Two weeks ago I was the luncheon keynote speaker at the California Water Association’s (CWA) annual meeting. When I find out I’m going to give a lunch or dinner talk there are two things I get ready for: 1) a last minute change in how much time I’ll have and 2) extra distractions. Getting and keeping everyone’s attention while they’re digging into their meal can be tough.
Having done it so many times, I have learned how to get an audience focused on my presentation when there are distractions pulling at their attention. (It’s not always food, sometimes it’s noise from the room next to yours, a compressor that kicks on and off every five minutes, other shop noise or people sticking their heads in the door that’s behind you.)
THREE TACTICS
1) Don’t Care: You can’t let it bother you. I know it’s hard, but you can do it. If it’s not your fault, then why even fret over it at all. If you think about it logically, at least for a moment, you may be able to slow down your heart rate when a Led-Zeppelin song sounds on someone’s smart phone. Do what you can before your talk or meeting to remove distractions but when they do happen, ignore them.
2) Expect Them: When I gave the CWA luncheon talk I knew there would be all kinds of distractions–waiters moving around while leaving and taking plates, silverware clanking, folks asking “would you pass the salt please” out loud, etc. Though there wasn’t near as many distractions as I expected, the ones that did appear didn’t faze me because I was ready for them. And I had a few attention grabbers up my sleeve. I knew my audience had to eat, but like when a person watches TV at home while eating, I could still get much of their attention.
3) Be Flexible: We got started late, so I also had to cut out material from my talk. It was fine because I was ready for it. I cut out a story and reduced the number of questions on a test everyone took. I finished right on time.
Midway through my talk everyone was done eating and the tables were cleared. By the time I ended with a song parody about how much electronic devices distract us, and received a heart-warming applause, the luncheon distractions were long forgotten.
Now it was my turn to eat!
’till next time.
Richard Hawk
