Here's how you can enhance your public speaking skills for live event hosting.

No soliciting! The audience of a live event is not travelling long distances and paying lots of euros of dollars to get a hard sales talk, a product pitch, or a promotional speech for your company. Just imagine yourself spending a night at an expensive hotel, when a sales rep, a Jehovah’s witness, or a Mormon missionary knocks on your door to bring you his gospel… Talk about your audience’s daily problems, and the questions about the – your! – solutions will follow.

Key to success: know your audience’s language: culture, idioms, vocabulary, favorite images, gestures, spiritual standards, conscience convictions, and relational touch points.

Be prepared to read facial expression and body language so as to determine the level at which your message is being received and/or registering as both heard and being committed to memory.

You need to have a balance here. The wrong kind of practice will kill your delivery. Practice is about having the right knowledge in your head, not learning a script. Here's what you need to have in your head: • Know the topic you're talking about. Broadly enough so that you can handle answers that go beyond the content of your talk. • Know your audience, their industry and their needs. Your talk should deliver on this information. • Know what points to make on each slide. • Know what slide comes next. • Know the first minute of your talk and the last 30 seconds. • Know what makes you the right person to talk about this - and make sure your audience knows it too. • Know that the audience wants you to succeed.

Satisfying your audience should be any speaker’s primary goal. Align your content upfront with the event organizers and/or the session chairperson. Avoid overlap with other presentations at the same conference. Tailor your talk to the audience’s specific knowledge, needs and expectations. Never stop intriguing, surprising, or provoking them.

As pessoas conectam-se com as pessoas através das histórias, especialmente aquelas que envolvam situações difíceis ou curiosas. Por isso que, de acordo com o tema e com o público envolvido, dar exemplos pessoais sobre o quê e o como foi enfrentado determinado problema (quando for o caso) no meio da narrativa principal ajuda não só a ilustrar os principais pontos, como também cativa a audiência acrescentanto leveza à palestra.

People will very often give you a list of things you should and shouldn't do when it comes to body language. That can be intimidating. Most of it can be fixed with an attitude shift rather than focusing on controlling your shakey right leg and fidgeting fingers. You need to be open and understand that you are giving something of value. You're trying to connect with people and give them the gift of knowledge. If you don't feel that your content is that valuable gift, ask other people (because you're too close to it). And maybe go back and add more value to your content if it's genuinely lacking. And remember that no audience in its right mind wants to live through the embarrassment of you failing onstage. They're all rooting for you.

Penguins can be cute, but they will never be good presenters! Their silly walks and low gestures would distract the audience and draw people’s eyes away from their face. If you watch for it, you may catch human presenters doing a clumsy imitation of penguins. Waddling nervously over the podium, their hands fluttering at their waist. So, always stand tall and keep your head up. Keep the “gesture zone” beside and in front of your upper body half. The bigger the audience, the bigger the gestures you should make. Walk with purpose. Be conscious of what you do with your hands. Use them to point to what’s interesting on the screen (instead of a nervously jumping laser pointer beam.) Never turn your back the audience.

In my experience, that feeling of anxiety is the same whether you are presenting to a small group like a board or a large audience. It really is all about preparation; having a set script and not straying from it. It also helps to throw in some light hearted anecdotes to lighten up the atmosphere. And if you stumble along the way, I believe that your own reaction to yourself is 100 times worse than how people perceive it. It’s like being a musician, just keep playing, 99% of the audience will not even notice.

Talking to people is what I do - it's just the number in the audience that varies. And I feel anxiety before every single talk. The best advice that I can give - and this is what works for me - is to recognise and remember that my audience is not only looking forward to my talk, they are also wishing me well. This buoys me up and allows me to tap into my subconscious for support. And it helps that I really like people. And talking!

Já fiz várias palestras e sempre fico nervoso/ansioso antes de entrar no palco - e, se você conversar com outro palestrantes bem mais famosos, verá que essa questão do nervosismo é bastante normal. O ponto principal, que faz toda a diferença e que traz segurança na hora H, é a preparação, pois quando ensaiamos bem a palestra e o assunto faz parte do nosso dia a dia, esse nervosismo inicial acaba indo embora conforme vamos falando. Por isso, de acordo com a minha experiência, quanto mais eu treino, mais rápido eu vou deixando de ficar nervoso tão logo comece a falar.

The number one thing is that it is not about you! As event host, it is your job to make the audience have the best time possible. To make the speakers appear to be even better than they are. To hide any issues that may be happening back stage and to maintain a wonderful energy throughout the event. Staying focussed on the audience and the original goals of the event will help with that. Once you start focussing on yourself, you are heading to troubled waters!

Becoming a successful public speaker starts with developing self-confidence and building a strong connection with your audience. Confidence grows through practice and positive self-belief, which helps in engaging and resonating with listeners. Building rapport with your audience is crucial, as it makes your message more relatable and impactful. Focus on topics where you have expertise and can provide valuable insights. Research thoroughly, organize your thoughts clearly, and anticipate potential questions. By delivering well-prepared content, you ensure that your speech is informative and adds value to your audience. Remember, the combination of confidence, connection, and preparation is essential for impactful public speaking.

Public events are often considered the “picks and shovels for the gold rush,” and conference facilitators often generate more revenue than participating (start-up) companies. IMHO this is one of the reasons for so many poor speakers appearing at events. Money makes the world go round. But, dear event organizers, try thinking of speaking and sponsoring as two mutually exclusive topics. There are many great speakers who aren’t able to sponsor a show. And, reciprocally, many of them may be eager to deliver a top-notch presentation without getting paid for their gig.