Grabbing Your Audience's Attention

I was recently attending a presentation, but unfortunately, the speaker was just not engaging me. It was a topic I was excited to hear more about, but the slides and the tone of the speaker were not grabbing my attention at all. In fact, people on either side of me in the auditorium took a little nap.?

It was frustrating for me, because it seemed like such a missed opportunity. That is what I thought about as I sat there and was waiting for the speaker to wrap up their talk. Unfortunately, I was not engaging with the content at all. I couldn't tell you what the speaker had said and the manner of the speaker’s delivery made the content seem not all that important.?

As a Speaker How Do You Grab Your Audience’s Attention?

Our audience’s time and attention is at a premium. At speaking engagements, where does your storytelling come into play? How can we be mindful of people's time, their attention, and their limited attention span? These days, I think that easy access to distractions through our mobile devices and the constant flow of information really causes us to be a less forgiving audience and be a little less patient with speakers who aren’t grabbing our attention.?

Tips and Tricks to Get Attention

I'm reaching out to you for tips and tricks on things you have done to keep your audience's attention. Have you made PowerPoints that had less text on them?? Perhaps you've included more photographs or you've asked audience questions to get them to ponder and otherwise engage with the content.?

Please share your tips and tricks in the comments, I'd love to hear.