Get ready to fearlessly step on stage in front of a large audience.
The better part of a million dollars was on the line. Every year the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge in Amsterdam gives away 500,000 Euros for the best idea for a green product or service. In 2008, Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre presented their alternative to synthetic building materials.
"In terms of a high pressure talk, that was probably the hardest in my memory," Bayer says. He practiced the talk out loud in front of his computer, making changes to his slides as he went. In the end the talk was a success. Bayer's team won the coveted check.
Since then, Bayer has become CEO of Ecovative Design, a company he co-founded that makes green packaging materials derived from fungi near Troy, New York. He's been invited to give many more speeches, including at the annual Pop!Tech conference in Camden, Maine, and the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference in Oxford, England.
With self-directed, local "TEDx" talks taking off, more communities will be inviting local innovators to speak. Presenting at this kind of event is an opportunity to capture the energy of a packed auditorium and translate it into a boon for business.
Those preparing for this kind of talk have heard "practice, practice, practice" and "less is more," but there are still speakers who make audience members fight to stay awake. With that in mind, experienced presenters offer these key steps for rallying a large, influential audience of peers around a central idea.
1. Be Your Passionate Self
Audiences are perceptive. They can even sense enthusiasm from back in the nosebleed seats. "Even if you're reading off the slide but you're really excited about it, the audience will give it to you," Bayer says.
Nan Crawford is an executive coach based in the San Francisco Bay Area who primarily works with female leaders on their presentation skills. Crawford coached Elayne Doughty, a psychotherapist who was raising money to go to the Congo and participate in the international V-Day movement to end violence against women and girls. Doughty expected she would need to do several events to raise enough money for the trip, according to Crawford.
"I coached Elayne on her stories," she says. Crawford drew out what had grabbed Doughty about the cause, asking her when and how it had captured her attention. She also framed fundraising as an opportunity to shift away from fear and invite others to invest in a solution.
"She gave an impassioned presentation," Crawford says. At the end of the first event, Doughty surpassed her fundraising goal by 25 percent.
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2. Tell a Helpful Story
Speakers are usually advised to try to know their audiences. Taken a step further, Crawford suggests that speakers make sure they understand not only who is in the audience, but also the challenges the audience faces. Then, the talk should address those challenges with a personal and powerful story that resonates.
Daniel Pink, author of the books A Whole New Mind and Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, is a former speechwriter for Al Gore. He says he's seen the opposite happen too many times. "The biggest mistake is people think it's about them rather than about the audience," he says. "They spend too much time talking about themselves."
Instead, an effective presenter will focus on the challenges without giving a laundry list of accomplishments. Anthropologist, filmmaker, and National Geographic explorer Elizabeth Lindsey is frequently invited to speak about leadership through an anthropological lens. "The more we talk about the things that matter to us, and less about our achievements, people breathe a collective sigh of relief," she says. "All of us want to be better. Human nature is always seeking advancement."
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3. Use Fewer Words Than Usual
Less really is more when it comes to big talks. But putting that into practice is far easier said than done. Giving a talk is an opportunity to amplify your message in a way that books and articles can't. Being a different outlet, it has different requirements.
"If all you have for me is information, invite me to buy your book," Crawford says. "But when we stand in front of an audience we have an opportunity to share not just our information but our energy."
For Bayer, seeing how slowly he can give his talk helps him communicate better. "Typically what feels best to the communicator is to give as much information as possible," he says. "But what you really want to do is tell them the idea in a simple way three times or more. If you blast them with detail they get this mushy feeling in their heads."
Pink emphasizes that speaking is a relatively small window, and the audience has a limited attention span. "It's far easier to make seven small points than one big point," he says. "You have to think to yourself, what do you want to leave people with, what do you want them thinking, and what do you want them doing?"
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4. Engage the Audience Early
Don't wait for a Q&A at the end to go for audience participation. Start right away, Crawford says. Ask questions so that audience members can stand up instead of raising their hands. Invite them to take a minute, turn to a neighbor, and share a thought. Ask one person to describe theirs.
