15 Effective Ways to Prepare For Public Speaking Events

15 Effective Ways to Prepare For Public Speaking Events

This post provides exhaustive information to help you learn how to effectively prepare for a public speaking event.

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Preparation matters in all we do in life. It is the major determinant of what happens with us and to us.

Nothing will ever take the place of preparation in any field of life. So it is necessary and something that cannot be done without no matter the level you have attained in life.

One aspect of life that requires your absolute preparation is public speaking events.

Humans are very sensitive and can be funny if you are not prepared for them, hence the need to prepare before you meet them.

Preparation keeps you in good shape mentally for your public speaking events.

How to Prepare For a Public Speaking Event

Prepare for your next public speaking event with these ideas:

1. Practice
2. Set your goal
3. Start with a question or story
4. Know your audience
5. Plan your movement
6. Work on your body language
7. Deal with the pressure
8. Play to your strengths
9. Know your stuff
10. Look good
11. Practice how to deal with distractions
12. Study the environment
13. Test your working tools
14. Attend trainings
15. Practice eye contact.

1. Practice

Planning to go for a public speaking event without adequate preparation is a good recipe for bad presentation.

Preparation is not possible outside practice. In fact, regular conscious practice is what shows how serious you take your job.

For a public speaker who wants to stay top of his/her game, regular practice should not be a surprise advice to you.

You have to practice from the things you know to the things you intend knowing.

With practice you can perfect what you know how to do and gain more capacities with things you are not too familiar with.

There are lots to practice in public speaking. Factors that make successful public presentations like pitch, pace, body movements and body language are some of the things you should work on during your practice sessions.

2. Set your goal

Setting your goals right is one of the things you should never fail to do as a public speaker.

You should know where your presentation is heading to and what you are expected to achieve during your presentation.

This will guide you into what should be contained in your notes.

One of the ways to set your goals is to write your goals on a book or paper and channel your effort in trying to accomplish those goals.

If you have more than one goal, it means you have to divide the presentation into different segments that can help you cover those goals within the shortest possible time.

Some goals may require more time to handle than others. As a public speaker, this should help you know how to allot time to different points in your presentation. You don’t need to dwell long on some not-too-relevant points.

3. Start with a question or story

The first skill you should have as a public speaker is a good start to your presentation.

How you start your presentation is very important as it will decide how your audience will behave during the course of the presentation.

To start your presentation well, start with a question or better still start with a story.

This will give you the opportunity to capture the attention of the audience effortlessly.

Remember that people love hearing stories no matter how sad or happy the ending is.

From the story or question you start with, you can draw your references and that will give the audience a practical instance of what you are talking about.

The truth is that when you tell a story at the beginning of your presentation, you have driven home about 50% of your points without knowing it.

4. Know your audience

One of the reasons why one may fail in public speaking is when not knowing the type of audience been addressed.

This is why you need to do your research about the kind of audience you will be addressing before the public speaking events.

One thing to note about your audience should be their age bracket.

A 15 year old seldom reasons like a 30 year old. This applies even in some learning process. When you know the average age of the audience that will influence how you will do your presentation.

Also, another thing to note is the cultural background of your audience.

Cultural and educational backgrounds are very important when addressing a group of people.

You may not know their educational background but make effort to know the cultural background of the majority of your audience.

5. Plan your movement

Animation is one of the factors that can help capture the attention of the audience. When you move, it helps the audience pick interest in what you are doing.

However, you must plan your movement, not necessarily to be stereotyped, but to be in alignment with your general body language.

Purposeful movement on the stage keeps the whole public presentation interesting.

Make use of the entire stage. Sometimes, observe the sitting arrangement and that will help you plan your movement.

Don’t make movements that will make you lose eye contact with the audience. Maintain eye contact with the audience and know if they are following.

6. Work on your body language

Movement on the stage will be meaningless without a corresponding body language.

Your body language is more important than your movement on the stage, take note of this fact.

Your body language speaks volume when you are talking. It is what will tell about your confidence level.

When there is a speech without a corresponding body language, the audience will assume that you were not prepared for the speaking event or that you lack confidence in yourself.

So, in your practice, especially when practicing in front of a mirror and your friends, take note of your body language, and also get feedback from your friends or coach about your body language.

They should be able to tell you how good or bad your body language is.

7. Deal with the pressure

Pressure comes basically when you are new to public speaking but pressure can still surface when you face an unpredicted situation during your public speaking event.

The most important thing is not the pressure but how you deal with it.

To deal with pressure in public speaking events is to get around diverse and adverse situations you can find yourself in during your performance.

As you know, you cannot predict the outcome of public presentations simply because audiences are different.

One of the ways you can effectively handle pressure during public speaking events is to prepare for possible challenges and best ways to handle them.

When you are preparing for the job, assume all possible issues that may pop up and their possible remedies. If it is a mistake you made during your performance, get around it by making a little joke about it while making the corrections.

8. Play to your strengths

Take cognizance of your strength and build your presentation around your strengths. This will help you get the possible best out of yourself.

This is not in any way going to discourage you from trying new things.

It is not ideal to use a method you have not perfected. It will make you struggle a lot during your presentation.

So, as much as you will like to do your thing differently, also understand that the stage may not be the best place to do your experiment.

Know your strength and don’t try hard to copy another person. You can draw inspiration from other public speakers but understand that what made them stand out is because they are employing their strengths. This should be your case too.

9. Know your stuff

This is one of the most important factors that can decide your failure or success in public speaking events.

Knowing your stuff in the sense that you need to know what you are doing.

You need to know the topic you are asked to talk on before you can proceed to talking about it.

Apart from the basic knowledge you can have about the topic of discussion that you are given, it will be a good idea if you make more researches on the same topic and get the best ideas you can get as far as that topic is concerned.

Adding more knowledge to what you know will definitely shoot up your confidence and make you speak like a pro.

Nothing kills your confidence as a public speaker than when you don’t have in-depth knowledge of what you are talking about.

10. Look good

Your dressing is one of the eye-catching things that your audience will notice about you when you mount up the stage to talk.

In public speaking events, put on your corporate wears. If you are a male presenter, put on your suit, knot your tie well and ensure that the tip of your tie toes your belt region. Let the color of your belt match your footwear and also ensure that your socks are not too short to cover your legs. You need to dress well and look good, it makes you look appealing.

11. Practice how to deal with distractions

Some people tend to run out of ideas when they are distracted on stage. Distractions is one of the uncertainties you may likely encounter when you are on the stage.

You don’t know where it will come from and how long it will last.

So, what do you do when distractions come or happen? Keep doing your thing.

In situations where you cannot control the distractions, then don’t let it throw you off balance.

You can only stop if it is utterly necessary by reason of the situation at hand.

If you have issues dealing with distractions, then you might need a coach to help you out.

The coach will create real life distractions and watch how you react to them and from there he/she can help you deal with your distractions.

12. Study the environment

The environment plays a key role in the kind of atmosphere you will witness during your presentation.

You have to study the environment where the event has been scheduled to take place and know what to expect.

This will help you in planning effectively. If the environment is a noisy one, then you have a lot of work to do to curtail the noise and have the attention of the audience.

It can also decide the tone you should use in your presentation.

Another thing you check is the sitting arrangement. The sitting arrangement of the audience could determine that nature of your movements and how best to connect with them.

Remember that you don’t lose eye contact with the audience.

13. Test your working tools

This is also very important for your public speaking events. Your working tools are unequivocally important to your experience in the public speaking events.

Artists tend to arrive days before the day of performance to practice with the tools or equipment to ensure that they are in perfect working condition.

As a public speaker, it will not be a bad idea for you to get to the venue of your presentation early to ensure that your working tools are in good shape, especially if the tools you are working with are not yours.

Example is the mic. If the microphone is not in good condition, you will strain your voice trying to make the audience hear you.

So, don’t assume, just ensure that your tools are ok. Your notes should be well arranged and your points lined up according to what your aims are in the presentation.

This will help you reduce the occurrence of uncertainties during your performance in the event.

14. Attend trainings

Improvement is a must in public speaking. Whatever level you find yourself in the field of public speaking, there is always room for improvement.

By attending trainings is one of the most potent ways of getting yourself prepared and up to speed in your public speaking career.

Times keep changing and the way things are tend to agree with this. Maybe the type of public speaking skills you have are the ones effectively only in the 90s, you need to upgrade to what is obtainable in the present age.

Not upgrading yourself is a sure way of going into extinction or becoming irrelevant in your industry with time.

This is a general principle for staying relevant in whatever you do. So, if you want to become a better public speaker, then keep upgrading yourself.

15. Practice eye contact

One of the ways you can establish a connection with the audience is through eye contact.

Maintaining eye contact with your audience is a sure way of making the communication come alive both in you and in the minds of the audience.

You need not be scared of the faces of the people you see when addressing your audience.

They are there to hear you and you are there to speak to them so you have no reason not to maintain eye contact with them.

Maintaining eye contact with your audience is a show of confidence. It is important that you show your audience that you are confident in what you are doing and you can defend whatever you say. This is not arrogance nor pride but confidence.

Conclusion

You cannot succeed beyond your level of preparation. It is important to note that talent is important but not as important as your preparation. This is because when talent and preparation compete, preparation is bound to come out on top.

If you are preparing for a public speaking event, you can use the ideas discussed on this page to prepare effectively.