I speak with hundreds of conference speakers a year. In fact, I love doing it because it is great to learn what is being discussed around the world in a variety of industries, and it obviously helps those speaking to say what they say more effectively.
One thing that I constantly hear is how do I make sure that I am keeping people’s attention? This is a great question, however the nervousness behind it is always surprising. Keeping people’s attention is not something to worry about but something to strive for. Since more conferences are a combination of talks and presentations, there are two ways to keep attention:
- What’s in it for me? In presentations, speakers constantly do a great job of explaining what the information is but not what is in it, more me as the listener! I work with speakers constantly to determine what aspects of their presentation are essential to their listeners and then hone their presentation to focus on that value. If you do that, you will keep people’s attention.
- I don’t get anything out of this! Most talks are supposed to provide the listeners with thought leadership on important topics. Most talks discuss important topics but fall short of providing anything. What is important is that in each of these talks, someone must moderate or facilitate that conversation correctly, which means setting aside time after each segment of the talk to highlight important terms or ideas that should be remembered by the listeners.
If you are attending a conference and plan to present or give a talk, remember what is in it for me and how you can make sure your listeners get something out of it! This will make every conference you attend more engaging and memorable.
