewhat hesitant to ask you questions about your presentations. Always remember, if you face this kind of a situation, then always compose a question to yourself because ‘zero curiosity’ turns into ‘zero interest’ overnight.

Take your crowd on a final journey

Always take your crowd on a final journey before you wrap up the presentation. Highlight all the important points and tell the crowd how they will be productive if given proper attention by the appropriate crowd.

Keeping the immense support in mind which we get from the PowerPoint presentations, one should also be able to support her/himself equally well during the closing moments of the presentation because humans invented the PowerPoint and not vice versa.