How do you keep your online audience engaged with research and evidence?

Elevating your speaking game isn't just about honing your delivery or perfecting your content; it's about recognising the profound responsibility you have to your audience. Truly exceptional speakers distinguish themselves by consistently prioritising their audience's needs. They're constantly asking themselves: What does my audience want to hear? How can I convey my message in the most accessible format for them? What language resonates best with them? How can I genuinely make a difference in their lives? It's a mindset that revolves around the unwavering belief that it's always, unequivocally, about the audience. So, to truly make an impact from the stage, start by taking ownership of your responsibility to your audience.

I find presentations that involve research data are much more emotionally impactful by including lived experience sources too. Sharing the latest data on the prevalence of a condition like PTSD, for example, is eye opening, but including a source who can share what it's like to live with PTSD really resonates with audiences. You can invite a lived experience source to co-present or to video record their message to share during your presentation. Be sure to offer support for sources sharing mental health issues before, during and after the event.

Statistics and data will only engage your audience to a point. What you really need is good stories and visuals to back up what your research/data shows. Studies show people are more likely to remember stories and recall them up to 3 weeks later. Humanise your message to really cut through to your audience.

Data Visualisation - graphs, images, pullouts. Bite sized information, three points, and storytelling. Keeping it brief. No one reads.

Bring dull statistics to life with examples via video clips, audio files, or a bit of humor like a single panel cartoon to underscore your point. Engaging the senses with a touch of entertainment will make your points more memorable, too.

Pictures tell 1,000 words. If you can show an image which incites an emotional response, the audience will remember your key points. If you can further relate the data to an everyday situation, this can be the ah-ha moment some will need to really understand.

Motion Graphics can bring numbers and statistics to life through visual metaphors - almost like a mini-story within the overall presentation. For instance, instead of a typical, solid color bar chart to represent increasing numbers of vehicles on the roads over the years, you could use motion graphics to build side-by-side "lanes" filled with bumper-to-bumper vehicles (traffic jams). Each progressive year's "lane" could be a little longer and maybe even have smoke rising up from a couple of overheated vehicles within the lanes.

People will forget facts and remember stories. Weave stories into your facts and they'll remember both. They not remember every detail, but they are much more like to remember your points, your over arching evidence, and your call to action.

Know your subject, Know your subject, and Know your subject. Practice, practice, practice, then practice some more. practice one more time. Record yourself on those practice sessions.