2. Know your audience.

Well, you know your topic, but do you know anything about the people you are going to address? Would it be an idea to gather some information about them? In my view, it is a good idea to have a comprehensive audience profile: their age group, gender split, education level, job type, experience, domicile, religious and political affiliation, their role models, their personality types, and of course, their expectations. I know this is a tall order! However, some information about your audience is necessary. In fact, a complete profile of the audience would be an ideal thing. Let me tell you that it is not difficult to produce an audience profile. The organizer of the presentation can arrange it for you.

Audience profile has many advantages. It can help you make your choices in terms of what to say and how to say it. Let me explain this with a couple of examples. Let us think of a situation where you are addressing semi-literate, rural audience, and your topic is Using the Internet to Export Farm Produce. Would it be a good idea to use technical words, formulae and jargon? Needless to say, it would not be a wise thing to do so. Instead, you would prefer everyday language and examples. On the contrary, when you are addressing business leaders, professors and researchers, you might like to use specialized terms and expressions. The choice of your language and illustrations will be determined by the educational level, and job profile of your listeners.

Additionally, you need to know the role models of your audience. As you know, Ho Chi Minh, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama are iconic personalities symbolizing national aspirations of Vietnamese, Indian, South African, and Tibetan people respectively. You may inadvertently say something unacceptable about these great personalities, which may offend your audience. Moreover, it is advisable to know whether you are addressing new audience or old audience. If you do not, then you might lodge yourself in a difficult situation like the following speaker: Once a popular speaker flew to Ho Chi Minh City to give a speech to a large gathering. Her topic was 'Foreign Investment in Vietnam'. She had given this talk so many times that she knew it by heart. When the driver picked her up at the airport, she asked him: 'Who are my audience this time?" "The same people you spoke to last year when you talked about Foreign Investment in Vietnam," the driver said.

Audience is central to communication as all communication is targeted at them. We cannot afford to ignore our audience or be indifferent to them or undermine their role. A presenter is a presenter by virtue of their existence and their attendance. In the absence of the listener, the speaker loses her identity as a presenter. Here, I would like to record that the nature of the audience has a direct bearing on the choice of the topic. Hence, the best topic is the one that suits your audience, you, the type of occasion, and the length of time you have. Just as you can enjoy talking on a subject you know well, or you are interested in, your audience can enjoy listening to a talk that attacks a topic relevant to their needs and interests. Your audience will listen willingly if your topic is of concern to them. Therefore, it is necessary to perceive their individual interests and their interest as a group.

Equally importantly, you need to have a clear understanding of your objectives. You can grab the attention of your audience and sustain their interest only if your objectives are clear. One simple way to understand the purpose of your presentation is to answer the questions: Why do your audience want to hear you? Why do you want to address them? You must define your general and specific purpose: to interest or amuse the audience, to inform or teach them, to stimulate or impress, to convince or persuade. When you know your audience and your objectives, you can use a variety of techniques to maintain audience attention: inviting them to participate, exercising their imagination, arousing their curiosity, role playing, stating striking facts and statistics, and telling a story.