The Engaging Presenter Part I

This guide is the result of hundreds of intensive training workshops, for thousands of people from many nations. The methods are universal, and suitable for meetings, presentations and formal speeches.

It includes: How to prepare to connect with any audience – no matter how challenging. How to prepare an introduction that builds rapport immediately. How to brainstorm to be persuasive. How to allow for likely audience questions, concerns and objections. How to connect and organise your ideas. How to prepare your audio-visual aids. How to prepare to deliver with high personal authority.

Preface

The audience, the audience, the audience

Good preparation is like assembling a bicycle. It needs both wheels if you expect to ride on it. Obvious.

So why do so many presenters produce the speech equivalent of a bicycle with a missing wheel?

Wheel number one is the message. Wheel number two is the audience. Much of your ability to connect message to audience will be in your manner and style on the day, but a great deal of it starts with your preparation. To get your second wheel on and pumped you’ll prepare to generate these thoughts in your audience:

This content is relevant to me

This presenter knows how I feel about the topic.

This guide shows how to assemble your bicycle with both wheels ready to roll.

Content

Foreword

Ask the right questions

Introduction to the five-step ‘city’ model for preparation

STEP 1 Write the city-view sentence

STEP 2 Brainstorm

STEP 3 Connect your ideas

STEP 4 Organise your ideas

STEP 5 Prepare your audio-visual aids

Expecting a difficult audience?

Putting it all together

Summary

In the hours before you speak

What now?

Bibliography