Holding your audience’s attention during a presentation

As a presentation coach, I used to get asked this question more than any other, and as an event host I still hear it: how do you hold a room’s attention? My answer is always the same. You can’t. You don’t hold attention, you have to keep earning it. A room gives you a few minutes’ credit, then each listener decides for themselves whether to stay.

The opening and closing matter most

People remember best what they hear first and last. Psychology calls this the primacy and recency effect. Yet at many events I see those two moments wasted. The speaker opens with the Wi-Fi code, the agenda and a lengthy round of introductions, then closes with “I’ll leave it there”.

So put your key message at the start and repeat it at the end. Housekeeping announcements can go somewhere in the middle, or you can leave them to the event host.

Not everyone listens in the same way

There are many theories about how people learn, from Kolb’s learning cycle to Gardner’s multiple intelligences. You don’t need to know them to give a good presentation. What I take from them is simple: different listeners take in information in different ways. That’s why I consciously switch between four formats.

• Doing. The audience gets moving or makes a choice. Stand up or stay seated in response to a statement, or vote live on your smartphone.
• Watching and listening. A story, an image or a short video.
• Together. Talk to the person next to you for two minutes. Name three projects together where you could use this tomorrow.
• On your own. Take a quiet moment and write down what you think was the most important message of the past quarter of an hour.

The common mistake: talking at people

Nine out of ten speakers deliver their entire talk in the watching-and-listening format. They talk at the audience from the first minute to the last. A good speaker can get away with that for a while, but even their audience’s attention will dip at some point. That’s not the audience’s fault. People can only keep taking in information for so long.

A brief switch to another format brings people out of sponge mode. They process what they’ve just heard, and then there’s room for something new. So you don’t lose time, you get the second half of your talk back.

How to do it

1. Write down your key message in one sentence. If you can’t, your talk isn’t ready yet.
2. Put that sentence in your first and last minute.
3. Divide the rest into sections of no more than ten to fifteen minutes.
4. Choose a different format for each transition: a question to the room, a chat with the person next to you, a quiet moment.
5. Afterwards, be honest about where you filled time without adding anything, and cut those parts.

Dare to do things differently

I understand that this can feel daunting. Asking the room a question, getting people to talk to each other or asking them to stand up can feel like sticking your head above the parapet. What if nobody responds? My experience after years on stage is that audiences are almost always grateful. People would rather be in a room where something is happening than one where they have to wait an hour for the break.

What this means for the organiser

As an organiser, you can do a lot before anyone steps on stage. Ask speakers in advance how they plan to involve the room. Don’t schedule four forty-five-minute speakers back to back without a change of pace. A good event host keeps an eye on the rhythm throughout the day and ensures there’s variety between speakers. If you’re unsure which role you need, read the difference between an event host, moderator, debate chair and presenter.

For those who aren’t well known yet

A well-known speaker often gets a little more credit from the room, because people came to hear them. As a lesser-known speaker, you don’t have that. That’s your opportunity. A client remembers the speaker who kept the room alert, not the speaker with the prettiest slides.

Don’t take more time than you need

The most important tip has nothing to do with presentation formats. Many speakers want to fill all the time they’ve been given. That almost always makes for a weaker talk. Choose one key message, deliver it as well as you can, then stop. No one has ever held it against a speaker for finishing five minutes early.