Episode #30: Where Should I Stand When I Am Presenting

Usually this isn’t even a question for most presenters because the organisers have already set up the room and your speaking spot has been designated. But have we been designated a spot by experts in public speaking or by the venue crew who usually just haul chairs, lug tables around and set up the stage? Sadly the coalescence between expertise in

So where should we stand? This will depend on the venue size, the illumination of the room, the size of the audience, the layout of the stage, where the projection screens are located and what you want to achieve. I attended a talk where the stage was empty, yet the speech suddenly got underway with no speaker in sight. He was actually wearing a Lavelle microphone and was behind the audience at the rear of the room. The acoustics of that hall however, gave no indication of where he was standing and so it created a buzz as the assembled masses tried to place the speaker’s location, with the voice being the only thing they could all hear. He then strode manfully to the stage and continued his oration. As an attention-getter, to break through all the clutter in the heads of the audience, it was very effective and he did that just by varying his speaking spot from what everyone was used to.

If we are using a screen, then where is it: is it hoisted high above us, are there two giant screens on the left and right or is it at our height in the center of the stage? In smaller venues, the screen is normally at our height and usually set up such that the podium is on the audience right of the stage. No particular thought has gone into this podium location. The choice is purely random, often linked more closely to power outlets and cabling considerations, than the speaker’s effectiveness.

We should stand on the audience left of the screen, so that the audience can read our facial expression and body language and then move their eyes right to read text or images on the screen. We always want the screen to be subordinate to us. So set up the proceedings such that they have to look at you first, rather than at the slides on the screen. Our face is a trillion times more powerful as a communication tool, than anything that is on the screen.