Technical presentations are fabulous examples of public speaking! Engineering and tech presenters are funny, concise, and engaging. Most of them can't wait to grab a microphone, fire up their succinct, well-designed PowerPoint slides and launch into an hour or two of riveting information transfer!

No?

Perhaps the experience is more like this: "Ho-hum. I'm going to a technical presentation. Wake me up when it's over. If there's anything I need to know from the over-packed slides and the dry list of data points, somebody let me know, okay? Otherwise, I'll be checking email in the back row."

What are people in the audience at your presentations thinking? Are they looking forward to an engaging, organized, clear, confident presentation they'll remember? Or are they expecting a flat, hesitant, wandering, drab presentation, one they'll have to work hard to pay attention to?

When technical presentations fall flat, it's often because the presenter isn't particularly aware of his (or her) audience. He's talking at them, not with them. He's got a stack of slides to get through and a list of points to cover. When that's done, he's done. Whether the audience gets it, remembers it, is transformed by it, or ready to take some kind of action, that's not the presenter's problem. He got to the last slide. He's done. He gets to sit down, leave the room, or make way for the next presentation.

If that sounds like a problem you've seen, or a problem you have, here are a couple of things you can do to be more effective in front of a group.

(Click HERE to read more.) 

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