How To Address the Needs of a Diverse Audience That Has Different Levels of Expertise, Skill and Interest in Your Topic

When presenting at a recent IT conference, there were many individuals in my session who were very focused on finding tools and techniques to design and deliver presentations to an audience with different levels of expertise, skill and interest in their topic. Essentially, what can a speaker do to engage, and create interaction with this very diverse audience?

Here are three specific questions that came up on this topic several times, by several people, within several different companies — and my answer below!

1. When I'm presenting a technical topic to a mixed audience (subject matter experts & laypeople), how should I provide briefing/context without boring – or losing the attention of – the experts? 
2. How do I structure my presentation when you have diverse stakeholders attending to make it relevant to all? 
3. When delivering IT presentations, it can be difficult to judge my audience’s level of experience or comfort with technology. How can I address everyone’s needs, also ensuring that I'm not boring the more advanced individuals, but also accommodating those that need more assistance? Are there general statements that I can use during a presentation to better judge the relevance of the information I am sharing?

Answer:

To understand what each segment of your audience might need to hear, it’s important to establish the objective of your meeting. In other words, you must first ask yourself, "what do I want my audience to learn, feel and do as a result of hearing my presentation?" For example:

• Are you there to educate them (i.e. learn) of concepts or update them on the project?
• Inspire them to feel more connected, empowered, or excited by the project – or alternatively, do you need them to feel like they need to do more for the project, or that it’s in peril?
• What actions do you want to persuade them to take, to move to the next level of the communication, project or pitch?

Does your audience feel “seen?”

Once you have established how – and about what – you are going to educate, inspire and persuade your audience, then you would want to address the different experience levels of your audience right at the start of your presentation. This accomplishes 3 things:

1. It makes all members of your audience feel “seen.”
2. It will acknowledge that you have done your research in terms of knowing who is in your audience
3. It will alleviate any pre-judgements that they may have made in terms of how your presentation will speak to their skill level.

For example, something to the effect of “For those who have been part of this project before, there are some new people here that we just have to bring up to speed. So after I quickly update them on the important points of this project, we’ll all be on the same page and we’ll be able move forward more effectively.”

Or….

“Understanding that everyone here has different levels of experience with technology with this project, I’ll bring us all up to speed and get us on the same page, so that we can all move forward together.”

Focus Focus Focus! 

Be as focused as possible in your meeting. Don’t spend too long explaining or re-explaining concepts that the experts or repeat audience members have been heard before. Remember that your job is to address the WHOLE audience – not just the experts, and not just the laypeople – so you’ll need to provide enough information to get everyone on the same page, and then move forward from there.

If there are those who are not following because of the complexity of your topic, give them the "need to know" information that will allow them to participate in the meeting, and then offer to spend a little time with them after the meeting filling in the blanks and explaining the concepts that they need to understand more deeply.

(Need some clarify on how to focus your presentation? Check out How To Find Your Focus As a Speaker (video) for some added tips).

What’s the end point? 

Finally, you would need to establish what the end point is for your meeting. What needs to be communicated/accomplished/moved forward? Establish that for yourself and share that with your audience as well. That way, everyone will better understand the purpose of the meeting, and they will appreciate that you have done the preparation required so as to not waste their time. As a result, they'll be much more likely to stay engaged throughout your time with them.

Have you got a public speaking question? Email me and I’ll answer it in a post! 

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ABOUT SUZANNAH

A presentation skills specialist, executive speech coach and speaker, Suzannah helps people who want to position themselves as leaders through more engaging, compelling presentations.

Through training programs, workshops, executive speech coaching, online learning and keynote presentations, Suzannah works with organizations and individuals to create and deliver impactful, audience-centric presentations that get results -- and look like a superstar in the process.

To find out more about how I can help you, CLICK HERE or send me a message or personalized connection request. For more tips and insights on Public Speaking, Presentation Skills, and Leadership Communication, just click the 'follow' button at the top of this page. Feel free to check out my other articles here.

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