TOP TRENDS IN THE PUBLIC SPEAKING INDUSTRY – Part 1

The Speaking Industry is moving ahead rather quickly. Knowing and staying ahead of the trends can give you the advantage. Let’s explore what is happening and how it can affect your speaking career.

1) Corporate (and presentations) are going more casual. I think it began with casual Fridays, but the day of a presenter in a 3-piece suit with a 35-slide power point presentation is a thing of the past. Watching a few TED talks will demonstrate that. More casual dress and more interactive presentations have become a more authentic choice.

2) Audience want more participation. They crave engagement and want to be part of the conversation. Millennials, especially, want to be part of the solution, because they tend to be confident, conscious, and collaborative.

3) Focused presentations with smaller audiences are becoming more popular. The content is more niched and the audience more targeted, so the audience is getting the content they want.

4) Growth in webinars and, also, in increase in live events is a trend. Webinar makes your content accessible to the masses which allows in to grow your global tribe. Yet, people are craving community, so there is a rise in attendance at live events that bring value.

5) Small Group Technology can help small group events in smaller meeting rooms make the same impact as a large room. Using large screens, IPhones and IPads as clickers, and pocket projectors are the tools of today. Improving your presentations with programs like Keynote, SlideRocket, Prezi, and Google slides can add some excitement to your presentations.

6) Speeches keep getting shorter. Brevity is the word. Long drawn out presentation do not speak to today’s audience. “Less is more”. This trend is due to the popularity of TED talks. These types of talks are powerful because they make the speaker distill ideas and rehearse thoroughly to meet the time constraints. Most importantly, a short, concise presentation is more likely to hold an audience’s attention. Even if you are given more time to deliver your message, aim to speak around 20 minutes (no longer that 30 minutes). The additional time can be used for Q & A or other interactive elements.

7) Audiences want a return on their investment. They are looking for solid value that can be immediately applied to their businesses or their lives. Giving a simple list of “how-to” is not enough. They have a big problem and they are looking for the big solution. You must provide the answers to what keeps them up at night. That is worth their investment.

Want to learn from those who are setting the tends in the speaking industry? Checkout Engaging Speakers at https://engagingspeakers.com/

Gail Brown, Founder of Engaging Speakers, gail@engagingspeakers.com