How can you meet audience expectations and preferences as a conference speaker?

2 Adapt your content to your audience

Once you have an audience profile, you can use it to guide your content development. Crafting a presentation that is clear, concise, and compelling for your audience is essential. You should select a topic and main message that aligns with their goals and interests. Additionally, select key points and supporting evidence that are most relevant and persuasive for them. Examples, stories, analogies, or metaphors that resonate with their background and experience can help increase attention, comprehension, and retention. Furthermore, use language and terminology suitable and understandable for their level of expertise. Avoid using jargon, acronyms, or technical terms that may confuse or alienate them. By adapting your content to your audience, you can ensure they get the most out of your presentation.

3 Engage your audience during your presentation

Even if you have prepared a great presentation, you still need to deliver it in a way that captures and maintains your audience's interest and involvement. To engage your audience, start with a hook that grabs their attention and curiosity. Additionally, use vocal variety, gestures, eye contact, and movement to express your enthusiasm. Visual aids such as slides, charts, graphs, or images can support your content and appeal to different learning styles. Involve your audience by asking questions, soliciting feedback, conducting polls, or facilitating discussions. Finally, humor, anecdotes, or emotions can help you connect with your audience on a personal level. By engaging your audience during your presentation, you can increase their participation, enjoyment, and recall of your presentation.

4 Solicit feedback from your audience after your presentation

Gathering feedback from your audience after a conference presentation is an effective way to improve your speaking skills and meet their expectations. You can distribute evaluation forms or surveys, monitor social media for reviews, ask a colleague, friend, or mentor for constructive criticism, review the recording or transcript of your presentation, and reflect on your own experience. By doing so, you can learn from your mistakes, celebrate successes, and identify areas for improvement.

5 Apply feedback to your future presentations

The final step to meeting your audience's expectations and preferences as a conference speaker is to apply the feedback you have received to your future presentations. You can use the feedback to reinforce the aspects of your presentation that worked well and modify those that did not. Additionally, you can experiment with new ideas or techniques that may enhance your presentation or address your audience's needs or interests. Furthermore, it is beneficial to seek further guidance or training on areas of your presentation that need improvement or development, and track your progress and measure your results over time. Ultimately, by applying feedback to your future presentations, you can continuously improve your conference speaking skills and deliver presentations that meet or exceed your audience's expectations and preferences.

6 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?