Why as a successful Keynote Speaker would you want to involve your audiences?

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1 Audience Involvement a Bag of Tools for the Speaking Professional "I use many audience involvement methods". "I don't use any at all." "I think that today's audiences are looking and craving more involvement." "I think much of the audience techniques are hokey for speakers but maybe useful for trainers." These are samples of responses from highly successful speakers that were part of a group of 350+ out of 500 professional speakers polled on their use of Audience Involvement. Over 85% said they used some form of audience involvement. The other 14 to 15% responded that they weren t sure to only a few who said absolutely did not. Why as a successful Keynote Speaker would you want to involve your audiences? The quality of your openings, your closings, your stories, your visuals, your presentations are already excellent. These are why you are sought after by so many clients, year after year. As a professional, do you continually seek to advance your skills, improve your craft? Then audience involvement is another area for you to master. But you still ask why? Today s audiences, more than ever, are craving to be involved in some way, even with the finest speakers. Confucius tried to tell us nearly 2500 years ago as fellow NSA-ers giants as Bob Pike keep reminding us... Tell Me I will forget Show Me... I may remember Involve.Me... I will begin to learn and remember (plus I will remember you more) Probably you already do use some form of audience involvement. The stories you tell involve your audience. As the well-known professional storyteller and author on storytelling, Donald Davis says... when we tell a story there are as many stories being told in the room as there are people in the room. A well-told story becomes the individual audience member s own story or at least reminds them of a very similar story that has personal meaning, while you are telling it. The laughter from the jokes and anecdotes you use are also a form of simple audience involvement. While a joke or anecdote that involves members of the audience, as Robert Henry is noted for, involves them in the message so much more. Taking a favorite story and weaving

2 an audience member into it can increase the audience attention and retention greatly and partially spotlight them as well. A simple show of hands to gather information about the audience helps to involve them. As a professional you want to strive to continually more and more to become individually unique and specifically yourself. Instead of simply raising a hand once in awhile, you might have them stand up, raise a foot, wave a flag or some other relevant object. A customized action can greatly increase the value of your presentation and the recall of you and your message(s). One I use is to have the audience members each blow up balloons, tie them and then bounce them up in the air for a few moments and then hit their s up, while they stop hitting their own and begin helping to keep up everyone else s but their s. The increased energy and laughter in the room is tremendous, Afterward I ask them to share what the exercise could demonstrate about the point or points I am trying to reinforce. An exercise involving a small volunteer sample of the audience, such as Jeanne Robertson s Male Beauty Contest, can be as powerful as your greatest signature story. Such an exercise can become your signature audience involvement exercise and bring you bookings on the strength of it alone. Jeanne has spoken about this on VOE in recent years. But what can you accomplish beyond these through audience involvement? When the surveyed speakers were asked this question typically twelve separate answers were generated. 1. break the ice 7. bond with the audience 2. bond the audience 8. warm-up the audience 3. gather information 9. improve attention about the audience and therefore retention 4. set the stage for reinforce key points 5. increase energy 11. tap natural humor of in the group the group 6. collect data about topic 12. generate discussion (audience s knowledge level) Therefore there are at least 12 separate things you can accomplish by using AI s in addition to increasing attention and retention of your message(s) and of you for future bookings and for the benefit of the audience members using the learnings they gather from you and your presentation. What kinds of Audience Involvement might you begin using? 1. physical 2. visual 3. verbal 4. emotional

3 5. mental 6. spiritual When might you work them into your presentation? a. before your opening b. during your opening c. during your program d. as part of your closing e. after your closing What are some you may not be using that you may choose from? a. show of hands b. applause c. stand up/sit down d. partnering for brief discussions e. teaming at tables or immediate areas of room f. moving to different parts of the room g. cheers or cheering h. puzzles, games, hands-on activities (underline your choices) i. demonstration of points or examples using volunteers j. competitive activities k. laughter from jokes, anecdotes, stories l. audience response as part of your stories m. join in, in songs or sing-a-longs n. questions and answers o. action--frisbee, kooish, foam ball toss p. stunts, roll plays q. handshakes r. intros by row, in small group, or large group s. Hi-5 s, pats on the back t. back/shoulder rubs u. non-verbal communication v. finding commonalities/differences w. applause or standing ovations for members of the audience x. toys, props, gimmicks (noses, Groucho glasses, water guns, etc.) These are a sampling of the over 130 different activities the surveyed speakers sent in. What to be careful about when using them? 1. Do they invade privacy.-.physical space or

4 psychological space? Often speakers ask questions or have people do things that cause them to become extremely uncomfortable or nervous. You may get them to do it once or twice but the results may produce annoyance to anger to hatred aimed towards you that might kill future bookings for you. Many exercises that work in retreat settings appear like fun and potentially useable in a speeches but really they are not. In retreat settings facilitators can develop one-on-one relationship and can gather information about the audience members that will tell them or even warn them when they have gone too far with an exercise. Keynote speakers rarely have that opportunity. Simple back rubs can be a very negative experience or seen as one nowadays. Once again what works in a retreat or workshop setting can backfire in a keynote address or opening session. The larger the audience the more the potential for problems. 2. Do they reinforce your message or key points? Too often speakers and workshop leaders do not have the benefit of the time to process or explain the reasons behind an exercise that a retreat facilitator or a team-building workshop leader has. 3. Are they appreciated by a cross section of people or only by a few people who love audience involvement. exercises? Most professional speakers recommend that we check out our audience involvement exercises with our meeting planners and continually test them out with our audiences by asking them for feedback, one-on-one, face-to-face or through our evaluation forms. 4. Are they unique to you and your presentations or simply a repeat of other speakers work? 5. Are they designed to suit the room, the audience, the topic, and you? As you know what works with one group may not work with another. What works with a small group may not work with a very large audience, unless you break them into a series of smaller groups in the room as Bob Pike successfully does. What works in one setting may not in another. And what works after a dinner may not work at another meal or at a time when there is no meal. Especially as one of the top professionals in our profession and as a committed member of NSA you strive to continually enhance, enrich and expand your various professional skills. Now is the time to stay out in front by improving and adding to the audience involvement techniques you design into your next presentation.

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