In the end, it all comes down to the audience.

A standard communications model looks like this:  sender – receiver – medium – signal – noise – feedback.  Most people who give speeches worry about the sender (the speaker) and the signal (the speech) quite a bit – and the receiver (the audience) quite a bit less.  Yet, if the audience doesn’t hear and understand the speech, the communication has not happened.  So in the end, the audience is the most important part of any presentation. 

Your job as speaker is to know that audience better than they know themselves.  Of course, you need to find out all the essential details for your upcoming presentation – where, when, why, what, and so on.  And you need to get all the basics about the audience down – their demographics, their number, what they’re expecting, what else is happening during the day, whether or not they’ve been fed or are looking forward to a meal, and so on.  Beyond that, you need to get into their minds.  Who are they?  What do they fear?  What are their hopes and dreams?  Research the answers to these questions, and you’re ready to talk to them. 

Giving the talk, you need to know it so well that you can dedicate part of your brain to watching and reacting to the audience’s state of mind.  This takes time and practice to master, because most speakers have only one question on their minds:  do they love me?  As a result, speakers tend to interpret everything the audience does in these terms.  But a furrowed brow may not mean that the audience member hates you; it may simply be that she is listening intently.  Don’t be paranoid, and don’t overestimate your charm, either.  Just listen carefully to them, and react when the circumstances call for it. 

After the talk, make yourself available to anyone who wants to follow up with questions or comments.  This is your time to be generous; this is the feedback loop and it’s important.  Don’t worry; most of the people who approach you will be thanking you or looking to touch the hem of your garments because they’re star-struck.  Humor them, and humor the rare audience member with a gripe, too. 

Audiences want you to succeed.  If you meet them half way, they will reward you with extraordinary enthusiasm.  That’s because so many speeches are so bad.  The bar is set very low.  But if you disappoint them with irrelevancies or pomposity or self-aggrandizement, they will leave you and never come back.  In the end, the audience determines the success (or not) of the speech.  Remember that it’s all about them.