If you want some good presenting tips and you are keen to develop public speaking skills then you can learn a great deal from your audience who represent a gold mine of information that will help you to deliver a great presentation or speech. Why? Quite simply because they are the whole reason for your being there in the first place and the they are the purpose for your presentation which is all about focusing upon their needs and what you intend to gain from them as a result of your efforts. So here are some public speaking tips that centre around the audience.

If you don't strike oil within the first 3 minutes, STOP BORING!

The concentration span of your audience will amaze you. Most people these days have the concentration span of a rock, however it will of course vary from person to person and audience to audience.

One thing that you should always bear in mind thought is that the quality of your delivery will determine the quantity of content your audience can bear. You can make time fly or drag and both are within your power to manifest. I have heard some of the most amazing presentations and speeches around the most dry and tedious of subjects and I have seen speakers decimate interesting ones.

My most frequent presentation delivery comes from presenting training courses, which last for anything from one to seven days. During the course of any day the delegates will be required to concentrate for anything from ten minutes to 45 minutes, depending upon the content and how much theory they need to know. As a professional presenter I pride myself on my ability to keep my whole audience concentrating for sometimes longer than would be believed, but there is always someone somewhere who cannot concentrate beyond just a few minutes.

There are, however reasons for this and usually they are either because the person just should not have been on the course in the first place or they have overriding personal problems that they just cannot shut out of their mind.

To avoid boring your audience AND to make sure that you work within their concentration span is aware of the factors that can affect their attention:

• Their level of interest in the subject.

• Their opinion and feelings about the speaker.

• The urgency of their need to learn the subject.

• Their expectation or otherwise that the speaker will select them to answer questions.

• Their schedule and whether they have other priorities that distract them.

• Unresolved issues, personal or professional, that they cannot stop thinking about.

• The time of day. People tend to be less attentive after lunch and towards the late afternoon, especially on a Friday.

It is most common for an audience to be most attentive during the first ten minutes of any presentation. If you don't grab them then, you could lose some or all of them. After this time their attention tends to remain on a level, but often low, plateau until the end of the presentation. Good speakers and presenters know how to change this and get their audience motivated to listen and participate fully. Here are my TOP TIPS to achieve this:

• Change your position and you change their attention. Move around to 'keep their eye on the ball'.

• Use the visual aids AND especially the Flip Chart or Dry Wipe Board to gain their participation.

• Give them something to pass around, like a picture, sample, example etc

• Involve them by asking questions, and always wait for an answer. If it was a good, relevant and experience-based question there will always be an answer.

• Break their pattern of thinking by doing something unexpected. I use illusions and mind reading techniques that are in context with the subject. Once they have seen those they are riveted to their seats for a considerable amount of time after.

• Give them something to look forward to with suspended anticipation. It must be related to your talk, but I am sure that you will think of something. I use anticipation of discovering a secret. For example, "Of course this information can be used to literally hypnotise someone, and you can even use it to know if someone is attracted to you. If we have enough time at the end I will show you how." Always ensure that you do what you say you will.

• Get the audience to do something that involves them in changing their physiology - standing, turning, moving to another seat etc. Changing their physiology, changes their mental state.

• Get one person from the audience to do something like write on the flip chart, then get another to facilitate a discussion or debate etc. Only do this if you have the time and the control over the time.

• Be aware of the room temperature. Open the windows to get fresh air into the room. Too much heat will make your audience drowsy.

• Vary the volume and pitch of your voice. Speaking quietly can be used effectively to force your audience to concentrate on what is being said.

I have used all sorts of techniques over the years, including simply asking people to stand up and shake their arms, move their head from side to side and lift their shoulders up and down to get them alert and overcome everything from a hot room to the after effects of a heavy lunch and a glass of wine. I have used these techniques on a wide variety and size of audiences, including high-powered executives, and no one has ever had the slightest challenge with it. Remember that as the speaker YOU are not only in control by the very fact that you are being seen as the presenter, but people expect you to be in control. Whatever the circumstances it is your job AND your responsibility to get the most out of them. If you don't and you are not in control you will not achieve your aim and your presentation will not be remembered.

If you want to learn more about presenting or any one of the sixteen aspects of presenting and giving great speeches visit my website