Are Speakers Ready For The Arrival Of New Technologies?

Will we be able to use new technologies to make more of an impact?
Will we be able to use new technologies to make more of an impact?
Image Credit: 1Day Review

As speakers we need to understand the importance of public speaking and that that we are living in a constantly changing world. What this means is that how we used to give speeches is now changing and that means that we need to learn how to change with the times. A good example of what is going on now is that more speakers are using iPads and tablets to make presentations to audiences. Are you going to be ready to do this?


The Use Of Tablets When Making A Presentation

What is happening is that the traditional presentation that most of us are used to giving is undergoing a transformation. Now what is happening is that presenters are starting to use their iPads and templates to deliver what are being called “nonlinear conversations”. What we are delivering is also changing. New technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality as well as 3D additions to Microsoft’s PowerPoint tool now give us new dimensions to add to our presentations.

One significant change in how we are being asked to deliver presentations is the arrival of the online presentation. This is requiring us to come up to speed on evolving webinar technologies as well as developing online speaking skills. We are being asked to develop new speaking skills. Going forward we are going to be expected to be able to keep our remote audiences engaged in our presentations using only our voice and our slides which will be viewed on the audience’s mobile devices.

Speakers need to understand that the types of speeches that we will be called on to deliver in the future will be different from the ones that we have given in the past. There is a growing use of audience member’s mobile devices in order to allow conversations to occur instead of having us deliver a traditional presentation. What’s happening is that our audiences now want to have a two-way conversation with us. This is especially true in smaller settings. The arrival of tablets has made this possible because now we can show our slideware in small groups. The focus will now be on the back-and-forth discussion, answering questions, and interactivity. These are things that we were never able to have in our formal presentations.


How This Changes Everything

These types of presentations that are now being called for can be used to make intimate sales pitches or to make a presentation to colleagues. In this type of speaking situation, you may have as few as five people in your audience and you’ll be sitting with them and using a tablet to show them your slides. In many cases, you’ll be passing the tablet around. What speakers are discovering is that audiences are appreciating these structured, but informal dialogues.

As a speaker, what is going to become very important is that you are going to have to take the time to understand your audience’s expectations. What you need to realize is that if you hand a tablet to someone during a presentation, there is a good chance that they will be expecting to interact with it. This can cause a disconnect. This will occur if a presenter puts their slides together in the traditional way when they will be presenting the information on a tablet. This is the type of a situation where the speaker is going to have to start to think “outside of the box”.

What speakers are going to have to start doing is to design their slides to support a nonlinear conversation with their audience. What this means is that we are going to have to start to avoid committing to presenting our slides in a particular sequence. The result of this is that we are will have to be able to move from topic to topic more easily based on what our audience really wants to hear. When we are designing our slides to be shown on tablets we are going to want to keep them simple. Keep in mind when it comes to a tablet presentation, less is often more. We’ll want to use few bullet points and unclutter slides while at the same time avoiding flashy graphics.


What All Of This Means For You

The times they are a changing. As speakers we need to understand that the needs of our audience are changing even as new technologies become available to us. Tablets are starting to become an important part of our presentations and we need to learn how to adjust in order to deliver the benefits of public speaking.

Presenters are now being called on to hold nonlinear conversations with their audiences. Online presentations are requiring that we develop online speaking skills and stay current with evolving webinar technologies. The speeches that we’ll be giving in the future will be different from the ones that we give today. Our audience wants to have a two-way conversation with us. You may find yourself speaking to a small intimate group and passing a tablet around. Presenters are going to have to understand that when they pass a tablet around, they are going to have to meet their audience’s expectations. We are going to have to start to design presentations that are simpler in order to meet the needs of our audience.

It is the goal of every speaker to be able to connect with their audience. In order to make this happen, we need to make sure that we are keeping up with the trends in technology. The arrival of tablets and our customer’s changing desires for how they want to have information presented to them means that we need to make changes. We understand what our goals are, now we need to adjust how we make presentations in order to better fit the technology of the world in which we live. Understand what your audience wants and then adjust your presentation to meet their needs.


– Dr. Jim Anderson Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™


Question For You: Do you think that passing a tablet around during a presentation would be too distracting?


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Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Welcome to our modern world where everything seems to be changing all the time! Back in the old days, we used to be able to show up at an event that consisted of a room filled with an audience. We’d take the stage, deliver a speech, interact with our audience, and then go home and feel as though we’d been able to deliver on the importance of public speaking. Well, things have changed. In our modern age there is a very good chance that the next speech that you are going to be asked to give will be a remote presentation that consists of you sitting in front of a computer or a video camera and your audience sitting far, far away in front of their computers. What will you have to do to prepare for this new type of presentation?