English Communication Skills:  Time of Day Tips for Presentations – Afternoon and Evening Presentations

Knowing  the  barriers associated with different times of the day can help you think of clever ways to maximize your impact in a presentation. Nice! What you are learning for presentations is, of course, also true with meetings.  Use the same clever solutions!

Afternoon             

• Listeners will need a coffee break.  Do make coffee available—or risk the likelihood that they’ll interrupt your message to seek out coffee and miss a chunk of what you have to say.
• People may be overwhelmed with data.  Rather than hit them with lots of hard data up front, consider a low-key opening so they can ease into your message. Also provide lots of handouts so they can review details later.
• Attendees may need to leave early to start the commute home.  Nothing is worse for listeners than you running overtime at the end of the day.  People want to head home–make that happen as promised.

Early evening

• Attendees may arrive late (and tired) from working all day.  Respect their situations.
• Parents with young children may need to go home early to put their children to bed.  Have a table at the back of the room so early departures can take the promotional material or info sheets without distracting the rest of the audience.

After-dinner speech

• Audiences may have been drinking alcohol at a cocktail or beer and/or wine reception.  Be prepared for loud chatter.
• People may simply want to socialize- and may resent a serious speech (especially one that runs too long).  Engage them with your topic, your enthusiasm, your stories, and your brevity!

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Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos  for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercises.