Boring presentations

photo of bored people Reading the audience – Are you sending them to sleep?

Presentation training has a lot to answer for. To help you overcome nerves, they teach you to focus on one person in the room who is smiling at you. The problem is that this can lull you in to a sense of false security. You may just have missed the fact that you are sending them all to sleep.

Here are the twelve telltale signs that the audience is not listening.
They;

start to look down
touch or rub their face, hands or hair
eyes glaze over and look at the screen (this is easy to mistake as sitting listening intently)
fidget
yawn (often with a hand covering their mouth)
flick through their notes of the conference catalogue
make copious notes or jot down things they have forgotten to do (this can be mistaken for jotting down key points)
sigh heavily
lie back in their chair and cross their arms
scan across the room
whisper to each other quietly
tap their feet

photo of bored people

Please note that out of politeness the audience may clap at the end of your speech (although not for long) and if you see people afterwards they may say well done.

How to spot if the audience is listening

On the other hand if they like what you are saying the audience will;