Control Your Environment During Your Next Presentation

What we say during all presentations is vital, yet never forget that emphasis on the environment will be a prominent factor in determining your success.

For example, whilst critiquing political candidate presentations during the last American election, news reporters often compared the size of candidates’ audiences. Reporters implied that the size of candidates’ audiences equalled the effectiveness of the presentation.

In addition, reporters also used an enthusiasm meter to describe how much energy or excitement an audience demonstrated during a presentation.

Whether these factors in a presentation are important or not, at least we can observe that as presenters we should be concerned about our environment during all presentations.

It is always of upmost importance to plan an audience centric ‘Focused Message’ for every presentation and in addition, you must also pre-prepare or at least control your environment during all presentations.

You can control your presentation environment by considering the following ‘3’ tips:


1. Audience Seating


If the room is not full, encourage your audience to fill seats closer to the front of the room.

If you know in advance that the number of seats is more than the number of people attending, you might improve the environment by removing chairs. You can also have people stand at the beginning of your presentation and then ask them to move forward and fill the empty seats. If everyone sits toward the front, then your audience will not be distracted because the room is not full.

Having people sit together will encourage your audience to respond as a unit.


2. Lighting


Make sure the room radiates plenty of light. Many rooms have a variety of lighting configurations.

Find the switches and experiment to get the maximum lighting for your presentation.

Avoid lighting that creates shadows. If you are using PowerPoint it is not always necessary to turn off lights. At most and is very necessary, you might turn off only the lights above the screen.

You do not want to speak in a darkened room.

3. Clear The Area


Ensure the front of the room is not “busy”. Clear out any equipment or chairs that may clutter the speaking area.

Erase dry boards and remove posters or any other informational pieces that have nothing to do with your presentation.


Finally, the content of your presentation will always be more important than the surroundings, yet paying attention to the environment in which your presentation can significantly add to the effectiveness and outcome of your message!