I've given quite a few public speeches, and recently was asked to give a series of lectures in the energy field to a group of 50 - 100 people.
One thing that can give your speech some extra 'kick' is to use props which invite audience participation.
For example, in a speech about new solar energy technology, have on-hand some examples of PV panels, inverters, etc. In a speech about natural gas, have a few 1" models of valves, regulators, etc. Make sure people can see them, and tell them that you'll pass them out at the end of the speech 'if they're a good audience'.
That's key - you don't want to pass them around at the beginning of the speech or you'll lose their attention. Make it something they're looking forward to and they'll stay tuned in to your speech.
Of course this needs to be relevant to the speech topic. I don't know what kind of props you can use for a speech on finance, for instance. It also needs to be attuned to the size of the audience - with a crowd of 1000 you can't really rely on props.
Everybody nowadays uses Powerpoint, and it can be the best way to lose an audience's interest. But you can liven this up by leaving some information out of a slide, and asking the audience to fill in the blanks. Then you animate the slide to fill in the missing information as the audience gives answers. For example, a slide with a pie chart of sales penetration by continent. Show the chart, with the sales percentages, but don't fill in the continents - ask the audience to provide the answers.
This reduces the pressure on you by ensuring the audience's active participation.
Use physical props and audience participation to set your speech apart. When I did this, many people came up to me at the end of the lectures and said that mine was the only one they enjoyed, because they got to 'participate' by actually seeing and handling the subject.
One thing that can give your speech some extra 'kick' is to use props which invite audience participation.
For example, in a speech about new solar energy technology, have on-hand some examples of PV panels, inverters, etc. In a speech about natural gas, have a few 1" models of valves, regulators, etc. Make sure people can see them, and tell them that you'll pass them out at the end of the speech 'if they're a good audience'.
That's key - you don't want to pass them around at the beginning of the speech or you'll lose their attention. Make it something they're looking forward to and they'll stay tuned in to your speech.
Of course this needs to be relevant to the speech topic. I don't know what kind of props you can use for a speech on finance, for instance. It also needs to be attuned to the size of the audience - with a crowd of 1000 you can't really rely on props.
Everybody nowadays uses Powerpoint, and it can be the best way to lose an audience's interest. But you can liven this up by leaving some information out of a slide, and asking the audience to fill in the blanks. Then you animate the slide to fill in the missing information as the audience gives answers. For example, a slide with a pie chart of sales penetration by continent. Show the chart, with the sales percentages, but don't fill in the continents - ask the audience to provide the answers.
This reduces the pressure on you by ensuring the audience's active participation.
Use physical props and audience participation to set your speech apart. When I did this, many people came up to me at the end of the lectures and said that mine was the only one they enjoyed, because they got to 'participate' by actually seeing and handling the subject.