In this lesson, we will go through some of the elements that make up the “context” of an oral presentation. They need careful consideration beforehand, in order to be dealt with properly. The first and most important element is the audience, that is, the spectators at the public event, those who will “receive” our communication. We will focus on two aspects: the “key messages” we want the audience to bring home and the audience’s availability. In preparing a public speech, we have to ask ourselves the question: what do we really want our audience to bring back home? What are the messages we really do not want them to miss? This question is, of course, related to the so-called “invention” phase of rhetoric, where we are supposed to think about what to say, and becomes really crucial in the context of a public presentation, in which a direct connection with the audience takes place. The first thing to do is to identify our key messages: they usually are 1 to 3, no more. Second, it is useful to ask ourselves how far the audience is with respect to them: is the audience already in line? Or does it have a negative attitude towards them? Or neutral? Third, we have to identify the proper arguments and data to not only introduce our key messages, but also support them properly. We can see here an example of table that can be used to brainstorm about key messages. The first column is for the “targets”, here is where you are supposed to list the the main targets that make up your audience; the second column is for the ranking: you have to decide how relevant a specific target is. There are many scales you can use, in the example the scale is from 1 to 3, where 1 means “most relevant”. In other cases, if the list of target is longer, you may compel yourself to rank them from 1 to n (where n is the total number). The third column is for the goals: what do you want to achieve? The fourth is for the distance: how distant is the target from the goal? Again, different scales can be used. The fifth column is for the key messages: what do you want that target to get, crystal clear? And the last column is for the content: what pieces of content may serve the purpose? The table you are seeing is partially filled in with an example, by some bioengineering students of mine who took part in a “call for ideas” on new technologies and diabetes. They wanted present a system to make the diagnosis more effective by detecting diabetic retinopathy. Their main target were the medical experts in the board of reviewers and what they wanted them to get was that their system would be more effective than current practices and at the same time reliable. They deemed this target would not be close to their goal and so they devoted a lot of efforts into conveying these key messages through data and proper pieces of content. The second aspect to consider is the audience’s availability. Will our audience be free or captive? In order to understand the difference, let us make reference to script-writing. Think about this: how many times have you walked out of a movie theater before the movie was over? Probably never, or just a few times. Now think about how many times you have switched channel on TV. You cannot count them! This explains the difference between a “captive” and “free” audience, which highly affects the work of screenwriters. Generally speaking, movies that are meant for the theaters can afford more quiet moments at times, because you can count upon people to stay. TV series instead need to be more engaging and active. Going back to public speaking, we can say that a captive audience is an audience you may reasonably expect to stay until the end of the speech, a free audience can come and go. This is definitely something that must be taken into account when organizing the presentation, especially considering the arrangement of the topics and the effort you need to make to engage the public. Let us move know to another “element” you have to get set for beforehand, in the sense that you have to decide how to handle it. I am talking about unforeseen events. What do I mean by unforeseen events? Anything that may happen during a presentation that may distract the audience. Nothing super-disruptive (like a fire alarm or the room actually taking fire): something normal, but that in the context of a public performance gets “amplified”, so to speak. The point is: people listening to a presentation are making an effort. A non-trivial effort. Therefore, any distraction is welcome, any event can catch the attention. Let us imagine a room where a lecture is taking place. The door opens. A quite annoyed girl with an umbrella dropping water comes in. People turn their heads. They start thinking: “Oh, it must be raining, and I came by bike! I wonder if it is raining hard…” and so on. Their attention is lost. So what can the speaker do? Ignore all this and just move on? No. Usually (and please mark the “usually”, which does not mean “always”), usually the most suitable strategy is to go with the distraction. People are looking at the person getting in? You do the same. Everybody is turning their head towards the door? You do it as well. Make a funny joke, make a comment… acknowledge what is going on. Do not lose yourself in a parallel world where your senses cannot be affected by what the audience is experiencing. A break is good for everybody, you take it as well (and even if you did not, people would not listen, right the same). Let us move now to another important element of the context: space. If possible, try to understand what the place where you are supposed to perform is like. Is everything as you expect? Could there be any issue? For example, let us imagine you wanted to do some group-work but benches are stuck on the floor. You need to know this in advance to re-plan your strategy. Another issue could be visibility: will people in the last row be able to read your slides? Last but not least (and I mean it), we have to talk about time. The lesson about time is: make the best possible use of the time you are given. And I know perfectly well that this is easy to say but difficult to put it into practice. What are you supposed to do? First: be sure about how much time you have. Second: make a careful plan of what you will say, with special attention to the key messages. You have to fit them in. Third: rehearse. If you tend to be prolix, give yourself less time than the time you will actually have. For example, practice to stay within 8 minutes if you know you will have 10. What are the most common mistakes, with respect to time? The most typical, especially for quite inexperienced speakers, is trying to squeeze too much content in the time you are given. Please, just don’t. Make a wise choice of what you are going to say and allow yourself plenty of time to say it. I remember when our group took part in a competitive tender by a well-known international foundation, the final step of which consisted in a call with an expert based in London who would give 3 minutes to each of the finalists to present their project proposals. 3 minutes to explain why we needed a substantial amount of money (several hundred thousands of euros) for our project. It took a whole day to prepare those 3 minutes, and the preparation included trying to understand what the foundation’s priorities were, who the reviewer was, what his background was, etc. Another quite typical mistake, which is made at “run-time”, so to speak, is to continuously make reference to all the things you could say if only time allowed. Again, just don’t do it. Of course, if you had more time, you could say more: that is obvious and so needless to say. Do not give your audience the idea they are missing something, which implicitly would mean admitting you organized yourself poorly, if something was important and you did not say it. The last mistake we deal with here is the break of the implicit or explicit agreement about time you have with the audience. There are situations in which time is given, like for example a conference or a lecture, and everybody knows about it. It is a sort of agreement between the speaker and the audience, and it must not be broken. Do not go beyond. Don't take more time than you are given. Like for unforeseen events, you would lose people’s attention, since they do have a watch and they do know what the time is. Whenever the case, be very clear about how long you are going to speak and stick to it. Like the Roman rhetorician Quintilian said: “Nothing is too long, if you know when it ends”. We finish up this lesson with 3 tips on oral “style” derived from the book by Walter Ong on orality and literacy. Tip number 1: repeat yourself. I know we are not in the habit of doing this since we are “literate” people and in writing you can go back and forth if needed. But in oral presentations, people cannot go back and forth. If something matters, like for example your key message, do repeat it, in different ways, do make sure people get it. Tip number 2: make the speech situational. If you can, introduce a short story, make reference to your own experience. People love listening to stories more than to abstract concepts. Tip number 3: interact with the public. An oral presentation is a face-to-face situation. Ask for feedback, ask questions, ask for sign of acknowledgement. Plan for interaction opportunities. You may want to use technology-based forms of interaction, like instant polls or quizzes, using the many apps that are out there for these kinds of activities.