Using the Stage for Your Keynote

By Laura Perry, Copywriting & Editing Intern at Talent Academy

Stage presence: the ability of a performer to capture and command the attention of an audience. 

It’s one thing for you to have a brilliant idea that you want to share to your keynote audience. It’s a whole other to make the audience feel as enthusiastic about your idea as you do.

We have some tips to help you use the stage so that you can enthrall your audience.

1. Use Your Body

Body language is the number 1 non-verbal form of communication that will assist in getting your point across. Now I’m not talking just the occasional hand gesture or using eye-contact. When you’re giving a presentation you need to fully embody the role, you are more than just the expert, you become an actor. 

Your posture, stance, facial expressions, intonation of your voice, movement around the stage all impact how engaging your presentation will be. If you stay behind a lecturn, or rooted to a single spot, your audience will likely lose focus because it is very hard for people to concentrate on a singular object or person for extended periods of time.

Instead, try the following tips to using your body language:

• Be aware of your posture. Are you standing straight? Are your arms relaxed by your side? You want to look confident and at-ease when you are presenting, this will help the audience feel comfortable and relate to you more.

• Walk around the stage during your presentation, but make sure you’re not speed-walking!! Simply wander around the stage, making use of your visual aids, and perhaps even stopping every now and then when you are making an important point, the stillness will contrast to your previous movement which will draw attention to what you are saying in that moment.

• Be expressive through your face and voice. Change your expression and intonation to suit what you are saying, this makes for a more colourful and engaging performance. Think back to a time you listened to someone drone on in a monotonous tone, how much of what they were actually saying do you remember? I’m willing to bet it’s not a whole lot…

• Use your hands. Hand-gestures help reiterate your points, and help prevent you unintentionally portray negative body language.

2. Include Visual Aids

Having a PowerPoint or other props will instantly lift your audience engagement. Humans are often very visual learners, and having visual elements in your presentation will help get your point across as they are given images of your vision. It becomes easier to get people on board with your idea if they can imagine it for themselves, which is easier for them to do when you give them visual assistance. Take the time to be creative with your slides; include photos, simplify your graphs, make it colourful and interesting! But remember, your presentation should still be strong enough on it’s own, creating your slides last ensures that they are enhancing your presentation, not letting your keynote rely on them!

Props can be useful but are not always applicable to every presentation. Now you don’t need to have something very elaborate and specific, it can also be interesting to use very ordinary items in creative ways. Take for example a piece of paper could be used to show how a lack of communication can tear apart teams. One side of the page moves in a different direction to the other, eventually the paper will tear, symbolising the team falling apart because they didn’t communicate which direction they were moving in properly.

3. Interact with You Audience

Giving an interactive presentation is something you might want to consider to make your presentation more engaging. Audiences will generally be more switched-on and paying more attention when they are aware that they might be called upon to participate in the presentation. Now this won’t work for every idea out there, but think about how you might creatively include the audience, even if it’s for comedic effect, like giving an off-hand comment that is directed at a specific person. 

Giving a presentation is about more than what you say. The way that you convey your ideas and how you physically present them can be the make or break of how successful your presentation is. You want to leave your audience pondering, thinking about what you have said and what has stuck with them. This is easier for them to do when they can visually recall how you physically presented your ideas, instead of getting lost in a sea of words. Our tips will help you get one step closer to achieving this so that your ideas resonate with your audience! 

What are your top 3 tips for giving an engaging keynote? Let us know in the comments! 

Are you preparing for your first ever keynote? Check out our range of online courses to help you learn how to be the best presenter you can be! Contact us for more information about public speaking workshops.