Seven ways to captivate a corporate audience

You may find yourself given the opportunity to make a presentation or speak at a forum that could either catapult your career or kill it. Here are seven ways to take advantage of this kind of exposure and maximise your chances of success:

1. Involve your audience: Listeners want to be engaged, not bored. Give them a reason to sit through your presentation. Throw out the old rule of starting with a joke; bad idea if you’re not Chris Rock. Injecting a humorous aside is perfectly acceptable, but throwing out such an aside is a lot different than starting with, “Two guys walk into a bar ...”. Instead, start by asking a question. It brings your listeners into the discussion, and sets an informal, but positive tone. Another technique used by master presenters is to refer to one or two people in the audience by name.