No, that’s not a typo in the title. I’m talking about how you can move physically as a presenter to help move your audience emotionally and get your message across. This follows last week’s post Where To Stand When Giving A Presentation, which highlights the value of presenting from center stage (even if you don’t have an actual stage).
Once you’ve established your presence by standing center stage, you’re probably going to need to do something to keep the audience’s attention. In addition to making your content relevant and interesting for your audience, varying facial expressions, gestures, and voice all help. You can also move around the stage (or meeting room).
Have you seen those speakers who pace back and forth, hands in pockets, hardly making any eye contact with the audience? Not like that. Instead, move meaningfully. Three examples:
Move forward – When you take a step toward the audience, you look bigger and people naturally pay more attention. Moving forward is good when you want to make an important point – or wake people up!
Move sideways – Emphasize a transition in your topic or a different perspective by moving sideways. You can also illustrate a sequence, such as “This was what was happening in the past” followed by a side step and “This is where we are now” with another step and “This is where we’re heading.”
Move backward – Sometimes, you might move back from center stage to illustrate a point in your presentation, such as surprise or fear. But if you move back without purpose, the audience may interpret that as your fear of presenting (even if you are scared or nervous, it’s best to avoid showing it).
Remember to keep coming back to center stage, standing tall and looking confident. Center stage is a great place to conclude your presentation.
These kinds of movements help you to engage and move your audience emotionally so that your presentation has more impact.
As Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
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