What are some engaging techniques to improve speaker delivery?

1 Use storytelling techniques

One of the most powerful ways to connect with your audience and make your presentation memorable is to use storytelling techniques. Stories can illustrate your points, evoke emotions, and create a narrative arc that keeps your audience interested and invested. You can encourage your speakers to use stories from their own experience, from relevant case studies, or from historical or fictional sources, as long as they are relevant and credible. You can also help your speakers structure their presentation as a story, with a clear beginning, middle, and end, and a central theme or message.

2 Practice and rehearse

No matter how experienced or confident your speakers are, they can always benefit from practicing and rehearsing their presentation before the conference. Practicing can help them refine their content, timing, and delivery, as well as identify and eliminate any errors, glitches, or distractions. Rehearsing can also help them familiarize themselves with the venue, the equipment, and the audience, and anticipate any potential challenges or questions. You can offer your speakers feedback, coaching, or mentoring, as well as provide them with opportunities to practice and rehearse in front of a small group or a mock audience.

3 Use visual aids wisely

Visual aids can be a great tool to enhance your speaker delivery, as they can help you illustrate, explain, or emphasize your points, as well as engage your audience visually and cognitively. However, if they are poorly designed, overloaded, or irrelevant, they can become a distraction or a crutch. You can advise your speakers to use visual aids wisely by following some basic principles. For instance, only use visual aids when they add value or clarity to the presentation instead of substituting the content or delivery. Additionally, choose visual aids that are appropriate for the topic, audience, and format such as slides, charts, graphs, images, videos or props. Moreover, design visual aids that are simple, clear and consistent with fonts, colors and layouts that are easy to read and understand. Lastly, align visual aids with your verbal delivery by referring to them and explaining them while highlighting the key points or messages.

4 Engage with your audience

Engaging with your audience is a key component of speaker delivery, and you can help your speakers do this by suggesting techniques such as adapting the presentation to the audience’s needs and preferences, using nonverbal communication to show confidence and emotion, varying the tone with voice modulation and pauses, and inviting feedback or participation from the audience. Additionally, anecdotes, jokes, quotes, or references can be used to create a personal connection with the audience and create a positive atmosphere.

5 Handle Q&A sessions effectively

Handling Q&A sessions can be one of the most challenging parts of speaker delivery, as your speakers may be exposed to unexpected or difficult questions, comments, or criticisms. To help your speakers handle Q&A sessions effectively, you can recommend some tips such as planning and anticipating possible questions, and preparing answers or responses in advance. Additionally, it is important to invite and encourage questions from the audience, listen attentively and respectfully to the questions, answer them clearly and concisely, and provide evidence or examples if possible. If the speaker does not know the answer to a question, they should admit it honestly and offer to follow up later or refer to another source. Lastly, if a hostile or irrelevant question is asked, it should be handled politely and professionally without getting defensive or argumentative.

6 Seek feedback and improvement

In order to improve your speaker delivery, it is essential to seek feedback and improvement. You can evaluate your performance and identify strengths and weaknesses by using self-assessment tools such as checklists or rubrics. Additionally, peer assessment tools like feedback forms or ratings can provide insight from other speakers, organizers, or experts. Audience assessment tools like surveys or polls can be used to measure the audience's satisfaction and engagement. Additionally, video recording or live streaming can help observe and improve verbal and nonverbal communication skills. By employing these methods, you can provide your speakers with feedback and improvement opportunities.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?