Eye
Contact
When you
are talking in public, eye contact plays a fundamental part.
It is
an excellent way to connect with the audience.
The
public likes that the person that is speaking gives them some eye
contact.
A
speaker that does not look at the audience gives the impression
that he/she is scared or lacks interest.
When you
look at the public you need to try and give an open, pleasant, optimistic,
smiling image.
Being
friendly will win you the audience.
When you
go up on to the stage the first thing you have to do is greet the
audience and look at them.
You need
to try and and look at the whole room, focusing on the different areas
(but avoid a "sweeping" effect as if you were a spotlight).
Instead
of looking at the mass, try to look at individual faces, moving your
eye contact between the public and looking at determined people, trying
to cover the whole audience.
Sometimes,
not knowing you do it, you will commit the typical error of looking
at one deterined area in the room (for example, at the people that
are sitting in the front rows, or the right part of the auditorium).
The rest
of the people might think that you are not paying them enough attention.
The advantage
of improvising the speech, using support notes instead of reading
it, is that it is a lot easier to look at the public.
Anyway,
although the speech is being read you have to try and maintain visual
contact with the audience (you can not bury yourself in reading
it and not look up from the paper; this is not very elegant and
the audience will disconnect).
When there
are moments of silence you need to look at the public.
Try to
instensify the connexion between "speaker-audience".
When someone
is thinking up a question you should look at them, however when you
respond glance at the whole audience (everyone might be interested
in knowing the answer).
