When making a presentation on a topic that your audience is interested in, they will be able to follow you without interruption for around 10 minutes. If the topic is not something that engaged their interest by its title alone, they might even stop paying attention after only 10 seconds.
If you include a short ‘break’ in your presentation, you will have another 7-10 minute period where people will listen to you again. Do not, however, expect them to be able to hold their attention for longer.
Solution: Split your presentation into parts and introduce breaks
Presentations usually last for longer than 10 minutes, and frequently last for an hour or more. It is therefore necessary to make a change or include a break, allowing people to ‘switch off’, roughly every 7 minutes. How to go about it?
- Include a real break, especially if the presentation is to last longer than an hour. It needn’t be as much as 20 minutes (time for a cup of coffee); 5 minutes to allow everyone to stretch themselves is sufficient.
- Include an interactive element. Give your audience, for example, a short group exercise, or ask them to discuss something with their neighbour.
- Pose them a question. This functions as a convenient mini-break, while not taking up too much time. Your audience can relax.
- Change your position. Rather than walking back and forth, it’s good if you go to a different part of the room, carrying on the presentation from there for a few minutes. Don’t, however, do this constantly, or you’ll seem nervous.
- Change the topic, but tell the audience clearly: “And now I’ll take about something completely different:...”
- Tell them a story. This is a guaranteed way of gaining your audience’s attention. People like listening to stories, so feel free to include several of them in your presentation. They should be short and appropriate to the topic of the presentation.
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