Look at your presentation as a piece of music
One of the ways to make sure your audience will stay tuned in is to regard your presentation as a piece of music. This of course is not a “stand alone” thing. The kind of “music” you use, should be related to your text, or it will not make sense at all. Therefore, you should really be connected to your text. The better you are connected to your text, the better your music will sound. What do I mean with this metaphor?
The whole time quick, energytic notes, long lines and high energy, would not entice the public. On the other hand, the whole time staccato, would also not be a great piece of music. Enduring loud music all the time, would be quite annoying. No pauses, in music, would defintely take the magic away.
What does this mean if you translate this to your presentation?
- Pauses are very important. So, see where you can fit pauses: after a package of information, an important question or statement.
- See where you can change tempo (telling about examples) or slow down, explaining a difficult concept, step by step or when pronouncing a word or sentence that is key.
- Or where you need to be staccato, at the end of a long piece of information. For instance: in short…. , to conclude or to summarize.
Another metaphor of the phenomenon is the programme DWDD. There is a lot of tempo and that also gives the show an energetic and enthousiastic feel (also how the host Mathijs talks). But, if this would be during the whole show, people would tune out. Therefore, between these high attention part, there are small portions of information that are more easy to take in, like a little film, bloopers, or a cartoon etecera. The secret of succes: variation! So, make a piece of music of your presentation or apply the DWDD variation to your presenation. So that people keep tuned in!